Storm at Sea Finish

Finally, half a month late, my One Die Wonder Challenge for Island Batik is done!

Rather fitting to show a Storm at Sea quilt as we have been in a wet, gloppy snowstorm all day here, and it was snowing when I walked down to the lake edge for the photo shoot. So yes, there are a few white blurs on the photo, and now you know what they are! Yesterday was April, today is February. Springtime in Canada, eh?


*I've had comments that the photos aren't posting, and found out it is a Blogger issue. I've reinserted them today, Monday, and I think it should be all fixed now.
Thanks for your patience and for the heads up.

So the March challenge was creating a quilt, 45" x 60" minimum, using the Block on Board die we were given in our January supplies box. Thank you so very much to Island Batik, Aurifil, Hobbs Batting, Schmetz Needles, and AccuQuilt for supplying fabric, thread, batting, needles (Microtex needles rock) and the Block on Board die which was used in constructing the quilt.

I got Storm at Sea, a quilt I've wanted to make for some time. I just love the movement in it. I used several of the Basics and Blenders half yard cuts in my box along with some solid white we were given, and yardage of the neutral I was given, Whip Cream.

You can read the story of the quilt in my flimsy finish post from April 9.
I quilted it on Avril.

Of course I used my growing collection of Aurifil threads. The pale green was part of the Verona 3-spool box I received, and the others are from previous boxes and my own purchases. I love how well the pale green blended on Whip Cream, the white, Parakeet, and Opal. I used the navy on Cherio Navy and on Amethyst, the purple solid. I used the medium blue on Bluebird Wavy Dots. The pink and the brown are on the woven heart.

I cannot say enough about loving the die for accuracy. Yes, it uses more fabric, but it saves time and it is so precise. Okay, yes, some of the precision is due the sewist 😇 but having the points cut off for ease of alignment with triangles going onto diamonds etc. is invaluable. And look just how precise when I pulled it off the longarm and laid down my 15" square to square it up. Like this perfect has never happened before!

For quilting motifs, I did a fair amount of ruler work. In the flowing streamers effect I free-motion quilted flowing designs.

The amethyst and navy fabrics are hard to show but this indoor shot when squaring it up shows those two designs the best. So, five main colours, five flowing designs, two of them repeated: the rope-like one in the navy is also in the opal sections.

The heart had to be different, and I knew I wanted to outline it and echo, but I wasn't liking the deep pink on the white, so I kept the echo to a minimum. Two diamonds within the heart got special treatment:

The brown, which is for Penny, Dayna and Tyler's darling fur baby, with her 'ears' just above, pricked up, as per usual, and the pink diamond at the heart's 'v' centre, both got feathers. They fit so nicely within a diamond shape.

I did the binding using the five main colours in the quilt.

I even had to piece the Bluebird and Navy scraps because I had so little left. I applied the binding to the front of the quilt, pressed it to the back, glue-basted it down, and then stitched in the ditch from the front of the quilt, catching in the fold on the back. It makes for a bit uneven finish on the back, but looks exactly like hand-sewn-down binding from the front.

I actually remembered my satin label before applying the binding. Yay me. The backing is a lovely flannel, which I'll show some other time, as it is not Island Batik, but I wanted it soft and cuddly for Dayna and Tyler. And the entire quilt is. Because I kept the quilting fairly open, it drapes beautifully.

I do not know when I'll be able to give it to them as the Canada/US border is to remain closed for another month at least. I may investigate mailing it, but it is expensive as you all know.

Here is a straight-on shot off the side of our deck.

All the trees have budded out, and our magnolia is starting to unfurl her petals. Baby robins have hatched; I posted two perfect halves of a beautiful blue egg I found on a walk this past week. MacGyver was going to cut the lawn yesterday but then the temperature dipped in the late afternoon, and we got clipped by the northern tip of this storm that's from the Kansas City area! Strange weather. So, Storm at Sea is photographed during a storm on land LOL.

Dayna is, and always has been, my #1 fan of my quilting. You may recall she asked me to make a quilt for her dear friend who suffered a tragic loss in November, as she just knows the comfort that snuggling under a quilt, wrapping yourself in it, sobbing into it, can bring. I know the tender loving vibes I stitched into this quilt will help her and Tyler heal from their loss.

Penny, December 2019, in about the same spot as her quilt, today.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Original design based on Storm at Sea with heart image off Pinterest
Size: 54" x 63"
Fabric: Island Batik
Backing: flannel from stash
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom 100% Natural Unbleached Cotton with scrim
Quilted: on Avril my Avanté;  132 920 stitches
Threads: pieced with Aurifil on my Bernina; quilted with Aurifil 50 wt, The Bottom Line in the bobbin

Linking up

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Quilt Fabrication

My Quilt Infatuation

Quilty Girl
Quilting & Learning: What a Combo
TGIFF at chrisknitssews

This is also on my Q2FAL list, since I didn't quite make the deadline for Q1!