Quilt Finish: Sea Glass

Presenting my first finish of 2020: Sea Glass.

The front of a quilt with teal squares and grey triangles on a white background
Sea Glass (front)
The pieced backing of a quilt in blues and grays
Sea Glass (back)

I started piecing this quilt in March of 2019, when I was hip-deep in quilting The Color of Time on my domestic machine. At some point, I needed a break from wrestling the giant quilt so I decided — why not? — to start a new project.

A quilt on a table with one corner folded up to show part of the backing

The pattern for this quilt is called Saturday Morning and was designed by Kathryn Jones. I found it in an old copy of Down Under Quilts (isn’t it great, what you can pick up at Friends of the Library sales?) from 2017. I modified it a little to add the white space around the edges. The original pattern has the patchwork extending out to the binding.

A folded quilt

I finished it on February 2 and gifted it to a friend shortly after that.

A finished quilt, rumpled

One of my goals for this project was to use only fabrics and binding that I already had in my stash. I had a couple of layer cakes from the L’s Modern Basics collection by Lecien Fabrics lying around, so I pulled all the blue, teal, green, and yellow fabrics from there and started with those. I had some Kona cotton in Snow and one of the greys, I’m not sure which, so I used those for the hourglass blocks.

A quilt spread on a table photographed from one corner

After I’d made all the gray and white hourglass blocks and cut all the print patches, I laid everything out on my design wall. I discovered that I really didn’t like the yellows in there. I had thought that they would add bright points, but they were just distracting. I left it up on the wall for about a week while I considered, but in the end, I pulled all the yellows out. I love my design wall.

Quilt blocks in white, grey, green, and yellow laid out on a design wall
On the design wall, with the yellow blocks and without the white border

I didn’t have any of the L’s Modern Basics left in the colors I needed, so I pieced a few squares from scraps and also raided my stash for similar colors. I was better pleased with the layout at this point, but something still bothered me. I finally realized that I wanted a border around the edges, so I pulled out the snow and grey leftovers and made enough blocks to go around the edge. I alternated all-white blocks with half-hourglasses, completing all the gray squares and giving the quilt a more finished look.

Teal and blue quilt blocks alternating with gray and white hourglass blocks on a design wall
The finished quilt top with the border blocks in place, up on the design wall

I also wanted to use fabrics from my stash for the backing. I found some large pieces, but none that I liked for this project that were large enough to use alone. So I pulled a few blues and blue-greens, and some of the gray prints from my L’s Modern Basics layer cake, and pieced the backing with those.

Photo of a finished quilt showing part of the pieced backing

Then it was time to quilt it! This one went quickly and I love how it came out. I chose a simple design of puzzle pieces. I used the square blocks as a guide, turning each one into one piece of the puzzle. It was fun and quick to quilt.

Quilting a puzzle piece design on a quilt using a domestic sit-down Juki machine
Quilting with a view. The couch cushion is there to keep the quilt from falling off the back of my table. Ugly, but effective.

The finished quilt has a soft, drapey feel and it crinkled up beautifully once I washed it.

Close-up view of a finished quilt showing grey, white, and teal piecing and a puzzle piece quilting motif

While composing this post, weeks after finishing and gifting the quilt, I just noticed for the first time that one of the hourglass blocks is in the wrong position. It’s that way in the layout with the yellows, so I obviously carefully preserved its wrongness throughout the process, and it’s wrong in the finished quilt, too. Well, every quilt needs a humility block. Hah! Extra points if you can find it.

The corner of a quilt

Welcome to the world, Sea Glass!

10 Comments Add yours

  1. Lisa J. says:

    I have been known to pull all of one colour out of a quilt before as well. The quilt is really lovely and I agree that it needed the background border. I had to look for a long time but its in the bottom right hand corner.

    1. Rachel says:

      Thank you! It was a quick pattern to make. You’re right about the location of the mistake!

  2. Mary Lynn Sutherland says:

    I love this! Greens of all shades are my favorite colors but mixed with blues they are especially soothing. If you hadn’t mentioned the stray block I wouldn’t have even noticed, and I did have to search for it. Top left? Great job and thanks for sharing 🙂

    1. maryls1957 says:

      so I must have been looking at the photo upside down LOL — bottom right 🙂

      1. Rachel says:

        In one of the photos, the quilt is upside down, so you are right twice 🙂

  3. Sonja says:

    Beautiful colors and quilting! I tried, but couldn’t find the error. 🙂

    1. Rachel says:

      Thank you! It’s there… in one of the corners 🙂

  4. Karin says:

    Oh, this is lovely. I admire your patience to piece all those square in a square units!

    1. Rachel says:

      Thank you! It is actually even easier than that — it’s just squares alternated with quarter square triangles, which are easy to make with the 8-at-a-time method. It went together pretty quickly.

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