Now I can share

Now that dad has received his quilt, I can share it here.  You've seen peeks of it in progress, but I really thought he should be the first to see the finished quilt!

This quilt was designed just for dad, who loves to sail.  The applique sailboat was a bit of a stretch for me, as I haven't done much applique and I had to draw the shape myself too.  However, I really wanted a sailboat, and I really wanted the Ocean Waves blocks.  I couldn't figure out a better way to make the two work together so I took the plunge and there it is.  I'm quite pleased with the result!

It was really fun to play with color in the ocean waves.  I hadn't planned to add the stars.  I just wanted to dig into my blue scraps.  However, after coloring in my sketch, I thought it looked a little bland.  Looking at how the triangles met at block corners, I saw a star shape so decided to play with that idea.

I quilted this entirely with a walking foot.  I really did not want the quilting to compete with all those blues so I just quilted in the ditch in the "waves"  (but not around every triangle!).  My daughter helped me pick out the stencil for the border quilting.  My husband helped talk me out of talking myself out of quilting that border design after I marked it.  It looks much better and fits in much better with the whole look when quilted in matching thread than it did when marked in white pencil!

We went out to a local park on the way to the post office to mail the quilt.  There's a lake off to the left of the photo.  It was windy.  I was nervous.  Hubby assured me he had a good grip on the quilt!

He did!  

And just because you know I love quilt with feet:

I particularly like this one.  If you knew my husband, you'd think he was the least likely person to have bright orange shoelaces!