Storm at Sea

Storm at Sea is the one quilt that I have wanted to make for years, but was never sure I was ready to tackle that kind of challenge.  Fabrics were found and saved up a bit at a time.  Some yummy hand dyed light blues from Vicki Walsh that I won in a contest...  Leftover batiks from another project...  And a couple lucky Thrift Store finds... Finally, in June 2019 I decided to give it a try.  

Patterns were pulled out and examined from a number of books in my 'library'.   Not one of them was exactly right.  The dark blue diamond blocks needed to be a specific size to take advantage of a wide stripe fabric I wanted to use.  So, I drafted my own pattern to get the right size block.  Then came cutting and piecing sample blocks.  I had to adjust the size of the diamond block pattern a time or two, but finally got the right combination.  A bit at a time it came together.  All the fabrics were pre-washed, some a number of times because the dye ran.  

Over the past year Storm at Sea took shape.  One of the last things I did in August 2020 on the wide open spaces of our cabin kitchen floor was to sandwich and pin two queen size quilts.  Storm at Sea was one of those.  Then we turned our attention to a full-scale rebuild at the cabin and quilting was put aside.

By December the quilting was underway and the cabin interior was nearly finished.  Stitch in the ditch was done and then I stalled out.  Did it need more quilting?  Yes.  No.  Yes.  Maybe?

Last weekend I gave it a good looking over again.  From the back there seems to be enough quilting.  Or at least it seems balanced in density.  So let's call it a finish and put it on the bed in the brand new cabin.  

The quilt is actually scrappier than it looks in the photo.  There were at least five light blues used, two white prints, a purple batik and three navy prints.  The border batik makes an appearance in some half of the square-in-square blocks too. They all blend so well!   Here it is draped over the sofa.