Sea Shore Shells
Topic: Quilting
Serendipity!
That's what I call it when I FIND a gift card for fabric from three years ago that got misplaced... I fall in LOVE with a seashell themed jellyroll of fabric when I go with my gift card... I spy the PERFECT pattern to use with the jellyroll... and find out only days later that someone special is buying a BEACH HOUSE. Just like that, all the pieces come together for a wonderful housewarming gift!
I only had to add a few bits of fabric from my stash and they worked perfectly with the colors and theme: a tan with a print that looked like sand, a tan with a stone-like print, a white for the background that has a bright white dot that makes it look like bubbles or seafoam.
I even had a donated fabric for the back that is in the same shade of blue in a watery print with a bit of glitter in it.
I'm telling you, it's serendipity.
Here is the quilt - cut down considerably from the original pattern that takes it from a queen-size to a lap quilt:
Oh, yes - the border was from my stash as well.
I wanted to keep the quilting in the same theme so I downloaded line drawings of seven seashells and enlarged them to each fit on a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. These were cut out including cutting into them so I could trace all the inner bits of shaping.
I did that tracing with a Frixion pen ON THE BACK of the quilt so that I would not be distracted by the pattern on the front. I made sure none of the quilting crossed into the dark border since I was going to use a cream thread for all of it. I twisted and turned to fit the shells in, traced a set, moved the patterns and traced some more. I made sure that there would be no two shells the same next to each other.
I stitched in continuous lines, stitching over some areas as needed for 'traveling'. Then the Frixion pen was heated with the iron and 'poof' it vanishes.
Here are each of the shell styles that I used:
I used the backing fabric for the binding. The effect of this is one that allows the quilt to look good from the front OR the back.
Off to deliver it!
Ddd
Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net
at 12:01 AM PDT