Tidepools

Some years ago I fell in love with improv quilting. I just loved working with color and shape and watching things come together and then figuring out what to do next. I love watching something come together that I have no idea what the final outcome is going to be. This little top is the fourth in the series of wonkey circle technique that I came up with some years ago. I cut these squares at 12" some years ago in colors that remind me of surf and sand at the oceans edge. The squares sat there for quite a few years. I always found something else more colorful or exciting to work on. Two years ago for the 2019 retreat I had to figure out what to work on during the retreat and I figured why not, the squares are ready and I did not have to do any additional prep work so I grabbed them. I was going to title this "Day At The Beach" but once I took it off the longarm I decided it reminded me more of tide pools. As the tide goes in and out twice every day the shoreline changes with that ebb and flow. That is kind of how life is, always changing, never quite the same from day to day, just like those pools that are always just a little different. I finished the quilting on this last November.

I had finished a large forever project on the longarm and decided this top was small and might be a quick finish. First I did a stitch in the ditch around each different fabric. You can't see it but it is there. While I did this the idea came to me to make long undulating lines with some pearls in the center that look like they are behind the other shapes.

I really loved the look this gave. I also did different fills between different lines. Yes there are a trillion little pebbles, and no this was not a quick easy quilting finish. There were many hours of quilting in this little wall hanging.

I am really happy how this came out.

This is the design wall at the retreat. I just kept making blocks and putting them on the wall. I rearranged things till I was happy with the design.

Then one final tweak with the help of my friend Kim and I ended up with this setting.

All the blocks got trimmed up to nice squares. You can see all the puckering, that is just what happens the way I put these together and yes it does quilt out. Since I quilt my own quilts I am the one that is in control of making it all lay out nice and flat in the end. This little top sat for almost a year before I got to quilting it.

And.................here is the finished top. The setting is the same but I decided to turn it upside down.