How is it already August. My kids are already back in school and the days are starting to get colder. I mean I am not complaining since I absolutely LOVE fall/autumn but the end of summer also makes me miss home. Where is home you ask?
California, but not just California, southern Cali. Southern California where you can find the best restaurants with the tastiest food and the prettiest sunsets; all while enjoying a 70 degree day and a light wind coming from the coast. Oh how I miss those days.
I mentioned in my unboxing video how I felt a sunset would be made out of these fabrics. Well, I kind of ran with that a little and also my southern Cali love and came up with an idea. I started to sketch out what I wanted and quickly got to designing it. I of course created a pdf pattern of the design which you can find HERE!
My concept ideas were this:
The one on the left is with some softer pastel colors but I went for the one on the right with the bright and bold Island Batik fabrics. I used:
Swirl Sun Cherry, Red Solid, Yellow Solid, Charteuse Basic, Turquoise Solid, Tangy Basic with Muslin as my background and Black Solid (not photographed) as the silhouette.
I made quick work of cutting the fpp pattern out and glueing it all together. Then jumped right in to sewing everything together.
This block is 30 x 30 inches and took me about 2 days on and off between a surgery and some medical appointments. It did not take too long and I just went one color at a time, which I feel like made it easier to sew. Highly recommend doing that if you make this block/quilt.
While deciding how I wanted to quilt it, I grabbed the Hobbs 80/20 Cotton batting thats bleached. I used this one since the background was mostly lighter and also the Muslin batik was almost white. I thought this would work best and I had no issues while using it.
Thank you to Hobbs for providing such amazing batting to work with.
I did end up adding another 2 inch strip to the sides to allow for a little more wiggle room while I quilt. I planned to quilt it but possibly cut it off as well. I needed options as I could not decide what I wanted yet.
Well, heres the hard part: quilting this Oceanside quilt. I thought about it for awhile and really wanted to do some free motion quilting with the new Aurifil thread I got while at Quilt Festival (I'll do another blog on that soon). I got every color of the rainbow and then some. I was excited that all of the threads worked out well, and the micro quilting I did came out beautifully.
After spending another two days of micro quilting, I then did some quilting around the center block. I then used my marking tool, which I have no clue what the name is but its just a tool not a pen or pencil. As you press it on to the fabric it leaves a light indent in the fabric. I marked 2 inches away from my black boarder.
I then CAREFULLY cut that circle out. I know I did all that quilting but in the end a friend of mine and I both agreed it should be a circular quilt.
You can see the indent right in front of my scissors. It is perfect for things like this because I don't have to worry about covering it up, washing it out, or whatever else we all do.
I then sewed the binding on, and finished it by hand. I love using my new self threading needles to, as those have made threading a needle so much easier. The binding was actual bias binding as I needed it to stretch somewhat around the circle. It worked perfectly!
The final thing to do was get some gorgeous photos of this sunset at the beach, my Oceanside quilt. This honestly makes me miss home so much.
Heres the back of the quilt. I used the Muslin batik on the back as well.
Thank you for checking out this quilt and I hope you enjoy the pattern if you end up buying it. Please use the hashtag #pitchersboutique if you end up post an image of your finished fpp blocks or quilts. I always love seeing what you make with my patterns, as you all inspire me every single day.
Have a beautiful day and I hope the sun is still shining high where you are today.
Stay safe, stay healthy and be kind.