I had a vision for this quilt – something light, airy and fresh looking that had fabrics that reminded me of the ocean, sky and beach. I am so pleased with how it turned out and it has exactly the look I was going for. Of course, I had to make a rope bowl to go with it – my new fun thing to make.
I had so much fun picking out these fabrics. I got a lot of help from Hawthorne Threads, which has their own fabric designs that are printed digitally. This enables them to offer them in a very wide variety of colors. I selected water and sky colors: Skipping Stones in Sky, Doodle in Powder Blue, Watercolor in Robin’s Egg, Stardust in Sky, Multi Dot in Fair Isle Glacier, and for the binding Rogue Stripe in Cornflower.
The other fabrics in this quilt were Seaside Blue Waves Anchors, Reef Sky Dots by Robert Kaufman, Laura Gunn Painter’s Canvas, and Timeless Treasures Sand Dollar Beach, which I love and was so lucky to find – I love the delicate little sand dollars.
The backing fabric was a real find, too – Indigo Coastal Words in Blue from Studio e Fabrics. It’s a perfect beach/ocean fabric and gave some interesting punch to the backing.
I thought about the design of this quilt for a while – I wanted to use larger pieces of fabric. I really didn’t want to do a lot of cutting up fabric and making blocks – I really wanted these fabrics to be the star. So I decided to just sew strips of various widths together into sets and then subcut those sets into strips. I laid out the strips into a design I liked then sewed them into rows – since all the strips’ widths were different, there were no seams to match up!
Here you can see the completed strips that were sewn together:
I really loved the design of this quilt and since there are no blocks to assemble, it goes really fast! I am working on a pattern now and hope to have it available soon.
I used my new favorite thicker batting, Quilter’s Dream Supreme. It makes such a nice hefty quilt.
I love this binding because I love bias binding. And now you don’t have to cut diagonal strips to get bias binding – Hawthorne Threads has a wide selection of colors of stripes on the diagonal, called Rogue Stripe. This one is Cornflower. Makes it so simple when you can cut crossgrain strips and get bias binding!
When you use a Stripology ruler, cutting same size strips is even faster. Like really fast:
You don’t have to lift up the ruler to measure each strip. You make your cuts, lift up the ruler and they are all done.
I quilted this using Aurifil cotton thread, a natural white on the top and a light blue color in the bobbin. I used a 4.0 stitch length and a walking foot. The vertical quilting cut across the strips and the horizontal quilting was all in the ditch.
Thanks for coming by,
Elaine
Beech Tree Lane Handmade 
How gorgeous! So intriguing how these are not the exact same blues but it still has a cohesiveness to it. And I also love that Hawthorne fabrics now has their own lines in so many colours!
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Your quilt is beautiful. I have been wanting to go to the ocean. I couldn’t look away. Thank you for sharing.
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Your quilt is very nice love the colours and the simplicity of it.thanks for sharing
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Lovely Elaine, just fun and lovely!
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Hi ElaineJust gorgeous and as we live by the sea would love to make this gorgeous quilt
Do you know any Quilting Shop in New Zealand that would have the fabrics or even the backing fabric?
Tku
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Eleanor: I am not familiar at all with shops in New Zealand, but can’t you order from online shops in the U.S.? I have hot links to all the fabrics and where you can buy them in the post. Hope this helps!
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Tku Elaine
It’s just the cost really and the exchange rate that is a concern for me
However if no luck here will get it on line
I have all my fabrics for your Little Owl baby’s quilt
Took some time to track down, some I got online and was so excited to find a quilting shop in the North Island who had just a couple of metres of the Owl Fabric left
Happy quilting and tku again for your prompt reply
Bye for now
Eleanor
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This is a lovely quilt!
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I love, love this quilt! Those fabrics are beautiful. And that rope bowl! Never knew you could make those. It’s perfect with that quilt.
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Can you kit this quilt. Would love to buy quilt kit🤗
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Ginger: Sorry no kit for this quilt! That would be a fun idea, though! I do have hot links to all the fabrics and where you can buy them. Also, a pattern is in the works for this quilt. Stay tuned!
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Hi Elaine
Eleanor here once more
Could you please give me the size of the ‘Shifting Strips’ quilt or approx measurements would be fine
Looking forward to the Pattern for this quilt when it happens
Will be watching your website for same
Thankyou for the inspiration you give us
Bye for now
Eleanor
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