Sewing Along With Sewvivor - Nautical Challenge

Once I got over the pain and devastation of not being voted on to the island, I had to re-group and decide what to do. I'd already started my Nautical Challenge piece, but sort of just wanted to fold it up and put it away forever!  Instead, I pulled it out and got on with the job.  And today, well, I finished it!

When nautical came to mind, I thought of the sea (derrrrr), and instantly started searching for a Mariner's Compass.  My husband has three nautical stars tattooed on to his forearm representing our three children together!  I could not find one I loved, so I went to my fabulous friend Kristy over at Quiet Play and asked if she could come up with something fabulous for me?  She came to the party!

I ummed and ahhed over fabric selection, wanting it to be strong and definite in its purpose, but also not wanting it to be predictably nautical in its colours.  I think the newsprint works very well as a background too.

 

Next step was attacking my blue and green stash.  I have plenty of both, but not many that are bigger than fat quarters!  I took my improvised curve cutting skills and worked it baby.  Every single row of colour is cut differently, and very improvised indeed!  I wanted the colours to work together but also against each other if that makes sense?  Like all the different currents in the ocean.  I did all the blue rows first, then had to figure out how to work around the compass block.  I used shorter lengths of fabric, improv curved them, then slashed them in half.  Curve cut the sides of the PP block and attached the side curves, then did the same with the top and bottom.  Phew.

The quilting was quite fun. Lots and lots and LOTS of free motion wavey lines!  There is one section of waves on the aqua pebble fabric and there are some little pebbles in between the lines in sections.  I used a range of Aurifil threads in blue and green.  And of course, some hot pink for the stars.

The final steps were completed today.  The Southern Cross.  I hand cut out all these little stars, which range in size from around 2" across to that teeny little one in the middle of the five point star, which is about 1/2"!  Fiddly.com.  They have been attached using Vlisoflex and then appliqued on with my free motion foot.  I then attached the hanging sleeve and binding - Finished!

I was quite out of love with this a week ago.  But today is a different story.  I know we all second guess ourselves in our artistic efforts, and we are forever comparing ourselves - but finishing this was a great confidence booster for me.  The vision I had at the beginning, of the finished product, actually worked!

I'm still undecided what I will do with this little baby.  I had thought of perhaps sending it off to a friend whose husband is in the Navy, but am unsure whether hanging a quilt in her home would be her "thing"!  So I'll just think a bit longer.  The best part about finishing it?  When I showed it to my husband tonight, he really liked it and used the words "wow" and "cool".  Pick me up off the floor......

A few little stats for you:

Size - 34" x 34"

Fabrics - All from my stash, binding is leftover Horizon jelly roll strips.

Thread - Aurifil , Aurifil and Aurifil

Backing - Ikea print

Now - if you want to go and back some sure favourites in the "real" Sewvivor challenge - then you best head over to Family Ever After.  And if you are an Aussie like me - then you best be voting for my two friends - Angie and Crystal!  Their entries are fabulous!  GO!

Sewvivor - Ms Midge - Melissa G

Family Ever After have launched their third SEWVIVOR series, and this season is the Quilter's Edition.  Ahuh!  

It has taken me a couple of weeks to work up the courage to write this post and throw my hat in the ring, but here I am.....

I LOVE a good challenge!  I love being thrown a curve-ball or a quilt-ball shall we say.....  I have been told I am a "quilt-churner" or prolific quilt maker, and have on many occasions whipped together a quilt in a day.  So, I think if the judges were to throw in a Survivor like challenge of say, eating a kilo of chocolate whilst winding a bobbin and burying threads - I'd say I could manage that!

So, if you will, read this post with the background sound of Destiny's Child and Beyonce, belting out:

"I'm a survivor, I'm not gon give up, I'm not gon stop, I'm gon work harder; I'm a survivor, I'm gonna make it, I will survive, keep on survivin"........

The Quilt I have chosen for this auspicious occasion is my Butterfly Bloom Bloom Quilt.  Some of you who have been around here for a while may very well remember it?  I finished it over a year ago, as a gift for my daughter Chelsea.  When I was debating which quilt to enter, I ummed and ahhed, but then took in to account what the Sewvivor rules tell me:

         "Be sure it is your best representation of you, your sewing skills, and your                                                                                        creativity!"

Although I have "grown" as a quilter in the past twelve months, I feel this quilt represents the beginning of a real LOVE for quilting and the entire quilting process.  This was my first quilt-along (with Lee from Freshly Pieced) and it challenged me in ways I did not even think possible!  It was the first time I'd thought, really thought, about fabric selection and the way it can change the look of a block.  I mean, who knew there were low and high volume fabrics?  And tones???  I almost gave up before I even began!

 

It was the quilt I really got the hang of free motion quilting on!  

 

I had a ball adding in words and butterflies.....

 

I also went to town piecing the back.

 

It was also the first time I appliqued scraps of fabric to a quilt.

 And lastly - it taught me all about the importance of precise cutting and piecing!

So - there you have it!  Consider my hat thrown!  I'm looking forward to watching Sewvivor unfold - regardless of whether I'm in it or not - I will be sewing along!