Seafarer

Introducing a new lap/twin quilt, Seafarer, 

my string quilt creation for the All About Strings Blog Hop hosted by Carla at Creatin' In the Sticks. Isn't it an ocean of string beauty???

The design of this quilt, mostly the concept of strings to depict an ocean and with a lone sailboat, was dreamed up at around 4 in the morning. Yes, I'm usually awake that early, either creating, like that morning, or getting ready to go for a swim workout. 

Fabric, both scraps and yardage, was pulled, and a few string blocks made to see if this vision was going to work. That's the sneak peek I showed early last week.

Still undecided as to whether this would be a baby quilt size, or lap/twin, more blocks were made, including the sailboat, and continually rearranged on the design wall.

Then it hit me - the reality that my son was leaving within weeks for a 27 month tour with the Peace Corps. Since he had already asked to take a quilt with him, this would be perfect for him - a lap/twin size it would be!

Since it was still in the works, he got to choose the batting, a soft 80/20, and also the backing. For that, I happened to have 4-5 yards of an aqua/blue flannel purchased years ago, just waiting for a water themed project. Perfect!

Quilting was a fast and easy freehand wave design, done in around 2 hours.

We had fun tossing around names for this quilt - my favorite from him was "Damn it, does this ocean ever end???". But that's quite long, so we chose the more simpler, Seafarer. It suits his adventurous spirit, and the unknown experiences yet to discover. 

Will I miss him? Yes, but he's a young man now, ready to set off on an adventure of life after college. Twenty-seven months may seem like a long time, but it will pass quickly, and I know that an awesome man will come back. And ya, I'll miss the quilt too.

Happy String Quilting!