The Wave Wholecloth Quilt

This has been my most ambitious project so far, and I was mentally exhausted after finishing it. I started with the idea of arranging a simple block (the cross) in a pattern, using bright colors, and having the quilting bring out a scene. I ended up with a wave, harkening to “The Great Wave,” but was also debating a whosh-like a blowing leaf pile in the wind. I spent a lot of time arranging the crosses. Seems so simple. It’s not!

I added fingers coming off the wave.

Above: My friend had the awesome idea of quilting a sailboat. How could I turn that idea down?

I used the cross pattern from Vintage Quilt Revival. Each cross is made of 2 different fabric prints using the paper piecing technique. Altogether there’s close to 800 pieces of fabric–way more than I had anticipated.

I spent a ton of time practicing the quilting of the wave. There’s a lot of stress once you get to the quilting, especially after spending so much time on the piecing. There’s a lot at stake–and I don’t have the patience to rip out quilting mistakes.

I chose a solid color for the background to show off the quilting. I was curious myself to see what the scene would look like on the back!

I had to take a couple months break from any big project after finishing this one. I’m nearly recovered and starting a new project, a queen-size quilt for our bed. That’ll be nearly 3x the size of any quilt I’ve done.