By the Sea, A Finished Michael Miller Challenge Quilt

This quilt was so much fun to make! Until now, I'd never made a full-blown quilt for one of the Modern Quilt Guild challenges. While it was hard to stretch the 6 fat eighths of Petal Pinwheels (I obviously used a lot of other Michael Miller fabrics, solids, and some yardage of the line), it's definitely something I would attempt again. I'm also more of a mix-and-match-all-the-fabric-lines kind of girl, so just using the fabrics given would have been even more of a challenge!

This quilt was made for a very special art and nature loving colleague of mine. Today was her baby shower and she loved the quilt!! I'm so glad - and it's always more exciting to give a quilt to someone who you know really appreciates all your effort (she's an art teacher and Etsy seller, too!). I've never made a baby boy quilt in my 4 years of quilt-making, so this was an absolute joy to sew up. I love how happy and gender-neutral these fabrics are - I think they would also make for a great girl quilt!

  

The backing was made using many different blue and green nature-y fabrics (including bikes, which the future mom and dad love!). The quilt is totally reversible (why I love pieced backs!). It is bound in scrappy solids and a little sliver of gray Tile Pile in Dirt from Petal Pinwheels.



I really enjoyed improv quilting this one with my FMQ foot! I was inspired by the quilting on Denyse Schmidt's Centerline quilt. It made for some beautiful, sea-like waves to echo the Waterfront Park fabrics. In the picture above, that echoing of the bridge was NOT planned out! I love it when serendipitous stuff like that happens! P.S. The bridges are my favorite part of the quilt.

 

Strange half-in-the-sun shot.

"By the Sea" is a crib size quilt (45 x 60) and hopefully it will be well loved by a beautiful baby boy soon! You can see more about this quilt here (quilting method), here (includes tips for sewing with curves) and here (improv pie slices).

Linking up with TGIFF and Crazy Mom Quilts.

 *This quilt is on my Finish-A-Long List, Quarter 2 list! I'm linking up there as well.*