My Plans
Grandma Short made a boat quilt for Keith when he was a boy, so I decided to keep the tradition going and make boat quilts for two of her great-great grandsons, Cameron and Thomas. My inspiration came from a quilt magazine. The magazine arrived when Mother was in extended care with a broken neck and arm. Even though it was a chaotic time, I managed to hold onto the idea and remember where I put the magazine. The pattern was for a wall hanging so I enlarged it to a size that can work on a single bed or make a good fort. See my notes above.
Since it was a special project most of the fabrics were purchased from internet sites and did not come from my stash. The boat hulls are the only exceptions; those fabrics were from my stash. For this first boat quilt, I ran out of sky, so the tops of the sky is a slightly darker color. According to the internet the upper part of the sky does look darker than the lower part. So, I’m okay with this quilting hack.
The pattern called for white, green, and yellow sails. I wasn’t too sure about green sails so I looked up color of sails on the internet. Turns out sails can be any color, especially for the brand “Hobie Cats”. In the old days, sails were primarily off-white, yellow, and red, depending on the fabric and the resin pounded into them to make them water repellent. Makers of red sails in Asia use a different resin than those in Europe. Aristocratic Romans had purple sails, but those were too expensive for the hoi polloi. So, I decided on white, yellow, and red sails. Maybe someone will sing “Red Sails in the Sunset” (Nat King Cole version) to each quilt recipient? That’s probably asking too much.
Where the tilted blocks sewed together made for a difficult seam when seams in the block met acutely. Where seams met obtusely there was no problem. For quilt #2 I will press those seams open and hopefully have fewer issues. Lessons learned! Who knew I would be a fan of obtuseness?
- 69" x 80 1/4" Single bed size
- Quilted in wavy lines and clouds. Had to remount to do the side borders. Used different colors of thread for the sky, waves, borders and backing (bobbins). It was a pain changing threads and remounting. All that work for a potential fort! I will stick to one color of thread and one direction for quilt #2. All threads were Omni brand 100% polyester from Superior Threads. Used a pale blue “Blue Ice” for sky, clouds, wind in sails, and wind in front of boats; Dark blue “Navy Blue” for inner border; medium-dark blue “Ride the Wave” for outer border; medium blue “Tidal Pool” for ocean; medium blue “OceanBlue” for bobbins. Free form quilting. 8 bobbins (7 “Ocean Blue” and one left from Aunt Linda’s “Spots” quilt—blue green “Treasure Isle”). Quilting by Patty.
- Backing: Ocean print of jelly fish, anemones, etc. I mounted the backing print upside down compared to the boats. Geez! The jelly fish are swimming upside down! I decided not to worry about it. Fabric came from fabric.com.
- Batting: 100% cotton Warm and Natural.
- Binding: Navy blue tonal cotton print used for the bottom part of the ocean and the inner border.
- Pattern: "Rock the Boat” by Karen Bialik from easyQuilts, Summer 2019.
- Piecing by Patty
- Pinned into frame March 30, 2021. Quilting on long arm quilter April 4-9, 2021. (Patty).
- Binding by Patty.
- QC by Spencer
The Magazine
The Pattern
The Picture in the Pattern
Grandma and Grandpa Short with Patty and Keith
QC Guy on the Job
Sharks in the Water
QC by Thomas
