April OMG

This is a replacement post for the one that was here originally.  I had posted with a short paragraph so that I could make the April OMG deadline.  I had yardwork to do and I was waiting so that I would not annoy the neighbors with my chainsaw too early and spent sometime revising the post. This was challenging because I was at first creating and posting using my phone because my computer was not functioning.  I had to download some apps and learn how to post from the app.  I am not that good with intuitive apps.  I never know when to pinch or slide or swipe or pull.   When it was completed, I accidentally hit revert to draft rather than publish and it wiped out all my work.  I was quite angry so I went outside to get that yardwork done.  I am exhausted after my day's labor; so I am going to try this again.  Perhaps I will make my comments in more than one post so I don't risk loosing my content.

Construction:  This quilt is made from storm at 9.5 inch storm at sea blocks set on point with the rocks appliqued on top. 

The top and bottom edges were cut straight across.  The side edges were made with partial blocks that followed the gentle vertical curved line of the pattern pieces.  I liked the idea of a wavy edge for a sea themed quilt.  The block was made of a small square in a square, a large square in a square, and 2 triangles in a square that pieced together to make a rectangle.  I used my Accuquilt GoBig to cut my units.  The Accuquilt storm at sea uses 4 half square triangle instead of the smaller square in a square. I used a 2.5 inch square surrounded by a 2 inch finished quarter square triangle to make the square in a square.  If I had pieced it with quarter inch seams it would not have fit.  I had to fudge this to make it work.  I used scant eighth in seams to piece it so that I could piece it to the 3.5 inch triangle in a square.

I began with a pdf print out of the storm at sea sheet above and drew my horizon line on it. I would color in sections so I would know what fabrics to put where.  I auditioned blocks and reworked as I went along.  The block above was rejected.  I decided that I did not want the pink center;  I also discovered that I needed to figure out how to cut the fabric so that the prints were going in the correct direction.  I used the Accuquilt dies to cut paper and drew grain lines on them.  I used the papers to fussy cut hunks of fabric to place on the dies.  I did my very best to not waste fabric.  I did make several mistakes and had to recut. 

Under the rock I used 9.5 inch squares of muslin as place holders. The quilt was basically 3 sections: sky, water, and beach. 

Sky:  I started with some blue fabrics on the design wall.  I had blues for the sky and blues for the water.  I looked at the design wall and decided it needed a punch of color so I looked at some photos of sunrises and added the pink/blue/yellow/orange/white print and a yellow with grey batik that I thought would blend into the blue sky fabrics.  I started with the sunrise fabrics and selected a grey fabric with big clouds, a baby blue fabric with small clouds, a

Water:
Around the rock I wanted to use this puddle fabric which is a grey/blue print with concentric ovals.  I was trying to show some wave action from bumping up against the rock.   I was using fabrics from my stash. Much of it was fat quarters or third yards.  I used a grey print along the horizon line.  It has some white lines on it that I thought it would like moving water.  Next layer was a grey mottle that surrounded the rock and puddle fabric.  The next layer was a blue speckle.  I added a dark blue print that had some gold flecks.  Some people have asked about the dark blue fabric. I gather they think it does not blend well although no one has actually said that.   I remember swimming in the ocean and seeing darker blue areas that were markedly colder through which to swim.  I also have come across schools of fish.  That is what I was thinking about when I added that section.