Blogger's Quilt Festival 2017 {Entry #2: Mystical Mermaid}

I am so excited that the Blogger's Quilt Festival is BACK and back in its original form! Please visit Amy's Creative Side to see all of the entries (all in one place!)

For my second entry, I decided to share my Mystical Mermaid quilt. This year I am an Island Batik Ambassador and this project was made as one of my monthly themed projects. April was our month for an applique project and I decided on making a baby quilt with a mermaid outline for a coworker's new baby.

I decided on using our Ready, Set, Soar! pattern and to create my own mermaid applique pattern from clip art. (Details here!) The base fabrics were ones that I chose that fit my "under the sea" theme -- including some prints with shells!

For the machine applique, I used 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.

I bound this with the same navy + rainbow batik as the backing! 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.

#gratuitousbindingshot

My Disney-loving coworker absolutely loved the quilt for her little girl! I am anxiously waiting for a picture of the new Little Miss with her quilt!

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Ready, Set, Soar! by HBD Designs
Size: 40 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
Started: February 2017
Finished: April 2017

Thanks for stopping by and reading about my quilts! Don't forget to visit the Blogger's Quilt Festival for all of the lovely quilts! You can visit my first entry here!