Picture heavy post!

Tra la la! I finished stitching the binding down during my guild meeting yesterday, and trimming all the threads this morning (nothing like taking pictures of a thing to notice all the flaws in it!).

This sandcastle block is one of the ones I think might need a bit more quilting in it.  The example of the finished block doesn’t have quilting inside the castle walls, but it seems too loose compared to the rest of the quilt.

I do like the sun and rays in the sky, which mixes it up from the puffy clouds in the rest of the skies in the other blocks.

Also: I have crabs!

This next block has lots of fussy bird parts that wanted to break free instead of staying put while quilting. I do like the puffy clouds, though.

This is the double block, the first two I did (apologies for the crease in the middle - I had folded it up to take to guild, but have since steamed it to get rid of the crease!).

I think this might need some additional quilting in the sand.  The chairs were where I broke my needle while quilting. I just went slower and that was the only one that broke.

Block 5, the umbrellas, was the halfway point of the applique and I think a fake-out on “oh, it’s going to be so easy from now on!”.

Note: then you got the boat block and all hell broke loose with bouy parts and docks and crazy boat rigging and a cranky crane.  The boat rigging I quilted in a grey thread instead of monofilament, and some cotton yarn for the bouy lines.  More fluffy clouds, too, which were fun to quilt.

This hollyhock block was interesting. There’s a lot of layers on the house, an the various petals so I went extra slow on the quilting so I wouldn’t bust a needle.

The wind started blowing while I taking pictures so it looks a little curved, but it does actually hang straight. I also got to do some spiky grass quilting in the bottom, which added a new texture to the quilt.

Now this jellyfish block was aggravating solely because of the Angelina fibers.  There are various tentacles to cut out, so I made a sheet of Angelina fibers (they fuse together when ironed) and then cut out my pieces with the fusible backing.  There are some places that didn’t quite fuse, and rather than over-iron, I just went with the theory that “that will quilt out.” I’m happy to say that it did, indeed, quilt out.

Some fun underwater loop-de-loops, too. My jellyfish must have had some coffee.

And finally, the last block, with the fewest number of pieces.

In this one I imagine Bob Ross narrating the quilting as I do it, “Some nice gentle curves for a happy little whale…”.

I have now hung up the quilt in my living room. It’ll probably stay up until my Baltimore Halloween one goes up in October.