Happy to announce the release of the Seafarer quilt pattern!
When I made this quilt, I didn't think about writing a pattern, as this was a special quilt for my son as he embarked on his 2 year Peace Corps assignment. With so many requests for a pattern, I'm happy to announce the Seafarer pattern release today!
Since I was working from in-progress photos, I decided to make a baby quilt size to test the pattern. Isn't this just too cute???
The baby size version, which uses the same block size as the lap and twin/double size, measures a nice 39" x 39". And it's so soft - cotton batting, bits of flannel on the back,
and a nicely spaced wave design for the quilting.
Looks and feels just like the bigger version!
Now a bit more about the pattern, available at Etsy:
three sizes available -
baby (39" x 39"),
lap (57" x 82" - could be made shorter if desired),
twin/double (75" x 88")
yardage amounts for all sizes given
number of blocks for all sizes given
template for sails
layout diagrams for each size
and, as always, full, detailed instructions for a confident beginner quilter to complete their own Seafarer quilt.
What's also great about this pattern is that more boats could be added for a whole fleet of sailboats!
If you've fallen in love with Seafarer, head over to Etsy - the pattern is available as an immediate downloadable PDF file. Send me a picture of your version of Seafarer - I'm sure others would love to see!
Happy Quilting!
Our guild's quilt show was this past weekend, full of our members beautiful quilts, plus challenge quilts from those who desired to participate. Introducing 'Celebrate with Cake!', my creation for the guild's
'How Do You Celebrate' challenge.
Remember this fabric I wasn't too fond of?
Our little packages included not only these two challenging fabrics, but also the following rules:
no larger than 24" x 24"
75% of the front is from the two fabrics
any additional fabrics ok, except white, black, or grey.
Hmmm.
Celebrations - birthday's, weddings, baby showers, holidays, heck, even family BBQ's always involve cake. And having taken up cake decorating as a teenager, no occasion for a decorated cake passed me by.
Thinking cake, then seeing the fabric, I was immediately struck by the tent roofs, and how one would make a perfect cake stand base. And lucky for me, one of those tent roofs was close enough to the center of the fabric along the bottom, making it the perfect spot to start building my cake.
With the addition of a few fused fabric scraps, ric rac, gold and silver lame, plus other trims, my tiered cake came together.
Now for the quilting, which plays a big part in making this cake look real. I wanted this cake to puff up from the background, which meant trapunto work plus all of the quilting details on just the cake.
With the details done, the extra batting got trimmed away,
and the whole top put on another piece of batting. Now to deal with that background!
Quilting in earnest, I went for a dense, echoed triangle fill, to mute that background. Notice the dark maroon areas are even more densely quilted. The viewer gets to still feel the celebration with the circus tent background, without it overwhelming the cake.
Check out how the cake puffs up away from the background - one could almost cut into it! And what cake isn't complete without roses? I found the perfect rose buttons - they look just like I would make them out of icing!
Celebrate with Cake! looks like a delicious treat to me and another great challenge quilt to add to my collection!
I wish that I had pictures of the other entries to show - we have a lot of creative quilters in our guild. But, unfortunately, I could not attend due to an early birthday celebration for hubby - and yes, we had cake! And even if I did have pictures, I don't have permission from the creators to post them online. So, let's have cake instead!
Have a great day quilting!
The start of new month means another Book of the Month choice. For May, I'm choosing Scrappy and Happy Quilts (affiliate link) by Kate Henderson.
What influenced my decision? Well, just look at the cover with those really cute, modern fresh quilt designs. And see the fourth one in, with pink flowers? It's called Petunia Patch and is the perfect design for a commissioned quilt, as the client requested the following: pink, grey, bright, and roses. Looks like the perfect fit to me!
I'll have a look at what bright pinks and greens I have in the stash, and what new ones are out there in the stores. As for the background, I'm going to use white, because grey is just, well, grey - I want these flowers to pop!
Sharing progress over the next few weeks!
Happy Quilting!
