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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Here Fishy Fishy


Or Wonderfully Fishy I should say...

Have your visited Fat Cat Patterns lately? (yes it's linked for you)  Well, this is the new BOM for this year.  Best yet it's free. Sindy is generously offering up one block a month, for this cutie.   For those of us who just can't wait, there is a place you can purchase the complete pattern. I know it's late in the month, so if your interested you better hurry on over to get your January block before it's gone!  :-)

I was lamenting over my growing pile of batting scraps, when this pattern came into my line of sight. It was perfect for a Quilt As You Go method, so I could use up some of my scraps. I was equally delighted to find that I had enough fabric for the front and the back in my never ending stacks of fabrics too, so I had to purchase not one thing to make this quilt.  Yeah!!! All my bargain shopping is starting to pay off!

This quilt was a perfect place to start re-thinking about free motion quilting again too. I fell back on what my first instructor taught us. Use your fabrics to dictate the direction you quilt. They will talk to you. Oh yeah, I thought she was crazy! But I have to admit now, she wasn't at all. So if any of you are thinking I have slipped a cog in my brain, I am going to share a bit of the path, my fabrics lead me down.

Here is a piece of the fabric I chose for one of my fishies.
You can see how it leads your eye.
With a simple straight stitch you get this fun quilty effect on the fish!
 
 
In these photos you can clearly see how the design spoke to me.
 
Simple swirls.
Dots
Swirls on fins, and checkerboard fish.
Strings.
Plaid.
While this fabric was a bit more difficult, straight lines seemed to define it a bit.
The texture of more straight lines.
Rain drops.
All very simple once we let the fabrics speak.
 
I had so much fun listening to my fabrics, that my mind opened up a bit more.
 
 
While putting my blocks together I got to thinking about how babies love texture. The different feelings on their little fingers stimulates their brains. So I decided to change up my Quilt As You Go (QAYG) method a bit. Rather than making my quilt lie completely flat like a regularly quilt would be, I cut my strips to attach the blocks together, for the back a little smaller and pulled those seams in to where they overlapped. The top strips I made the regular size and hand stitched them down on my seam line giving it a bit of puffy-ness. You can clearly see that my quilt does not lay flat, but has a delightful texture to it. I added a line of wavy stitching thru all my joining strips once it was all put together.
 
If you have never tried a QAYG quilt, here are some great tutorials you might want to look at.
 

            http://lifeisbeautifulbom.wordpress.com/quilt-as-you-go-tutorial/

Here is the back.
You can get a good look at the wavy lines
I stitched down thru the joining strips.
 
Sindy's pattern is a total of 15 blocks. She added a few extras for pillows, or wall hangings, etc. I chose to put them all in my quilt, but it needed a little more width to keep it symmetrical. I chose a simple border on one side only to accomplish that. With the help of my trusty Accuquilt "GO" Baby, I was able to cut out a variety of circles to jazz it up a bit and really bring the quilt together.
 
 
So, now hurry on over to Fat Cat
and start collecting your patterns.
 
This month's is...
Who I have named Herbie!
 
From all the others,
Gladys

Penelope

Oscar

Mulligan

Leroy

Sherry

Goldie

Candie

Stretch

Wilbur

Slick

Georgette

Millie
 
And last by not least
Burt
We wish you happy stitchin!
And by the way, you can name your fishy's anything you like!
 
:-)
 
 

 

9 comments:

  1. Joan,
    I absolutely LOVE how your finished quilt came out! Never have tried the quilt as you go technique, but now you have me itching to give it a try.

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  2. Those are just darling and I love all the fun quilting on them. I will have to check it out. Thanks for the link.

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  3. Absolutely precious!!! I love the quilting!!! Very clever. Fatcat patterns are awesome. Sindy is so generous!

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  4. Well, you have blown me away with this one. It is wonderful!!
    Thank you for describing how you went about choosing designs for your FMQ. You explained that really well. I like the idea of QAYG for this one,too.
    Fantastic fabrics and I would guess that I have all that is needed for this in my stash, too.
    I like your idea of the additional border and the circle/bubbles work a treat.
    This will be perfect for a little one!!
    PS. Only you could name every fish a quilt! Love it ( and their names, too!)

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  5. So cute. Love how you let the fabric talk to you.

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  6. bloob bloob- that means great job in FISH :-)

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  7. This quilt is so nice! I love your applique, your quilting, everything! I never tried QAYG technique, but I would like to try it. Thank you for sharing!

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  8. I'm just trilled, Your fishes are unik!!
    I would love to try making a quilt like this.
    regards Ingrid

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  9. Love your quilt. You are so clever with your designs!!

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Thanks for stopping by today. Your comments really do make me day!
;-)