UNDER THE SEA
Since relocating our family to the coast my daughter has deepened her love for the ocean. To commemorate I thought a fun quilt was in order. I found some beautiful fabric at my local (insert expensive) fabric shop. Then I free hand cut see weed and kelp. Then the assembly began. I sewed on the green fabric to the bottom of the Blue and then added the "kelp".
Then I chose several different fabrics for the sea life. I used "WonderUnder on the back of the fabric. The Cricut company recommends using Heat N Bond. The next time I do a project like this I am going to try Heat N Bond to see if there was a difference. The fabric kept sliding on my Cricut mat so I just cut all the sea life out and then traced it onto my fabric and then cut it all out...one at a time.
Then I began creating my under the sea scene. Using the WonderUnder was fantastic! I just followed the easy instructions that came with the product. Ironing on the letters and different items was super fast. It made cutting out each item worth it-Maybe.
My Favorite is the Crab Family. After everything was ironed on I selected my back fabric and purchased my "Warm and Natural" batting. I am new to this batting and I LOVE it! I have always used a high loft polyester batting. The Warm and Natural batting is great for machine quilting. I thought a wavy machine quilting design would be fun for this project. What do you think?
I machine stitched around some of the bigger sea creatures and submarines. I used a few different stitches that my machine provides. It added a little more dimension and flare to some of the creatures.
I made my own biased tape out of the green fabric and attached it. My friend Britt at www.diythirdtimesacharm.blogspot.com taught me a fantastic trick. I don't know why I have never done this before but it goes to show you that even after sewing for over 20 years you still have a lot to learn! Attach the biased tape to one side first. Then fold it over and attach it to the other side. I have always folded it over and tried to sew it all at once. This is easy enough on small projects but for large projects my new preferred method is Britts. I did this quilt as a "throw quilt" but I have already seen my daughter try to steal it for her room. Maybe it will end up on her bed as a decorative quilt.
