Shiver of Sharks - Quilt Top Complete

The Shiver of sharks is complete!

I could have kept making these blocks. Highly addictive and so easy. Not to mention that it was terribly fun to play with the colours of the background. I could have bought all the blues, turquoises, teals, and greens from all the solid manufacturers and had a lot of fun laying it out. Alas, at some point you either run out of fabric or the quilt is getting rather large. It was a bit of both.

My daughter still sees orcas...

This is definitely at the top of the quilt top queue for finishing as well. Just yesterday I was at a party and doodled potential quilting designs on the paper topped tables. I'm sure people thought I was strange. 

Well, I made a quilt of sharks, so yeah, I acccept that.

Tag Fabric + Improv Applique = Fun

Seriously, I might just call this quilt Fun. It's nothing precious and doesn't take itself too seriously. It was just some play time that resulted in a finished quilt top - shocking!

I started with a bundle of mini charms of my Tag fabric. It was one left over from a guild trunk show where I gave them away. I also happened to have a bundle of Kona Cotton charm squares. One day they landed on the table together. It happened that that day I was sheduled to teach Improv Applique. So I grabbed to two bundles and they became friends. And well, you know me, I don't like mini quilts all that much so I couldn't very well just sew 20 charms together and call it a day. So the solids got attacked by the scissors too and then those got sewn to more Tag Fabric.

True confession: there was intense debate with my daughter about what shapes I should cut. She said the initial shapes I cut out of the mini charms reminded her of Alberta so the other ones should have been too. I argued that it would get too meta, even for me. So now we have gems/envelopes/whatever you might see. 

That's the joy of Improv Applique. Take some scissors to the fabric and see what happens!

Shark Attack!

Did you know a group of sharks is called a Shiver?

Things you learn watching Shark Week. And then Shark Week inspires you to get sewing. And sewing and sewing and sewing.

A few months ago a random comment on an Instagram post got me to make a few of these blocks. I was playing around with some improv work, focused on triangles. Someone said it made them think of shark fins. Then I decided to really make them look like shark fins. A few looked more like the top of witches hats, but then I sorted out the technique. So I made a handful, enjoyed the playtime, and set the blocks aside.

But then Shark Week started and all I could think about were these blocks again. I was out of town most of the week and desperate to sew. Upon my return I pulled all my blue/turquoise solids and went to sea. Now I've exhausted the stash of those colours. In my head the quilt isn't quite done yet so I need to do a bit more shopping. My Shiver is not complete.

I'm contemplating a video tutorial of this block. Is there any interest in that?

Oops

A certain Britney Spears song is running through my head right now.

I was on a finishing quick. Trying to turn blocks in to quilt tops, basting a few quilts, and making more blocks for others. No real reason other than a desire to have things move around on the list and maybe get a finish or two. Then this happened...

You see, I was prepping for a class. Wanting to augment my existing class samples I decided to try something else. I did that one thing, shared it on Instagram, someone commented on it, that led to another idea, and I went ahead and played. So bits of that piece on the bottom left became an attempt at shark fins on the top. But I couldn't quite get the shark fins to look right so I kept trying. Frankly, then, they started to resemble orcas more than sharks. It was at that point that I got the idea for a whole pod of orcas/sharks. 

That bit on the bottom left also greatly intrigued me. I decided to pick two other high contrast solids and play some more. The blocks are made up on different sorts of improv triangles (that's what my class was on that day). I am completely in love with the interesting shapes that come from sewing the different components together. Positive and negative space at work.

So I did what any respectable quilter would do when faced with two fun ideas would do - I went shopping. My solids stash is actually quite minimal. I picked up a whole bunch of blues to add to the pod and add variation to the ocean background. Then I snagged a bunch of random coloured solids. 

These are both excellent Morning Make projects so they will certainly be in the rotation. Let's see what I can finish before the fabric arrives.