Here's a quilt. If I tell you how it came to be, promise you won't judge me. Promise? Ok. I'll tell you. Last year there was an unfortunate series of events that led to one of my favorite people in the family being removed from said family. It's a long story, but here, I'll spell out the short version for you: D-I-V-O-R-C-E. It was the first one I had witnessed up close. It was not pretty...the scandal...the he said-she said...the rumors...the negativity...it was hard to watch. It was hard not to be drawn into it. The whole thing made me really angry and resentful. I'll admit, I did my share of schmack-talking. Ok, probably more than my share. I discussed it with most of my friends...all of my family...some random strangers...I couldn't stop talking about it. Enter: the other woman. This was the awkward part where everybody tried to pretend it wasn't weird. Lots of fake smiles...lots of Oscar worthy acting. Welcome to the family...
I swore I would not be going to the wedding. But I couldn't not go. I am the most passive aggressive person on the planet...it's one of my many flaws. :) So when they told us the wedding would be in California, I decided I needed a reason to be happy about going to California. And then it hit me. Yes. I would make a quilt and find a pretty spot on a beach to take its picture. Paradigm shift! I probably shouldn't have brought quilting into it, but quilting had gotten me out of a rough situation before...why not this time too? I secretly wish my motives for making this quilt were more pure, but truth be told I made it so I could take a picture of it on a beach in California. I made this quilt so I could look forward to the trip rather than dread it. So there you have it. Remember you promised you wouldn't judge? Ok, good. On to the quilt!
Oooh, ahhh...I'm loving this scrappy but organized style of quilts. I seem to be making a lot of them lately. This one uses 5" charm packs cut in half or a jelly roll--quite similar to the PB&J quilt and the Scrappy Hearts quilt. For this type of quilt I like to use a design wall to lay out all the fabrics to make sure the prints are evenly distributed. This makes it a tiny bit more time consuming, but it's worth it!
The fun beachy fabric I used for this quilt is Horizon by Kate Spain for Moda fabrics. I absolutely love it. Blues and greens are always my favorites, and these prints are just fun! There was a nasty rumor going around that these are "old-lady" prints, but if they are, I'm thinkin' she must be a really cool old lady! ;)
For the quilting on this I used a swirly and fast pantograph called Harbor Wave. It reminds me of rolling waves...totally perfect for this quilt.
For the backing...I finally got to use this beautiful blue Nature's Palette leaves fabric that I had in my stash...oh yes...this is stuff I got in a clearance score years ago. And this, friends, is the reason we must all have a stash. You think you will never use a fabric, but then lo and behold, right when you need it...a perfect little gem peeks out from your massive fabric pile and says, "here I am and I match perfectly!" :) And of course, matching blue binding. This has to be my favorite color of blue EVER.
And of course, on the rare occasion that I must add a quilt label, I can't help myself-I have to make it cute. I used the same method as always: Made the layout of the whole thing in Inkscape, printed it out on paper and traced it onto fabric backed with fusible web using a fine point Sharpie marker. And then yes, I cut all those tiny little pieces of fabric, ironed and sewed them on. And why did this quilt need a label you ask? Well...
...because it is featured in the Winter 2015 edition of Modern Quilts Unlimited magazine! (And they make you put a label on it!) That's right! So if you were thinking you might like to make this quilt, you don't even have to wait the 2 years it usually takes me to make a pattern! There's one in the magazine! ;)
So shortly after I returned from California-and the day before I was planning on posting this quilt here on the blog, I got an email from MQU's editor asking if I had any quilts I wanted to submit for publication. Since I had this one already done I submitted it and they took it. I have been waiting patiently ever since then (August) to finally post on it!
The fate of this quilt has now been decided...it is going to be raffled off at my cute friend Teresa's annual charity Fish Fry...as soon as I am done using it to stage my house to sell...
...yes we are moving again! :) And because I know someone will ask, yes I made the wall hanging too. I copied this SUPER cute quilted wall hanging I saw on etsy a while ago (it sold, but you can still see the pictures-click on the close-ups because the quilting is awesome too!) Anyway, to make my wall hanging, I used a Silhouette Cameo to cut out all the circles in solid fabric and then I liquid starched them onto a white canvas (just like this alphabet wall hanging I made a couple years ago). It took me about 4 hours plus drying time.
And...the aforementioned beachy quilt picture taken at beautiful Carmel beach. Thank you, quilting, for once again making my life a little easier. :)
Pattern for this quilt is HERE.
