Cloud 9 Quilt

I went to the Sarasota Quilt Guild Quilt Show this past March, and was it ever a good show.  There were some stunning quilts, but the show stopper was this one:

It had no less than 4 ribbons on it.  I seem to recall a mother/daughter team had made it.  In the Merchant Mall I saw a beautiful modern quilt on the wall (at the time I did not know anything about modern quilts) and I knew I just had to have the kit.  It was only $40 for the top and binding, and because the next month was my birthday, I decided to treat myself.  I even found the same line of fabric which I used for backing a couple weeks later at Alma Sue's Quilts in Sarasota!  This is the second quilt I quilted on my longarm.

Here it is on the design wall in my sewing room here in the condo.  I got the top pieced before we headed back up north.  It went together in a snap!

Bella liked using the piled up backing to use as an armrest:

Here it is on the Avanté back in Ontario:

There are 4 rows of black rectangles on this quilt.  In the top and bottom black sections I did a couple of Leah Day's designs that reminded me of water.  One is her Etch 'n Sketch and the other is Ocean Current.  I love how the teal Fufu's embroidery thread looks on the black.

I got a little fancier on the bottom row and added some pebbles between the wave spirals.

For the printed fabric sections, I did a row of waves first.  Then I sketched a couple of designs in pencil on paper first, to see how to do them without lifting my pencil.  Three of the 5 designs I settled on were based on the shells in the fabric, but the flipflops and palm tree I'd seen somewhere in my online cruising and so I attempted to freehand them with a decent result!  Easier to see on the back:

I decided to do a water-themed design of Leah's in each of the black rectangles within the two centre strips.  Here are from left to right, Seashells and Waves, Bubble Path, Brittle Starfish, and Kelp Forest.

I was really pleased with the Fufu's threadplay.   Here are Barrier Reef, Sea Oats, Pebble Ripple, and Giant Snail:

A few more:  Double Pebble, Brain Coral, Pea Gravel Path, and Sea Anemone.

Note to self: I should keep notes as to which ones I quilt AS I GO, so I don't have to spend a couple of hours going back through Leah's 400+ designs and From Daisy to Paisley trying to figure out what each one is called!  It's so worth having a hard copy; for some reason I find it easier to find, choose, or examine a design on the printed page as compared to her site.  I plan to buy myself the second book this winter.

A second note to newbie longarm quilters:  I am anal about quilt labels on my quilts.  I sew them onto or often piece them into the backing.  Put the label higher up from the bottom and higher in from the side than you'd be inclined to!  I had to unpick my label on this quilt (and I still have not found what 'safe place' I stored it for future application--ugh) because it ended up too low on the backing.  For some reason, I usually have more extra backing at the bottom of the quilt than I do at the top edge, so I am now learning to adjust my label placement as a result.  Even Seaside Rose's label was just barely placed correctly.

Here is the quilt on the lanai.  I finished this back in May, and hand-stitched the binding down on the 3-day drive out to Alberta.  I hand-stitched two quilts' bindings on that trip:  this one, and Brady's Quilt, about which I have not yet posted, but soon will.  That will mean that I have blogged about all of my 2013 completed quilts!

I am linking up with Leah (a day late, and I hope it works) for her FMQF post.