One "All the fish in the sea" quilt

.. done... as Gordon Ramsey would say if he would make quilts instead of delicious meals.

The pattern I used here is a very simple one, just stripes and I think this fits the pattern of the fabric perfectly. The fabric from Birch is 100 % organic and has a wonderful soft feel to it and the colours are bright yet warm. I paired the strips of the patterned fabric with solids, Kona schoolbus, Kona Caribean (my current favourite that I also used in the "Urban Circus" quilt), Kona robbin egg and a red and white I bought locally here of which I don't know the brand. On the back I used just solids with the exception of one pattern stripe. I love, love, love it.

I quilted it in straight lines in off white on the machine and then added some waves by hand in colours that match the colours of the quilt, orange, petrol, light blue and yellow. This make the quilt a little more playful.


The binding is put together from some leftovers from other quilts that happened to fit perfectly here. "All the fish in the Sea" is 50 x 42 inches (1.27 m by 1. m) in size which puts it in the baby quilt or 'fold over a chair to gaze at' category. Other posts regarding this quilt or fabric can be found here and here.
This quilt will go into the "Modern Relief Japan" auction that Heather  so kindly organizes.  So if you fancy winning this quilt then watch this space !! I actually won a quilt from Nova at the last Modern Relief Auction - so you see it is possible.

Sometimes only stripes will do.........

I have sewn a marathon over the weekend. Finished all the curved pieces of my single girl quilt (post to come) and did a quilt-top and quilt-back of my new "Marine" fabric from Birch. I debated for a little while whether I shouldn't do something more "quilty" as in little pieces or at least an "I Spy" quilt but in always ended back at my first idea and that was stripes. I think a quilt pattern should first and foremost be informed by the pattern of the fabric. That is not to say that large patterns don't look good in many small pieces because they do!! But I think this pattern lends itself beautifully to stripes as the birds, submarines and fish are repetitive in a very pleasing way. I can already see a little one pointing to them, maybe even my 2 3/4 year old nephew.

I would have put it up all yesterday evening but by the time I finished with all my sewing I was so exhausted that I could not face another 30 min sitting at my desk editing photos for the blog (bit obsessive I know...)

So without further ado here are the images of my "All the fish in the sea" quilt. Don't you love the title ?

I will post more details about size etc when I finish it but it is around 50 inch by 45 or so. Quilting will have to wait though as I am on aunt/godmother duty from Thursday onwards.
Best duty ever duty !!!!

front

 

back

Mod Aqua II

Last week I finished the Mod Aqua II quilt that I did as a commission for the lovely Annette in Germany. Now,  if you are Annette than you are not allowed to read any further until the quilt has made it through the snow to you.

This quilt is the biggest so far with about 2.10 square (that is about 84 inches) and was made from the same fabric as the the first Mod Aqua but this time I used the entire aqua collection.  The brief from Annette was that she wanted to be able to cuddle up under the quilt with two kids and husband. I designed the quilt in two large blocks of strips of varying sizes.  The fabric is from Robert Kaufman and is  called 'Mod Green Pod Free to Grow'. Wadding as usual is Quilters Dream Select weight.

Front

I divided the back into two parts and added a strip of the aqua flowers and petals from some leftover fabric to lift the brown panel somewhat. Annette mentioned that she really likes the colour aqua and I hope she is happy with this detail.

Back

I quilted along the sewing lines and added detail to each of the bigger blocks.

The petal blocks were quilted in free motion hoops and I simply quilted around the large flowers. Circles were quilted on the multicolour panels. All quilting was done by hand and I used three different colours; aqua, yellow and brown. All the 'quilt in the ditch' sewing was done in brown and the detail in varying colours. Overall this quilt is not as heavily quilted than the first version thereby keeping it more flexible.

 

I pondered about how to label the quilt as this is the first I have sold. I did order  labels that say "handmade by Judith for needlesandlemons.com but didn't really like them on this large quilt. Somehow it managed to both stick out light a thumb and disappear all together. In the end I decided to embroider a label using a piece of the fabric. This turned out really nice and I think  adds more of a personal note.

 

The binding was done in the same fabric as the label and gives the entire quilt a very fresh appearance. I am always amazed how much influence binding has on the entire quilt. In fact I think binding can change the mood of a quilt entirely.

Folded and waiting to be used.

 And last but not least the mandatory stack image:

I am absolutely in love with this quilt and feel it sort of emits warmth and summer. What I like in particular are the thinner yellow strips. I can't really say why I just do.

Well Annette thank very much for this commission and I hope you, kids and hubby enjoy being cuddled by the quilt.