Seafarers Bridges + Braids
I hope you had a good weekend! Mine was really lovely, full of friends, time outdoors in nature and time indoors with family and fabric. This weekend I got really excited about my Seafarers quilt. I love it so much, I think I’m going to have to offer it as a stand-along pattern! Let’s catch up on that progress.
Last week a beautiful backing fabric arrived for my Seafarers quilt. It’s an amazing widleback fabric by Anna Maria Horner for her Hindsight collection, called Honorable Mention. As you can see the flowers are big and bold, quite special for a quilt back.
At the time, I was finishing up these half square triangle blocks, which are part of the Bridge border for Seafarers. This is the first time I’ve sewn strings of HST blocks on paper foundations. Personally, I found the process efficient and the results are quite precise. For rows of HST, as needed here, it makes sense.
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The center of this medallion style quilt is all sewn together. Seafarers is anchored by a large mariner’s compass block and Dutch town houses.
In my mind the sky becomes the sea. There is a section of solid FreeSpirit Serpent that belongs between the inner square and the bridges layer. The bridges tie in with the theme while also creating an arching frame.
Most of the print fabrics here are from Anna Maria Horner’s stunning Hindsight collection, available in yardage at Sojo Fabric and precuts at Fat Quarter Shop.
The final outer border consists of friendship braid blocks set between more compasses.
Choosing fabrics for the braids was tricky. It needed to be bright to balance out the colors of the work, but I didn’t want the braids to stand out too much. In the end I decided on a repeating pattern of stripes, hoping that the regularity would set the right tone.
Honestly, I was super nervous about the outcome while cutting and sewing my first friendship braid block, but when I put it all together with the rest of the quilt, I was perfectly delighted by the results!
And that’s when I knew it needed to be a pattern! This quilt feels like a milestone for me. It’s really different from my previous designs and so much fun to sew. I’ve had lots of requests for it as a stand-alone pattern, and even for specific blocks like Compass and Neighborhood. Expect to see Seafarers available as a downloadable pattern in August at €22 for this entirely paper pieced medallion quilt. If you can’t wait, join Penny Sampler Pattern Club for Seafarers and much more.
I’m looking forward to completing the quilt top soon!
