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!

Pride Quilt - Now More Than Ever

Pride Quilt

78'' x78''

Finished in time for the Pride Parade in Calgary. Finished to celebrate, to share, to show love, to be supportive, to care.

Every year we take our family to the Pride Parade. My kids love it, we love it. Sure, it is a lot of fun. There is dancing and candy and dogs and loads of free trinkets. But it is also about showing the kids that we love no matter what, we support with love, we respect, we talk. This quilt is no different. Wrap more love around the world.

(See the whole story behind the quilt.)

I worked hard to get this quilt done in time. It's been a while since I finished a quilt! But I really wanted to share it there so I worked feverishly. It's a small, tiny thing in the world but if it makes one person smile, shows one person they are not alone then it is worth it. If it reminds my kids that we look out for others, no matter what then it is worth it.

Statement quilts have a place in quilting, Pride has a place in our life.

Now for the quilt details.

In the rainbow section I quilted is the words Love is Love is Love is Love over and over again. I did this on my domestic Bernina with an orange Aurifil thread. Let me tell you, it felt great to be stitching these words!

The backing has another rainbow. I made one large rainbow that spreads across the back of the quilt, with some of my Tag fabric from Connecting Threads on either side. Simple and effective. And if you don't mind the words of the quilting being backwards you could use this quilt from either side.

Finally, I finished off the quilt with a rainbow binding. All the colours wrapped around. It ties the center portion of the quilt together. 

There are rainbow quilts, and then there are Pride quilts.

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?