This is "Ocean Songs," from my 18 in 2018 list, my Q1 Finish-Along list, and the #8 selection for my March UFO Challenge project. It is a free Laurel Burch pattern, and I used her original fabrics in it.
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| 49 x 48 inches, quilted with Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting. |
I had pieced the top in the fall of 2008 - TEN YEARS AGO! Thank goodness for this challenge. That's 3 UFOs, two of them very long-term, finished so far this year thanks to these challenges.
The central Mermaid, along with the four corner mermaids, all got trapunto work so that their bodies and tails would stand out really nicely.
It succeeded superbly, but the wonderful saturated colors of Laurel Burch's prints don't let the camera capture the dimension well at all, no matter what I try.
On all the pictorial panels, I simply traced outlines with a tiny smattering of extra arcs or swirls here and there.
But the side panels presented the same problem I'd encountered in my Bohemia quilt's pinwheel piecing - everything was so busy that the pieced fish really got lost.
So I chose a strategic quilting approach to help bring them out. First, the pieced fish all got face, scale, and fin/tail features quilted in a 40wt gold Glide.
Then, I used a blue Microquilter thread to treat all the checkered blocks as a single background, and quilted water lines across them in a way that blends with the waterlines in the seahorse blocks.
It really helped, working maybe another 25% better in the human eye than the camera can share with you.
There are so many fun features in Laurel Burch prints. Some of my favorites other than the mermaids are that wonderful sun, the jaguars and birds, and all the adorable little seahorses.
The green stop borders are so busy, not much quilting would show up, so I tried my hand at some free-style doodled fish inspired by Lori Kennedy in the horizonal bars, and just threw in some seaweed in the verticals.
And on the outer border, I gave up trying to figure out how to render my idea of fish poking up out of the water here and there, and simply followed several wave lines. It really made the fabric look fabulous, so I'm glad I did that! Maybe you can see a little bit of the wonderful transition here:
I had intended to make a faux-piped flange with the ocean fabric and a gold piping, but I didn't have anywhere near enough of that fabric left, nor did I have a good blue to play with that outer border. So I went with an arty, mitered faced binding.
The clean edge of this style of binding looks fantastic on this quilt, so I'm glad I did that.
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Linking at:
2018 Finish-A-Long Q1 Reports at Sandra's
Looks to me like it was worth the wait. I love the bright colors and textured fabeics.
ReplyDeleteThis is really fantastic design. I liked it. Especially your combination color is most beautiful.Also attractive.
ReplyDeleteWell, this is my site, feel free to visit online logo design
and can share your experience.
Your quilting ideas were great! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteOh, you had fun on this one! Good to have it finished. A 10-year UFO, eh? I don't know how long you've been quilting, but perhaps it was hiding all this time waiting for you to come up with the ideas and skills to make it perfect! At least, that's what I tell myself sometimes.....
ReplyDeleteWow! This is awesome! And so much fun to look at. Congrats! on a great UFO finish.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful finish, Lynette! You're so right about how fabulous LB's fabrics are, and you really did them justice with your quilting. I have a few bits and pieces of this line, and the seahorses are my faves. Congrats on this super finish!
ReplyDeleteYou made this type of fascinating piece to peruse, giving each subject illumination for people to grab learning. A debt of gratitude is for imparting the such data to us to peruse thisfish mounts
ReplyDeleteOMG beautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteThat is SO cute! Good for you getting another UFO finished. But 2008 couldn't have been THAT long ago, could it? lol
ReplyDeleteThis is a TEN year old UFO?! Congratulations on digging it out and finishing it up. Yes, I can tell that you did trapunto for your mermaids. They look amazing, and your border fishies are super cute!
ReplyDeleteA great and colorful quilt, Lynn!
ReplyDeleteThe trapunto looks fantastic in the mermaids! Lovely finish!
ReplyDeleteYou brought out the best of the print with your quilting! And I love a good faced binding!! On behalf of all our hosts, thank you for joining in the Finish-A-Long!
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