Green Ocean Waves

 Half square triangles.  A "bazillion" of them, or so it seemed at the time.  Over the years, I had been cutting up left over pieces of green from my quilt making into 3.5in squares and then turning them into half square triangles (hsts).

Counting the hsts.

The white fabric was a reject from another project, where it appeared to be "too white" but worked perfectly in this project.  After making and trimming to size all of the hsts, I then had to find pieces of green to make up the bigger plain squares.

Selecting the fabrics for the plain squares.

In an Ocean Waves quilt there are 3 block types:  A, B and C.  It's all about the directions of the triangles in the blocks.  So row 1 is A, C, A, C and then row 2 is C, B, C, B and so-on until the whole quilt top is laid out.

Laying out the quilt top.

I pieced all the A blocks first, then the B and finally the C.  That was fine.  The tricky bit was the layout and keeping the triangles going the 'correct' way with the block placement.  It did play tricks with my eyes and thankfully I pieced the top at a Retreat, so there many opinions in the room!  I found it interesting by the divide of opinion in the room.  It was like or dislike!  Having so much green was quite polarising for some.

Then came the pressing before quilting.  All those seams!  I pressed a bit, took a break, pressed a bit more.

I quilted Green Ocean Waves with a wave design and used a khaki coloured thread which blended beautifully with both the white and the green  

More green for the backing, with the meandering line and dots, I really liked how it set off  and complimented the colours on the front.

The first whole quilt photo was taken indoors and it glows.

And.... here is the whole quilt photo, taken outdoors in the late afternoon dappled sunlight.  Awesome!

I gifted this quilt to my 15yr old nephew K for Christmas 2020.  As soon as unwrapped the gift, he wrapped himself up in it, then opened it up and spread it across the couch, covering up his Nana and Dad at the same time.  He was very, very happy.  Being a teenager, I wasn't quite sure how the quilt would be received.

The next morning, he asked me a whole lot of questions about how I made the quilt, did I cut out all the triangles individually, how did I put it together for quilting......  My Sister (his Mum) said to me later that he had been complaining about all the "blankies" being too small to cover him while watching tv or lounging around and he had been asking for a bigger one.  She was happy too.  

I am happy.  The response from K was far better than I could have imagined.

Specky Stars

The local quilt group I belong to near my home had a visiting Tutor for a day.  The lady who came run this workshop is a very clever teacher and comes up with amazing ideas. 

New fabric, new project and day of sewing with girlfriends - I was in!

I chose an 'ocean' coloured batik jelly roll and a very dark blue/black mottled batik for my background.

The blocks are assembled log cabin style.  It took a bit of thinking to figure out the construction because you made the blocks like you can see in the photo...... 

I frist blogged about Specky Stars in February when I wrote about the mistake I made and had to unpick the same piece 48 times!

...... and it's not until you lay them out that you can understand how it all goes together.

All laid out.

Once I got it all laid out, it was easy sewing.  The blocks went together like a dream.  The backing fabric was called "karneval" and has some fabulous swirls in the pattern.  The greens in the swirls are the same colours as in the blocks, even though it is predominately blue.

Backing chosen.

Then it was onto the quilting.  I used a very dark grey, not quite black thread for the quilting.  Meandering with the odd spiral and swirl for extra effect.

For the binding, I chose an emerald green which matches the brighter greens in the quilt top.  

I got the hand-sewing on the binding finished quickly.  I have to admit to getting a bit dis-illusioned with this quilt during the construction of it, but once I got it all laid out and the quilt top completed, my desire to get it finished quickly kicked in because it turned out much better than I originally thought it would.

A great not quite single bed, but bit larger than lap quilt size of 54in x 70in.  Perfect for when feeling a bit chilly.

I'm super pleased with how the backing turned out.  The added strips left over from the batik jelly roll just provide some calmness to a very busy fabric.

And.... Ta Da...... here is the finished quilt!

Specky Stars has been claimed by my 16yr old son.