Storm at sea
I love the storm at sea patchwork block.
The Storm at Sea block is 65 pieces so it’s a block that needs some care with points, with colour placement, but the effort is worth it. When you put together four or more of these blocks you can see the movement like waves across the quilt.
I love a quilt that appears to have curves when I haven’t actually needed to sew curved seams.
There isn’t a clue as to when I started this storm at sea quilt. It is at least 25 years ago. It was either when I discovered batik fabrics or they were first available in New Zealand, but I went nuts over them. So much so I learned to dye my own fabrics. So between my newly dyed and marbled fabric, and the batiks, I created the top for this quilt.
And then there it sat, being dragged from house to house over the years, until now when I decided to finish it finally.
The top was square - which is not my preference - so I put one more row and completed the borders.
Quilt top ready for basting.
When I first made the top I used an acrylic template set which I have long since misplaced. I used template plastic and recreated the shapes I needed. It wasn’t quite as easy as it looked. As you know with patchwork, even small discrepancies in sizes can affect a finished block. Simply tracing the shape of each piece from the back of the quilt top didn’t always result in an accurate template piece. I got there in the end and have vowed to never make Storm at Sea without an accurate template-set again!
The top was basted with bamboo batting and a lovely wide acid-green batik.
Following the major “curved” lines to add emphasis the movement in the quilt.
Because we’re in Coronavirus lockdown, I could only use the cottons I had to quilt on my domestic machine, so used one I wouldn’t have used in other circumstances, but it was the colour I had the most of. At another time I might have sent this to a long arm quilter.
My experience with quilting is low due to never really ever finishing anything.Between Angela Walter’s mantra “finished is better than perfect” and my son’s “just finish it!” I plowed on. It wasn’t perfect but after a while it was done, and the imperfections didn’t show.
Binding and backing were bought in coronavirus-panic-buying before the start of lockdown :)
Binding the quilt was interesting - and again, not perfect - in fact the corners are quite a long way from perfect. But again I plowed on.
And now my Storm at Sea quilt is done.
And it’s lovely. And has a lovely drape. And is the right kind of size for a throw. And just the right kind of warmth for a chilly night.
BONUS: when looking at my old dying chemicals hoping to find a date to more accurately date my quilt top, I found my acrylic templates, so there will be more storms at sea in my future.
