Medallion Magic - The QAL Version

I'm so happy with how my Island Batik quilt along version of Medallion Magic turned out! As you know if you've read almost anything here in the past couple of years, I love working with Island Batik fabrics!

Click here to get the Medallion Magic pattern 😊

These are Paisley Park fabrics with Almond for the background. The Paisley Park fabrics are available now, so check your favourite quilt shops to see if they have them in stock. Almond is one of the Foundations fabrics that are always available.

The rich purple is my favourite.

I put off quilting this one for a long time because I just couldn't decide how I wanted to quilt it. I kept thinking that it would be a shame not to do custom quilting, but the original Medallion Magic was custom quilted and those designs were the only ones I could think of using. I didn't want to just recreate the same quilting, though.

When I finally settled in my mind that I'd do an all over design, I then couldn't decide which one. Aaargh! I scrolled through Pinterest, then through my books and I finally decided to use a design called Bangle from Christina Cameli's book Step-by-Step Free Motion Quilting.

Since I was going to do an all over design, I knew I wanted to quilt it with white Aurifil (2024) so I wouldn't change the simplicity of the background, but would white thread detract from the beautiful colours in the fabrics? I was especially concerned about the purple as I thought the white might be too distracting.

Finally, with the quilt basted and the need to finally quilt *something* I unwound a few feet of the white Aurifil, laid it out on the purple in a rough approximation of the quilting design and stepped back to see how it would look. It was noticeable, obviously, but I felt like I would be okay with it, so I started quilting before I could question it anymore. Sometimes you just need to start, right?

I love how it looks! The texture is amazing, with the large partial circles and the smaller pebbles mixed together and catching the light and shadows differently.

 Yes, it is quite noticeable on the coloured fabrics, especially the purple, but it doesn't bother me like I thought it might.

The backing is one of the Paisley Park fabrics and I love how the white thread doesn't really stand out, but the texture does.

I chose to bind the quilt with the purple. (My machine binding tutorial is here.) I used Aurifil 4225, which matches the purple fabric perfectly.

I'm just sneaking in at the last minute to link up with my own QAL finish linky party, lol. Click the link if you'd like to see the other quilts that were made during the QAL. They're beautiful!

Thanks to Island Batik for providing the fabric for this QAL Medallion Magic. I had a lot of fun creating this new version that is so different from the original and I'm already looking forward to when I get a chance to play with the scraps left over from this one! 😊

 If you'd like to make your own version, click to get the pattern here. What colour would you use for the background?

Feel free to pin this!

I'm linking up with Sarah's Show Me Something with Stars party.