Monday, July 28, 2014

Purple Cross Storm at Sea Quilt

One of my co-workers recently retired. It is not often that I make a specific quilt for a specific person but this time I felt compelled to do so. Take note world. If the words "I want to make you a quilt" ever fall from my mouth, you are a super special awesome person. She retired on relatively short notice so there wasn't time to make anything to give her on her last day at work.



Instead, I told her to go check out my Pinterest page and see if any of those quilts appealed to her. So she did, and she mentioned two of them. One she said lots of things about so I knew this is the one she really wanted, but she was nice and mentioned a second one as a backup plan. So, I went and looked at the one she chose and in my head I'm thinking...wait, you can choose any quilt BUT THIS ONE. Because this one looks HARD.

So I slept on the idea and woke up thinking, "Why not?" I pinned that quilt because I liked it and I'm smart enough and can figure this out. Bring it on! The first step was to pull fabric. For a purple quilt. From my stash. That has hardly any purple in it.


After studying the picture of the quilt for a while, I determined that six different purples were needed. For some of those purples, I had to go scrappy in order to have enough fabric. It was tight getting all the pieces cut, meaning I spent some portion of time digging through the trash for what I thought were throw away scraps but had to be salvaged and pieced with other scraps to make it through. There were a few brow sweating moments during the cutting stage.

Then, I had to ponder the construction. The link from Pinterest goes to this tutorial. Based on the tutorial I could paper piece the blocks or make templates for them. I wasn't happy with either of those choices and then I remembered my handy TriRecs ruler. That is how I decided to construct this quilt.


I worked on it a little each day and took a picture every day to show my progress. I need to find some sort of time lapse software because this would be really cool to see that way. Instead, just scroll through the pictures quickly and maybe it will be a similar affect. Ahem. Maybe.

First Block
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five
Day Six
Day Seven
Day Eight
Day Nine
Day Ten
Day Eleven
The top is finished. I think. I am still pondering a border. And how to quilt it. I do love how the top turned out. This one is going to be set aside for a short time while I think about where to go next with it.

There are a couple of other simple finishes waiting for me on the side line. They are starting to glare at me just a bit from across the room. I'll give them some attention then come back to this one with a well thought out plan. I can't wait to finish this and send it off to its recipient. I think she's going to love it.

9 comments :

  1. Replies
    1. Great question! There is not one that I know of. I studied the original picture I found on Pinterest and copied it as best I could.

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  2. Thanks for sharing your method for making SAS with tri recs.. I had wondered if that was possible... I do believe by studying your methods I can do my own design too... I do love how you quilted yours too though... thanks for sharing on blogger so I could find it in google search from the pic on pinterest! lol Kathi

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  3. This quilt is perfect if I can make it 4' x 8' (2) for either side of the sanctuary at church! Perfect!
    Please tell me the size of your quilt, where you got the pattern (you didn't ad lib it did you?), and how easily it came together. It was very helpful you said it needed 6 fabrics. Thanks, Chris

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    1. This project would have been much easier with a pattern, but I was not able to find one. The finished quilt is small, finishing at 36" x 45". It would be easy to upsize though since it is based on square blocks. If your blocks finished at four inches, your finished quilt would be 48" x 60". You could add borders to obtain the length. Thank you for the comment and best wishes on making one of your own.

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  4. I copied your idea. My friend found a paper piecing pattern that I used. I made it shorter and not as wide as I wanted it to fit in the Guild's Challenge Quilt parameters. I am giving you credit in my description--thanks for the idea. I hope to give this wall hanging to my daughter (35-1/2x35-1/2) for next Christmas. My comment appears under my daughter's name--I am Helen Bicknell.

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    1. Helen, Thank you for your kind comment. Thank you also for the credit, although my quilt is a copy, too. I'm glad all of us in the quilting world can be a positive influence on each other. The ideas we share sometimes seem limitless.

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  5. Would you sell finish and for how much? nancylb210@yahoo.com

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