School

Ok, so Adele has inspired me. I had a look online at Sew Original's Solids Challenge and decided to give it a go. I couldn't find the submission date online, but Adele told me all quilts have to be in by April 12th! I had to work fast. So last Monday, I piled the kids in the car, and my husband too (and all 3 dogs) and we headed out to Joann Fabrics. There is a great fountain just across the street with a walking trail as well, so the kids and dogs all headed out while I examined the solid choices. Fortunately there were loads of different shades of aquas and greens and grays. I knew I wanted to do a school of fish across the middle of a navy background. I figured I could get all 12 different solids in using the fish. So I bought a 1/8 of a yard of each of them. Well, 14 total:)

I traced each fish individually and fused them all on with Steam-a-seam Lite 2. Then I got to work on the bottom of the ocean.

I looked at some clip art online, just to get an idea of coral shapes and I used my wonderful white Bohin marking pencil to trace the outlines of all the coral. I stitched over that first so the markings wouldn't fade and started filling in the spaces in between.

It has a Where's Waldo feel. You can just make out the sea monster/angle fish in the above photo in the lower right hand quadrant. That one was my oldest daughter's idea. There are also the outlines of little fish spaced here and there through the ocean deep.

There's the seahorse, smack dab in the middle. I did that before I filled in the background. In retrospect, I should have just done the shape and not detailed inside. It blends in a little too well.

I was feeling really so impressed with myself after finishing the deep that I was totally stumped as to the shallower water. I hadn't planned on the filler being quite so small and detailed and I was worried that I wouldn't get the quilt finished in time if I did the same on the top half. At the same time, the dense filler on the ocean floor creates depth and I wanted it to look a little less busy on the top.

So I stitched some wider wavy lines through the school of fish to create a transition between the two levels of water. Then I stitched scales on each fish because some of the corners were coming up. I'm guessing I could have fused them a little bit longer.

I had a lot of fun with the jelly fish. I used a lighter aqua thread to make them stand out a bit more.

I even got a family of killer whales in there. I stitched them in black first, but they didn't show up at all, so I used the same color thread as the shallower water.

I used some scraps from my aquas to do the narrow 1/2" strip border and for the binding as well.

So now I've got to head over to Sew Original and drop this off. Fingers crossed for the big gift certificate! I could buy a lot of fabric with that, and who doesn't need more fabric:) Voters choice. Head in and vote if you get a chance.