Today's quilt is a baby quilt I completed for my great-nephew O in February 2009. The whole quilt was based on the backing fabric. (I don't recall the designer or manufacturer.)
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I drew a foundation pattern to paper piece sailboats. Each block was to finish at 5 1/2 inches by 8 inches. I traced the pattern onto foundation papers, reversing half of them so I could alternate the directions of the rows of sailboats. I selected fabrics that matched the colors of the back to construct the boats.
Now, here's where it gets a bit hazy because I don't have good notes. I think I separated the boats with a 2 by 8 inch strip (plus seam allowance) made up of a 2 by 6 inch piece of sky fabric and a 2 by 2 inch water fabric (plus seam allowances). I wanted to stagger the rows a bit, so I reduced the width of the strip at the front of each row and added some width at the end. Hmmm...improv piecing wasn't all that popular then, but I think there was a little improv piecing in this quilt--at least in the planning of the first two rows--and then I repeated what I had done in the other rows. The whole idea was to give the feeling of the movement in a regatta.
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The whole quilt was probably about 39 or 40 inches by 48 inches before washing. The fabric is cotton with Mountain Mist polyester batting. I tied it with no. 5 perle cotton in off white. (I was a hand quilter at the time, but tied most baby quilts.)
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Baby O was born in March 2009. (He's in kindergarten now!) I hear that he often uses the quilt to build forts with his little brother. (Yay!) He's also had fun in the summertime sailing in his grandpa's sailboat, which was the reason I made him a sailboat quilt.
I'm linking up today with My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday and possibly with Quiltin' Jenny for Throwback Thursday.
2 comments:
It is hard to go back and remember. I tried to do the same thing when I first started my blog. Then you learn details... like adding who you gave the quilt to and documenting what size it was. Size is not always obvious from the photo. Your boats are adorable. I love how the background drove their design. I like nautical quilts because they lend themselves to such great color schemes. I just completed one. See http://dianeloves2quilt.blogspot.com/2014/08/wip-nautical-quilt-finish.html
Revisiting your early quilts is a great idea. It's interesting to look at what you do now and get some idea of how your quilting has evolved.I'm actually impressed by how much you can remember! The idea of taking the backing fabric as a starting point was clever and I love your little yachts. Have never tried paper piecing, but I usually love it when I see it.
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