Mystical Mermaid {Finished}

Today, I'm so excited to share my FINISHED Mystical Mermaid quilt with you, as part of Island Batik's April theme of Adventurous Applique.

When last I shared, Ariel looked like this:

For the machine applique, I used Superior Threads' Fantastico in Duchess 5079 (a purple and blue variegated thread -- not an affiliate link) in a small blanket stitch around my mermaid. I will say that this is the most detailed machine applique project I have done to date -- I have done quite a bit of machine applique in other projects but I really had to slow down and adjust my piece more frequently than in the past due to all of the detail in the mermaid. I think a smaller stitch length helped maintain the level of detail, but it did take much more time. The result is beautiful, so I will say it was time well invested!

For the backing I used a batik from my stash that is mainly navy with rainbow accents. I quilted this all in one day -- the off-white section is a bubble meander, and the stripe sections are a clamshell, or really, mermaid tail scales! For the quilting, I did the off white section first, and then did the clamshell quilting from that section to each end.

I bound this with the same navy + rainbow batik as the backing and finished up the binding this week! Hello, Ariel!

This picture shows off both the clamshell quilting (which is far from perfect) and the backing. The backing is a little more "rainbow" than the main fabrics of the quilt, but the mainly dark backing is what I wanted for this quilt.

Another close up of my clamshell quilting -- I used the strip seams as my guides and marked lines perpendicular to keep my clams a consistent height.

This is the first time I get to show off a big finish since we've moved and the weather has gotten nice, so I got to explore some new quilt photography locations! This is right outside of our bedroom window.

I didn't do any quilting inside of the mermaid and did all of the rest of my quilting in white. You can see the meander quite well in this picture!

#gratuitousbindingshot

In other news, I will find out *today* if my coworker who loves Disney is having a boy or a girl! I'm obviously hoping that she has a girl. :)

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Ready, Set, Soar! by HBD Designs
Size: 39 x 50 inches (slightly longer than the original pattern)
Fabrics: Various Island Batik fabrics for quilt top, Kona Navy for Mermaid
Quilting: meander around mermaid, clamshells in striped sections
Techniques: Machine applique, fusible applique, free motion quilting