Deep Blue

Making progress! Finished boy quilt number Three of Nine! (Or Quilts for Christmas number Nine of Fifteen!)

This baby was created from Jelly Shelly leftovers, Arctic Skies leftovers and some choice leftovers from friends' projects, exchanged during my Snowflake QAL last summer! Once again, even the batting is crafted from leftovers.

What is super thrilling for me about this particular quilt is that my grandson and Jo's grandson will each grow up with a quilt containing some of the same sea fabrics. The two boys will have common threads even before they know they have common threads!


During my Snowflake QAL, in which I finished a quilt for one of the girls on my Christmas list, I realized I had nearly enough blue leftovers to make a second charm square quilt for a boy. I put out a call for an exchange... asking if readers had any blue charm squares suitable for boys they'd like to trade for snowflake squares for the quilt-a-long.

I hadn't yet considered an ocean theme for the boy quilt, but the exchange resulted in just enough sea life blocks to finish my boy quilt. Three panels leftover from another project provided visual as well as geometric interest because they were larger than five inches. I used blue strips left over from Owl Be Striped to make the panels big enough to equal four joined charm squares.


While auditioning the squares, I decided a vertical light-to-dark placement might create a visual ocean wave. Before I began assembling, The Lizard studied my layout and said this is his favorite so far of all the kid quilts I've made because of the wavy light-to-dark effect. What an absolute thrill!


While cutting the Jelly Shelly jelly roll strips, I often found myself wishing I'd bought enough of the seashell fabric to make a dress, too. This fabric is so gorgeous. While making today's quilt, I wished once again I'd bought another four yards of this luscious fabric.


Rather than piece the back of the quilt, I bought two yards of dark blue global ocean maps and crafted the backing.


Once I finished the straight-line quilting, I planned to use one of the uncut blue Jelly Shelly remnants for the binding. But none of them was big enough! So I pulled out my blue Kona stash and selected a navy blue which hadn't made it into any of my other quilts. It was the only blue solid big enough to make a binding!

After I finished the binding, The Lizard walked around the neighborhood with me helping snap some awesome autumn shots before all the brilliant leaves are gone. What a great way to finish off this project!








Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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