No . . . this is not a bog post about reheating salmon or chopping tilapia for fish tacos. It’s about using fabric remnants from other aquatic projects.
My friend Melinda asked me to make a baby quilt for a friend of the family. Since the nursery will be decorated in a beach theme, I searched for fish fabric in my bin of juvenile prints. Finding a sizeable piece of a large scale print featuring tropical fish, I decided to make the simple quilt designed by my daughter, Trinity, several years ago. You will find the instructions on the “Patterns” page of this blog. Click here for a direct link to the Patterns page. Scroll down to see the “Up, Up, and Away” quilt featuring hot air balloons. The large scale print was perfect for the central panel.
To coordinate with the tropical print, I chose a medium scale print of smiling sea creatures and a multi-colored dot print on a white background. The whimical sea creatures add fun to the realistic renderings of the central panel, and the dots on white, suggesting bubbles, contrasts in value with the sea prints. To separate the panel from the checkerboard patchwork, I selected a medium dark blue wave print.
The squares in my checkerboard patchwork are larger than those in the original pattern to accomodate the scale of the print. As you can see from the photo below, I centered the strip of blue wave print on the panel, and then centered the checkerboard on the blue wave print. After quilting, I trimmed the side edges even with the shortest length, i.e. the checkerboard patchwork.
I quilted an edge-to-edge ripple and spirals freehand design with light blue thread.
Melinda will had a solid royal blue from her fabric stash for the binding. And there you have it, “Leftover Fish.” We think this beach themed quilt will furnish hours of joy and warmth to the expected little one.