Surf Lifesaver - keeping the Sea safe

It is early evening on the 31st December 2014 and I have managed to finish my quilt challenge. When I first read the theme of “sea”, my mind went into a spin. Do I do actual sea, look up the dictionary meaning or go with the flow of sea – ocean – beach – surf lifesavers. In November I sat with a cup of coffee and my girlfriends during a quilt retreat, throwing ideas around. I planned, sketched and worked on making waves from sewing rows of organza and chiffon close to each other. Looked okay but my imagination would not let go of surf lifesavers as when I think ocean/sea/beach that would be the reason I am there. My husband has been a Surf Lifesaver since he was 16, (our whole dating life was spent at surf carnivals or beach patrols) my youngest son followed him into the tribe and just this year my oldest grandson (11 years old)became a nipper (young surf lifesaver) so with that in mind I looked to my stash of fabrics – well a small part of my stash.

First up I printed photos and words onto “photo print fabric”

Next came throwing some threads and “Angelina fibres” onto a background of pale blue muslin. This I hoped would show through layers of chiffon, net & organza as seaweed.

Layered over the threads with net and “wash away “ fabric then using variegated thread in the machine and a free motion foot, I stitched wave like lines to hold it all down.

Using a waved shape ruler which I had bought many moons ago with great intentions, I cut strips of various fabrics. Plus cut the photos out. This was all done in preparation for my trip to Walpole where we have a lovely holiday cottage. As usual my sewing room is packed up and brought down with me.

I hand stitched each wave strip onto the thread covered muslin backing, with a mixture of variegated crochet yarn and shiny machine embroidery thread. Starting at the bottom of the block I layered as I went until a photo was to be included then carried on to the top repeating the process.  As I inserted a photo it was hand embroidered and beaded depending on the details I wanted to pick out.

Next I tested the words on the design. First neat and orderly then thrown on. I called hubby in for an opinion and thankfully he agreed with me that the thrown on words worked best. Took them off and cut the block to size using the wave ruler.

Next the wadding (a little smaller than the top so it didn't pop up in the curves) and backing which was small hessian squares, were added. As the quilt top has lots of movement I didn't want to put traditional binding on so made the backing a quarter of an inch bigger than the top with the idea of it fraying adding to the piece. I then added more lines of hand stitching, machine stitched the piece around the edge as well as around the words to quilt it all together.

I really enjoyed playing with the “waves” effect and trying to pick out interesting designs with the beads. It was nice to just loose myself in the process of art rather than worry about if the finished item was meant to be useful. So thank you for inviting me into the group.

Here’s to more fun in 2015

Liz Ford

(PS I have more pictures of the process which I will add once I get into a wi fi area)