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Northern Lights by Karen Gibbs is featured in the March Quilty Box!

Why I'm excited about Northern Lights featuring in Quilty Box!

by Karen Gibbs, Banyan Batiks' Design Director

This collection of batiks captures the movement of light and color depicted in viewings of the Northern Lights.

I love creating batiks by collection. Using what inspires me and running with it across a group of batiks, both in design and color, to bring together a thoughtful and versatile collection makes me love what I do! I created Northern Lights using line drawings, changing only the line width and negative space to give the appearance of random movement. These lines repeat throughout the fabric to create the main design of this collection as it appeared in my mind. Unlike regular cotton fabrics, each batik starts with a line drawing; black and white sketches, in which changing shape and movement of the lines begins to resemble the inspiration as a motif.

A night sky always seems to resemble an exercise in pointillism—a neo-impressionism technique using dots of pure saturated color, with the aim to produce greater depth and luminosity. This was the inspirational thought for Northern Lights: to take those brilliant colors of the Aurora Borealis and create stunning batiks. While the scenic design could be considered a Feature Fabric, the swirling aurora print is the work horse, the one I return to over and over because of its sense of movement.

Once these designs were created, the others tumbled easily into place, essentially as the supporting cast. While sunsets, Northern Lights and Milky Way night skies are all stunning, adding a point of relevance like the scenic print gives the piece depth. Branches sketched in a wavy style stripe give that linear feel in the collection without the need for matching lines.

Let’s talk about color palette!

This one was well defined as far as inspiration goes, and the use of color was obviously chosen to imitate the Northern Lights - with pure saturated colors, tone-on-tones and motifs that vary slightly from the background colors. While it’s important to have the true saturated colors, allowing lights and darks to play off those shades is also important. I wanted to ensure the collection used clean color lights – nothing earth toned, even in the scenic design.

What makes Northern Lights stand out though, is not just the riot of saturated colors associated with the phenomenon, but also the contrast and drama created by the inky darks in indigo, eggplant, navy and black. In batiks, the contrast of color application of a dip dye or flat color creates a beautiful way to contrast those vibrant hues when applied in a distinct batik style watercolor effect.

Quilty Box

I was super thrilled that Quilty Box chose this collection to feature with one of my patterns for their March box. My daughter Olivia gravitated towards it immediately and has since had renewed interest in getting me to write a quilt pattern named after her – just as the Madison’s Star is named for her sister. Olivia is 8 years younger and wants to be a mini version of Madison (just think Thing 1 and Thing 2!).

Madison’s Star is a bargello style Lonestar quilt using 2 ½” strips for easy assembly and a dramatic finish (which incidentally you can download for free HERE). Olivia wanted something equally dramatic created using Northern Lights - that’s how I created the Olivia’s Star: a mini version of the Madison’s Star inspired by the close relationship between the sisters.

Minis or single blocks give such an opportunity to play with something you might not commit to in a large piece, whether it be choice of fabric, color or textures. So, give this Quilty Box a try and see for yourself!

I’ve made two versions of the Olivia’s Star; one beginner friendly, and the other maybe better for advanced beginners. Just follow along, and you’ll find a fresh new take on bargello style piecing that can be used in any block to add movement of color. Yet another technique tool in your tool box!

Speaking of tools and gadgets, I’ve selected a really fun gadget that is a must-have for me when auditioning batiks for a project, or even to determine a colorway of a collection. Watch out for some tutorials of how I like to use it! Because I chose an unconventional diamond size for the pieces of the star, and to avoid returning to Geometry Class to make a template, Quilty Box has made an acrylic ruler for a fast finish!

Don’t forget to sign up for this March Quilty Box! Click HERE to choose your subscription, and avoid missing out on this fun and effective new pattern, or the beautiful Northern Lights collection.

Posted On: 2/18/2021 Back to List

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