Avast, Me Hearties!

It’s been a while since my last post, but I have been busy in very good ways – giving a weaving lesson here, a dye lesson there; training to lead a nature walk, and visiting the neighbor’s horses.  And it seems like there was one more thing – what was it again?… Oh yeah!  Making a quilt for our first GRANDBABY!

It had to remain secret for a while.  But now the new parents have seen their quilt so I can show pictures!

pirate quilt

Quilt front.  I still need to add more quilting and the binding.

quilt back

Quilt back.

The decorating theme for the baby is “pirates”, so I had a grand time ordering lots of fabric.  This is the first time I have ordered fabric from the internet, and overall I did a good job of picking fabrics that would go together.  The one thing I didn’t pay attention to was scale, and when the fabric got here, some of it was much larger-scale than I anticipated. It all had beautiful drape and hand, and I would feel confident to order online again.

I decided to do a large central panel of “Pirate Island” from Alexander Henry Fabrics.  I really loved the humorous touches in this fabric – octopi in the treasure chests, seagulls with eye patches, and a castaway with an unexpected shark on his line.   I added two rows of blocks based on nautical flags.  I took a lot of liberties with the flag colors, but stuck to the actual flag patterns pretty closely.  I’m guessing that pirates did not actually spell out messages with nautical flags, but I thought that using them as a design basis would help me achieve the random look that I like.  Then I used up the scraps with more improvisational piecing.

I did not get it finished before the first baby shower, but that actually turned out to be a good thing.  I was able to discuss quilting and binding choices with my daughter, and now I can finish it exactly the way she wants it.  I have lots of fabric left over, and I can’t wait to make more baby stuff!

quilt at baby shower

Checking out the quilt.

Category : Quilting
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