Down by the Bay

No, there are no watermelons in this quilt, but I came across the song which I remember singing as a child on YouTube a while back, and it was stuck in my head while making this quilt, so it seemed like a good name!

This commissioned quilt should by now have arrived, so I can finally share it; it was finished over a month ago.

My beach scene quilts start with several large sheets of paper taped together (above) and I draw out the perimeter, adding an extra inch or two to the desired finish size to allow for trimming, alterations and shrinkage. Then I divide it into the areas of the scene, then divide those into sections to be pieced. Those sections (below) are traced onto medium-weight interfacing, and I work on them from the bottom up, gradually adding fabrics one at a time.

I got a fun kite fabric a while back and have enjoyed adding a kite to the sky in a few recent beach scenes. I also got some colourful aeroplanes, and am looking forward to adding one of those to an upcoming quilt.

The small flock of tiny birds in the sky is a nice touch in this one, too; it links in with the sand pipers.

The shark fabric is also a new addition to my fabric collection; it took a while to find a suitable one - many shark prints are on unsuitable backgrounds, or too unrealistic.

This time I varied from the usual rainbow strip binding, and used a Michael Miller Paradise Cove stripe in blues, greens and aquas.

If you look closely in the image below, I added in a little detail in the quilting, completely unrelated to the quilt. The lady who commissioned it as a gift for her first grandchild is an entomologist...

Did you spot it? Here it is from the back...