A Tale of a Whale

I’ve made progress on the first UFO on my list.

First, a little background: This quilt began as a fabric panel of an undersea scene, called Coral Reef. I selected various parts of the fabric to highlight and fussy cut them. Then I added narrow borders to each scene, and surrounded them with simple 2 inch squares of “ocean-ey” fabric.



I wanted the effect to be like you were looking into an aquarium. I showed what the original wall hanging looked like in my last post.









Here’s what the Coral Reef quilt top looks like now:

I added another row of checkerboard squares to the top and bottom, and expanded the navy blue sashing to contain them. Then I added an additional 3 inch border all the way around the top. I It’s not the wall-hanging size I had originally planned, but that’s how it goes. Sometimes quilts take on a life of their own. What used to be a 46 inch square top, now measures 54 X 74.

I didn’t have a piece of fabric big enough for a backing for this sea monster, so I ended up creating one by piecing what I had leftover from the front. Here’s what the back looks like:

(You didn’t really think I could go much longer without posting a picture of Toby, did you?)

I’m pretty happy to get going again on this quilt. Now it’s time to get out the big table and start basting.