Have I told you that my Liam is an artist? Since he was little, he’s enjoyed drawing and had an interest in color and design. Sometimes he makes abstract drawings that would make very interesting quilts, and I’ve told him so. That’s why when I asked him what he’d like for his new bed quilt, I was curious and maybe a little nervous, about his reply. Would I be up for the challenge?

After he described his idea, I chose this pile of FreeSpirit Designer Essential Solids. I love the soft, smooth hand and glowing colors of this line. From top to bottom these are: Clearwater, Ice, Cerulean, Cadet, Cornflower, Mineral, Cobalt, Royal and Freedom Blue.

Liam wants an ocean quilt! An all-solids ocean quilt (solids seem to be a theme with these older kids) with waves of various blue - all very uniform and precise. On his suggestion, I’ve arranged the Freespirit solids in value order so they’ll get darker as they move down the quilt. I did set aside Ice, because it kept looking too purple in this company. I think the rest are flowing nicely.

ideas on design wall. Stitched in Color.jpg

Waves, I can do! In fact, I’ve already created a pattern that’s perfect for waves - my Scallop quilt from Curves Class. Here’s my first row of waves, awaiting Liam’s approval.

Psst… you may spy a little something else on my design wall. I’m thinking about transforming a block from Angled Class called Tangential Star into a scrappy quilt! Maybe more on that latter.

I had it in my head that this quilt would be time consuming, but it’s really not. It is important to go slowly when cutting the fabrics, taking care with the curves. But it’s stitching up quickly! I had better start thinking about how I’ll quilt it. With all these solids, quilting really shows…