Mermaid Dreams

 Look! It's another finished quilt! I know, I can hardly believe it myself.  I told you I was back at my machine with a vengeance, right? That's a happy vengeance, in case you wondered.  (But I do have to say that sewing my way through the evening political shows is helping me keep my sanity in these dire political times.)  At any rate, I've been having fun pulling fabric out of my stash and stitching up some simple but fun patterns.

Quite a while back I fell in love with a fabric line by Heather Ross called "Mendocino" -- charming (but not too cutsie) mermaids and other sea life, in an unusual set of colors. I have a good friend who loves mermaids, and loves that seaglass aqua color, and this seemed perfect for her.  So, I bought a fabric bundle and then tucked it away for a bit while I puzzled over how to use the fabric to make the most of those wonderful patterns. 

It took me a while to find a pattern that would show off those large mermaids.  And then I stumbled onto a pattern called Ribbon Box Quilt by Cloud 9 Fabrics. It's a free download, even, and you can get it here.  The ribbons are about 6 inches wide, and I really liked how the pattern allowed me to use an assortment of rather odd colors together in a way that worked. (Btw, my photographs make the oranges look a bit darker than they really are, and the red is more pink, and that that dark ribbon is a magenta-ish burgundy that doesn't look quite as dark in real life. You can get a sense of the true colors on the Quilted Castle link above, but for the life of me I couldn't balance these colors on the photograph to look true to life.)

If you are inclined to make the pattern, I'll tell you this: the cutting took some concentration but wasn't hard. I gave each ribbon a number, and laid it out on my design wall following the pattern's diagram. Once I got it laid out, I just assembled each horizontal row and it went together beautifully.
 

I decided it quilt it with straight lines -- easy walking foot sewing. Look at all these cute little critters -- octopusses! (Octopi?) Seahorses! fishies! 

I actually took these photos before the binding was on, but I pieced together all of the pale aqua leftover fabrics and used those for the binding. It looks great -- an edge but not too visible an edge, if you know what I mean. 

I'm sending this off to my friend this week -- she's an internet-free sort of woman so I know she won't see it here before she gets it in person. But I'm happy to have this done and posted. I figure it'll be a good quilt for snuggling and dreaming of the seashore!