Fun Fish Quilt!

Hollie made a beautiful batik top using Terry Atkinson's Fire Escape pattern.  She chose fabrics that are water colors and her backing fabric has tropical fish on it.  When she first talked to me about the quilt she was thinking of having me load it with the backing up and tracing the fish.  The fish were too small for me to do this effectively so we brainstormed and came up with a different plan.  This quilt was an absolute BLAST to quilt.  There are fishing lines with hooks and worms, fish swiming through water meander, a star fish, an anchor and coral and seaweed on the bottom.  Longarmers talk about what we do as drawing with a sewing machine, but this is the first time I actually drew a picture with mine. 

The batiks she picked out were perfect for a water scene.  She did a great job of getting blues and teals in the blue to green range.

I love the texture on this quilt.  The seaweed at the bottom was a great way to add movement and depth to the quilt.  Plus it gave me a way to add an anchor. 

When I orginally quilted the starfish it just did not show up.  So I did a line of pebbling around the edge and quilted in the lines that you see on a real star fish.  I really like the way it turned out. 

The fish needed to have attitude so that they would stand out against the water meander.  So I quilted in scales in the body and streamers on the tails.  Without the file they would have been just too plain and would have receded into the background. 

It even has a couple of hooks with worms on them that the fish are ignoring.  Just another peaceful day out on the lake...

Hollie pieced this top as part of the Olympic Challenge on Anna Norris's Blog.