I played with a lot of ideas but this quilt evolved into a mashup of my original Out to Sea Penny Patch and this Briar Rose quilt. I so appreciate past me for leaving these detailed notes on how to make the various blocks I used before.
Making a quilt is much trickier these days where my stash isn't immediately accessible and it's anyone's guess where any given tool is hiding. After a supply run down to my storage bin and a generous fabric donation from my quilting bestie I was ready to start. A lot of the blocks already looked like nautical flags but what really took this quilt to the next level was when my bestie suggested spelling out the baby's name in flags. Unfortunately, since I needed specific letters I didn't have to spell out the baby's name and I was incorporating some larger blocks there was still much mathing involved. My quilt math skills are definitely rusty...
If you read flag, the name Willa is incorporated into the design twice. I was really wishing they had gone with a name without an "I" but I found this inset circles tutorial by on Williams Street which helped alleviate the pain. Having my circular templates would definitely have made this process less painful but sometimes you just have to go with what you've got.
I think most of all I miss my design wall. Planning on my bed is so much less convenient.
Eventually I was able to get a flimsy together and I got a perfect day for a photo shoot.
Basting presented another challenge. I'm pretty sure this is the maximum size quilt I can baste in our cabin.
I kept the quilting simple and just quilted along both sides of the seams for a simple grid. I was able to get this quilted and the binding on in plenty of time before we hit the road.
And this was the perfect distraction for our long journey from Maine to Florida. I will never get tired of a striped binding!
To keep with the nautical theme I designed the label to look like a burgee. We can't wait to meet our newest crew member.
