Sea Breeze Mini Quilt Along

A short while ago Angie from Gnomeangel asked for volunteers for blogging about a quilt a long (QAL) and I thought “Cool, easy project, not too big, would be great to do some sewing for myself…”

And I joined in.

I bought the pattern from Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations, downloaded the pattern and saved it. Always a good idea, do it straight away and save it to your computer. I have a special file for these sorts of projects. Do you have a system for your craft files?

After a brief panic about the dates and then realizing it was in July and not June, all was well and I decided on some fabric. I have recently bought some bolts of fabric and I wanted to use them rather than buying more. I have an idea in my head as to the finished look and I really hope they turn out the same (the quilt in my head and the real thing).

Knowing I would be on holidays before the QAL I thought it would be a great time to make up my quilt. So I gathered all the fabric and cut some strips ready to pack. Then whilst on our family holiday I discovered I had made a very basic mistake.

Always read the pattern fully!!

I merrily cut myself strips from each fabric. I did cut an extra strip of the background but still not enough to cut all the pieces. And now I have extra fabric cut ready for another project.

The rest of the fabric was cut out and ready to sew. The last block would need to wait until I got home. The blocks went together quite fast, helpful in that as a smaller project this is much more achievable. It took me only an evening to piece the HST and then the blocks. Sewing the blocks together was also really quick but I did pay attention to the direction I pressed my seams.

On my Sea breeze I pressed my seams to the side. So there are a couple of points where there is a bit of bulk but I have used a higher contrast fabric and I wanted to press to the darker colour.

  So here is as far as I got on our holiday,

Well I actually got the rows together too, but no pic of that.

Once home I could cut the extra fabric and finish the last block and finish the top.I deliberated a lot in deciding how I wanted to quilt my Sea breeze. I wanted to have the colour deepening across the quilt. I think my colours could have been arranged differently to achieve this and I will try again another time.

To enhance the deepening effect I wanted I have drawn up my quilting idea.  Expanding arcs, a bit like ripples on water.  It will be interesting to see how it finishes up.

I am planning to bind this mini in the darkest green I’ve used.  I often use a darker binding but it does really depend on the quilt.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing where I’m up to with my Sea Breeze.  There have been some great versions to see and I look forward to seeing more as they are made.

Thanks Angie for the QAL, it’s been great to sew a project for me.  Thanks Megan for a great pattern.

Have you started your Sea Breeze yet?

Happy Sewing

Raylee