Around the Island

This fabulous quilt was made by my good friend and client Reneta.  Reneta served as a pattern tester for The Quilted Stash.  The pattern is called "Around the Island" and will be published in a book called The Quilted Stash.  For those of you not familiar with Canadian Geography, the island in the centre of the quilt is Newfoundland.

Reneta is from Newfoundland so this quilt has a special place in her heart.  She knew she wanted some special quilting on this one.  Since I started quilting in 2012, I have quilted more than 100 quilts for Reneta, so she knows what I can do, and I have a pretty good idea of what she likes. Sometimes she has a vision, sometimes she leaves it up to me. When the idea of adding song lyrics to the open corners came up we were off to the races!

Reneta immediately knew the song that spoke to her the same way this quilt did - Saltwater Joys.   The song was recorded by Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers, written by Wayne Chaulk. 

You can have a listen here.

I had a lot of fun doing the cursive writing quilting.  The key to that was all in the preparation!    

First I cut some newsprint to size and with a sharpie in hand I did some writing to see if I could connect the words and to get a sense of the row height that would work.

Next step was heading to the computer to see how many of the song lyrics could fit into the triangles.  Two stanzas in each corner was a great fit.

Then I chalked in the lines that I would need to follow and numbered them for reference.

On the really long lines of text, I gave myself some registration marks so I had rough idea of the spacing, but otherwise I just went for it.  The hardest part was remembering to dot my i's and cross my t's in the moment! 

For the colourful squares Reneta requested my freehand topographic meander quilting.  The beautiful fabric is the from the Journeys collection from Northcott.

And for the remaining two corners we opted for the Breath of the gods panto for an even design that complimented the rest of the quilt.

  I will share more photos because I can! All of these photos were taken on the grounds of the Marine Museum of Manitoba right here in Selkirk.  And for a little more behind the scenes - this is what the quilt looked like 50% of the time during this photo shoot.  I am very lucky to have a willing helper!  

I enjoyed every minute this quilt has spent with me.  Thank you Reneta for putting your faith in me - I look forward to more collaborations in the future!