Completed!

This was such a fun project! The request was simple - a baby quilt for someone who is a marine biologist. I wanted it to be simple and an opportunity to work on skills. I designed the whole piece and had a great time coming up with colors for the fish.

I used wool batting for the first time. I had read in a recent Quilting Arts article that wool batting is easier to work with if you are not on a long arm. I found it much lighter and easier to move around for free motion quilting. 

As I wanted to keep a fair amount of loft in the quilt, I used a very simple quilting pattern of wavy lines for the ocean section. I also decided to leave the border unquilted. The dark green plant actually has a fair amount of contrast as it is quilted somewhat heavily with a light colored thread.

All in all I was totally delighted with my design and ease with which I could applique and quilt it. Hope the baby likes it too!

Close up of some fish.

A Fun Project

I had a request for a baby quilt with a marine biology theme. It came at just the right moment so I decided to use the opportunity to fine tune some of my applique skills. I was able to quickly come up with a design that I thought would be cute and not take too long.

Of course, now well into the project, I appreciate that nothing designed from scratch is quick. Sure glad that I wasn't aiming for an intricate design or the baby might be 10 before I finish!

Here are some views of my process:

A basic ocean background and plan for fish, plants, etc:

 Marine life begins to appear:

 All set with a border (which is really green) and ready to applique in and then embellish and quilt: