Island Batik Great Outdoors Blog Hop - Eclectic Garden
The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik.
Oh, the great outdoors. This time of year in Arizona we only dream of going outside and experiencing this. Thankfully this blog hop not only lets you enjoy the beauty of the great outdoors from the air conditioning, but we also get to drool over beautiful Island Batik fabric! What can get any better than that?

Today's fabric line is Eclectic Garden by Kathy Engle. This beautiful line is full of nice cool purples, blues, and greens. It has been anything but cool here lately so the colors were a nice mental break from the heat. Even my furry helper tried to use them to cool off during the making of the quilt!

This fabric line and theme presented me with quite a challenge. The cool, softer colors is not normally a pallet I naturally gravitate towards, and the original design I had in my head for the theme just needed bolder, more earthy colors and the fabrics in Eclectic Garden were telling a different story.
That is when I tried them in my new Geese on the Lake design I had been working on. The design is half of a Lady of the Lake block turned into flying geese. The neutral fabric Rice was used as the background because it just made the line seem to glow. The quilt itself measures 56" x 84".
Since I wasn't able to make it to a lake to photograph the quilt, the ocean had to do. We were in California last week escaping the heat and attempted to take pictures at the beach, but as you can see the weather wouldn't cooperate. The wind at sunset had a different idea. As a consolation prize there are a couple of nice ocean pictures.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and see my quilt.
There are many wonderful creations so please take the time to visit all the other Ambassadors as they share their creations. Links and the full schedule are located at the bottom of this post.
Also, don't miss out on entering the great giveaways! As usual Island Batik is giving away multiple fabric sets, and I will be giving away some of my remaining Eclectic Garden fabrics in a Petit Four Basket (free ByAnnie pattern) made with fabric from the line.
Giveaways
Island Batik Giveaways
Desert Bloom Quilting Giveaway
Blog Hop Schedule and Links
WEEK 1
Monday, August 6 – All A Flutter
Yellow Cat Quilts, Creative Blonde
Tuesday, August 7 – Birds N’ Bees
Ark Angel Creations, Patterns by Jen
Wednesday, August 8 – Canterbury Manor
Sally Manke, Powered by Quilting
Thursday, August 9 – Eclectic Garden
Desert Bloom Quilting (you are here), Sew Karen-ly Created
Friday, August 10 – Vintage Morris
MooseStash Quilting, Devoted Quilter
WEEK 2
Monday, August 13 – Safari
Sew Incredibly Crazy, SweetGrass Designs
Tuesday, August 14 – Spring Blossoms
Mary Mack Made Mine, If These Threads Could Talk
Wednesday, August 15 – Victoria and Albert
Bejeweled Quilts, Clever Chameleon
Thursday, August 16 – Wild Things
Freemotion by the River, Kauffman Designs
Friday, August 17 – Petting Zoo
Den Syende Himmel, Sarah Goer Quilts
WEEK 3
Monday, August 20 – Ocean Odyssey
Toby Lischko, Karen Overton
Tuesday, August 21 – British Rose
Busy Hands Quilts, Mania for Quilts
Wednesday, August 22 – Dear William
The Inquiring Quilter, MMM Quilts, Living Water Quilter
Thursday, August 23 – Dragonfly Dreams
Inchworm Fabrics, BeaQuilter
Friday, August 24 – Fur-ocious Friends
Quilting Affection Designs, Dizzy Quilter
WEEK 4
Monday, August 27 – Globetrotter
Pamela Quilts, Curliecue Creations
Tuesday, August 28 – Jungle Cruise
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting, Little Bunny Quilts
Wednesday, August 29 – Lavendula
Carole Lyles Shaw, Masterpiece Quilting
Thursday, August 30 – London Calling
Quilt in a Not-Shell, Lizard Creek Quilting
Friday, August 31 – Spirit Rhythm
Steph Jacobson, Whispers of Yore
WEEK 5
Monday, September 3 – Sweet Tweets
Kathleen McMusing, Adventurous Appliqué and Quilting
Tuesday, September 4 – Whatnot
heARTS Creations, Slice of Pi Quilts