Scrap Squad Quilt #2 - Under the Sea

 Today is the day for my the big reveal of my second scrap squad quilt.

I chose to recreate the pattern by Scott Murkin called "Sea Glass".I picked this pattern from the May/June issue of Quiltmaker because I have a lot of blue in my stash (doesn't every quilter?) and because my daughter is a diver and I thought it would be fun to make a quilt for her.

I needed a bit of extra time to make my quilt because I wanted to add in two design elements - photo transfer and paper piecing. 
Thankfully fellow scrap squad member Pam Snow came to the rescue and was able to switch reveal dates with me. Just look at her gorgeous quilt! It features machine embroidered flowers in the grey squares. You can hardly see the resemblance to the original "Sea Glass" design, right?





And here is my version of "Sea Glass" which is called "Under the Sea". I stayed with a similar colour palette as the original pattern. Using the block construction method in this pattern was really fun. 
I also added a few photo transfers of my daughter diving, and a paper pieced sting ray block.

Here is one of my beginning photos when I was making blocks and putting them on the design wall.  As I was looking at the blocks, I was asking myself "what would help me like this quilt more"?  The quilt really came to life for me when I decided to try putting the blocks on point and it started to look like an underwater scene.  I arranged a light to dark layout from top to bottom to look like the ocean does when you're diving, and the water gets darker as you dive deeper.



Machine quilting this was so fun. Most of the quilting was wavy horizontal lines, but in the larger blue sections I experimented with quilting fish tails and swirly waves.
I had a blast making this quilt and am delighted with the outcome! It is so rewarding to look at a finished quilt and remember the journey from your first glance at the pattern, to looking at a finished quilt!