Making waves, adding borders and backing…

Threads…Looking forward to using all the colors!

Each layer has a line of stitching 1/8″ from the folded edge.

Adding borders–Very excited to find this cream-colored fabric at the fabric store!  The little asterisks reminded me of starfish and the circles of seashells.  The stars and circles are about 1/8″ high.

The cream borders set off the colors in the quilt.

Someone gave me this wonderful tropical fish fabric.  I like to have fun with backings of my quilts and this pattern fits the bill!

The wall hanging is now “layered,” with the top, batting (blankety material in-between) and backing secured together with temporary quilter’s spray adhesive.  Saves a lot of time, not having to make the large basting stitches to hold the layers together for the quilt stitching.  Can’t wait to add some texture and interest with the quilting and fun threads!

Prayer:  Dear Father, Please continue to work in my niece’s life.  Help her continue to understand and trust that You have all the pieces of her life in Your Hands, and that You love to add layers of Your love to her heart.

Rotary cutting the waves and pinning it together!

After rotary cutting the fabrics to create curves….

I played around with the strips, changed the order a bit and added some lace for the foam of the waves.

Prayer:  Thank You, Lord, for my dear niece.  As she finishes her final month of high school, please keep leading and guiding her.  Help her always to remember that You Are Here, no matter what waves and billows come crashing around her.

Cutting the Fabrics!

After letting my chosen fabrics “stew” for a few days on the dining room table, I added one other blue fabric and decided the approximate size for my wallhanging.  I made a design on graph paper.  Being “accidental  landscapes,”  the book didn’t suggest this, but it helped me get a clearer vision of  where I was going with my first project of this kind.

Rotary cutting (a pizza-cutter type implement) and ironing the strips with some starch was next, followed by inspection by Angus and Orlagh.  They like the colors!

Choosing my fabrics!

Once I chose my inspiration photos, I got to choose fabrics from my stash of “fat quarters” (18″x22″ pieces of fabric).  Choosing fabric unnerves me a bit if it involves more than three or four selections.  I’m learning to give myself lots of time. I’m starting to “practice,” by going into my quilt stash and imagining how things could go together.  I sometimes go to the quilt shop just to look around (yeah, sure, just to look around) and let certain fabrics catch my attention each visit.

I’ve visited my fat quarter drawer a few times, each time pulling out a few possible pieces for the Seaside wall hanging.  I put them in a basket so I could look at them a few more times.  Then this week, I chose nine fabrics for Seaside!  I’m letting them stay on the dining room table for a few days, and glancing at them each time I walk by.  I liked what I came up with originally, and as the days go by, I’m still happy.  Oh, and it helps that Carmen saw the picture and said they look good!  On Monday, I get to start cutting!

Rhe’s Quilted Seaside Wallhanging for my niece

My twin niece and nephew are graduating from high school in June.  I decided to make them each a wall hanging, using the wonderful book, Accidental Landscapes by Karen Eckmeier.  My niece’s piece will be a seaside scene, and my nephew’s will be a mountain scene.  I’m starting with the seaside, because I already have enough fabrics to create that one. To see what I’m aiming to do, please look at the book  on Amazon.

Accidental Landscapes: Karen Eckmeier: 9780979203312: Amazon.com: Books.

I’ve never made an “art quilt” before.  I haven’t made many quilts yet–my total is three bed quilts, a baby quilt, and I have three other wall hangings and a twin-sized bed quilt in process.  Well, all pieced, but in the closet, waiting to be quilted!  All of those were traditional patchwork, and I’m excited about learning Karen Eckmeier’s process.  There’s a lot of room for creativity, whimsy and fun!

Besides that, I am looking forward to some concentrated prayer for my niece and nephew as they prepare to graduate and go off to college in September.  I hope that I will be able to split my brain and be able to pray as well as stitch.  These two wall hangings will be created primarily by machine, and so far I’ve had limited success with focused prayer while machine stitching.  I do much better at Needle Prayer when I’m stitching something by hand, either needlepoint or piecing a quilt.

The photos below are my inspiration photos for my niece’s seaside scene. These scenes are my springboard and I’m excited to choose my fabrics.   It’s intriguing, figuring out how to use the lighthouse, which is the Fire Island lighthouse off Long Island’s south shore.  The tower in the distance in the first photo is not the lighthouse, and the lighthouse actually is some distance inland, so the shoreline is not visible. I will be exercising artist’s license!

I grew up loving that lighthouse, and my niece has enjoyed many visits to that beach, too.  It will be fun to figure out how to make some seagulls to sit on the sand, as well as gather  teensy shells and irridescent beads from my stash of “doodads.”  Who knows where I will end up?