Miracle Fish

Welcome to my stop on the Sunlit Garden Blog Hop. 

I was thrilled when Jennifer Thomas of Curlicue Creations asked whether I would like to join the Sunlit Garden BlogHop.  Of course, I said YES!

Here is my quilt, named Miracle Fish!

Miracle Fish, 60" by 60"

The red and green together is evocative of Christmas, but this collection has vibes of Spring with floral reds and leafy greens. Christmas made me think of Christ and Christ made me think of Fish.

 

EQ8 Mock-Up

Me: What does that Jesus in Fish symbol signify?
Paul: Jesus was the fisher of men.
Me: That sounds painful. No fish wants to be fished or hooked. I thought it is because He multiplied fish to feed people.
Paul: That could be too.
Me: Wasn't He the shepherd? Guiding humanity?
Paul: That He was. Jesus was many things.
Me: That I agree.

This fabric collection can be many things too - bright Spring vibes or Christmas vibes. Many possibilities.

Starting 

Making

The flimsy was just under 60" square. So I used the 60" square Hobbs Silk Blend Batting. 

Silk Blend Batting from Hobbs Tuscany Collection

I quilted in one direction using my walking foot. I used Turquoise Variegated Thread to mimic water.

Quilting Detail

I used 12 out of the 20 fabrics in the collection. The background is Island Batik Solid White, as is the binding. I used Dark Green backing and here are some close-up pictures.

Wavy Stitch Quilting

Labelled

I enjoyed making this quilt.  Why am I calling it Miracle Fish? 

Well, if fish can climb a tree, that is miraculous!

Fish climb a tree

Paul and I went to a children's playground one early morning to take these pictures. The playground furniture provided several fun settings for the photoshoot. The cloudy sky provided the diffused lighting.

Playfully Yours

Matching Tulips!

Cloudy Skies, low temperatures and high winds make for a bitterly cold season. How I wish for a Miracle? Sharing with all my favorite linky parties. See full list on the sidebar.

The Sunlit Garden blog Hop continues through March 9, 2025.  Here's the list so you can visit all the blogs this week:

March 3:  Curlicue Creations 

March 4:  Freemotion by the River

March 5:  Sew Preeti Quilts (you are here)

March 6:  Quilting Gail

March 7:  Kathy's Kwilts and More

March 8:  Quilted Delights

March 9:  Sew Cute and Quirky

Also gathered my yellow scraps to play along with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) in March. 

Will share with Angela's Linky Party.

Island Batik Yellow Scraps

Swirling Fish Block Tutorial

This tutorial will make two identical fish blocks. 

Background Fabric  - Five squares 5"

Assorted Green Fabrics - One square 9", five squares 5"
Contrasting Solid (choose a color different from background fabric) - One square 9"

Make two large half square triangles - Cut size 8.5", Finished size 8"

On the wrong side of the contrasting solid square (9"), draw a line connecting two diagonal corners. Place the large green square (9") right sides together with the contrasting solid square (9").  Stitch 1/4" away from the drawn line, on both sides. Cut on the drawn line. Press and square both HSTs to 8.5". Set aside.

Make ten smaller half square triangles - Cut size 4.5". Finished size 4".
On the wrong side of a background square (5"), draw a line connecting two diagonal corners. Place a 5" green square right sides together with the 5" background square. Stitch 1/4" away from the drawn line, on both sides. Cut on the drawn line. Press and square both HSTs to 4.5". Similarly make the remaining eight HSTs. 

Arrange and stitch as shown.

STEP 1 - Stitch the four smaller HSTs in two pairs as shown by arrows

STEP 2 - Stitch the large HST to the top HST pair.  Stitch the lower HST pair to the fifth smaller HST.

STEP 3 - Stitch the two pieced units together to complete the block

STEP 4 - Press and square to 12.5"

Do a happy dance, much like the swirling fish :-D Complete the second fish block.

Now make more in all the colors of the rainbow. The smaller HSTs are a great way to use up leftover squares from charm packs. 

Here are a few more examples.

Yellow Fish

Red Fish

Orange Fish

Purple Fish

Nine blocks (arranged 3 by 3) will make a 36" square baby quilt. I recommend adding 2" borders (to protect your points) for a 40" finished quilt.

30 blocks (5 by 6) will make a Lap/Throw/Mercyful Quilt, measuring 60" by 84". Please make sure that you add borders to protect the points.

Questions? Ask away and I will answer here so that all can see. 

I will share this tutorial with all my favorite linky parties. See full list on the sidebar.

Fly Away Challenge

The Island Batik June Challenge reads as follows:

Use one of your precut bundles and play with the versatile Flying Geese blocks to create a fun quilt or table runner! Your project must use Flying Geese blocks as the focus but you can combine other blocks to enhance the project. 

Now, I am not a fan of Flying Geese Blocks. The construction is a fiddly multi-step process, regardless of the method you choose.  Even when the method works for you, you need a specialty ruler for precision points. In my opinion a flying goose block is made up of two half square triangles with several construction methods and no need for special rulers. 

Therefore I had never considered a project with Flying Geese. And when I looked for inspiration, everything seemed dated. So what does an Island Batik Ambassador do - Highlight the fabric!!!

Project # 1 - I chose a super simple pattern that would show off the fabric. I used the Celebrate Stack (10" squares) to make tiny roofs.  

I used my Accuquilt 8" Go QUBE to cut flying goose triangles from the Celebrate Stack and the sky triangles from Solid Black.

Accuquilt Cut Triangles

The flying geese units finish at 4" by 2" and the house/wall units are 4" squares.  I used 17 out of 20 fabrics. It is a simple design but it shows off the Celebrate collection perfectly! 

Be My Neighbor

The backing is Fondant and I love its subtle blue-gray color. The background and binding is Solid Black. I used Hobbs Black Batting and Schmetz 80/12 Microtex Needle. I quilted with my walking foot using Aurifil 40wt thread and a squiggly stitch with horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. My little houses mini quilt finished at 24" square and I have named it "Be My Neighbor". 

Labelled

I showed my bright mini quilt to Paul. 

Me: Look at my bright and happy homes.
Paul: Are they homes?
Me: Yes, why?
Paul: They look like pencils or crayons to me.
Me: I'd think the pencils would be more pointy.
Paul: Houses would have doors or windows.

He had a point.

That is when I made Project # 2, using the 2.5" Strip Pack of Juicy Mosaics.

For background I chose Island Batik Neutral Egg White.

Row Houses

I chose those fabrics that had bricks/tiles pattern to reinforce the house effect. Paul agreed that these looked like houses.  I happily fashioned them into a cute zippered pouch :-)

Love this!

I live here :-)

With these two projects, I had completed the requirements of this challenge. I was done. Officially! 

But these Juicy Mosaics are so gorgeous that I wanted to continue playing with them. After I spent few hours of playing in EQ8, I didn't know whether I was coming or going.

Yellow Won this round!

For this design, I needed one other color in addition to the black background.  With a choice between sunny yellow and lime green, I chose yellow.

Once again, I used Accuquilt to get precise flying goose units. It is good to be an Ambassador :-D

In process

Ooh Shiny!

And here is my fabulous, flying goose-focused finish!!! Ta Da!!!

Coming or Going?

Do you see fish? How many?  

Finishing at 28" square, I have named this fishy finish - "Fishful Thinking" :-D

The backing is pieced from leftover backings of larger quilts made earlier.  The binding is Solid Black.  I used Hobbs Black Batting and Schmetz 80/12 Microtex Needle. I quilted with my walking foot using Aurifil 40wt thread and a squiggly stitch (my default style).  

Wonky Pieced Backing :-P

Labelled

Of course I love quilting. I love playing with fabrics and colors and trying new things. But if it was not for Island Batik's Challenge, I would have never come up with this design.  

So even though I began this post whining, I am grateful to Island Batik for pushing my buttons, month after month. Thank you Island Batik (hope you can overlook the whining).

I will be sharing with all my favorite linky parties. See full list on the sidebar. 

For some reason, I want salmon for lunch. What is on your plate (food or quilt)? Do let me know.

A Fishy Story - Pattern Release & Giveaway

It was a heavy lift. The net was bursting with a huge catch. 

It took a lot of effort to haul it out of the river.

Ooh it is heavy...

The fish wriggled and pulled against the net and Paul struggled. 

Paul struggled

I heaved a huge sign of relief when he prevailed.

And finally managed!

Such a proud angler Paul is!!! Now, you may think that catching all these fish on the banks of Potomac is a load of bull. But honestly, it is a fishy story :-D

The one that got away...

Well, here is the true back story of this quilt. I made my first fish blocks for the Island Batik/Studio 180 Design Challenge and Blog Hop in 2021.

We catch so much fish on the banks of the Potomac :-p

I loved these fish so much that I started making them as my RSC blocks in 2022. Initially I had used the Corner Pop 3 Ruler to make these fish blocks.  But not everyone has specialty rulers and this was such a fun pattern that I wanted it to be accessible to all. So I wrote the pattern such that it needs no special rulers.  

RSC 2022 Blocks

In September 2022, Make Modern published Frolicking Fish (Table Runner) in Issue #48.  That runner now lives in Manveen's house, in her husband's study/office.  But I digress.

Frolicking Fish, at Manveen's House

This year, I completed all the RSC blocks from 2022, with the exception of yellow. 

This is what happened to yellow?  Sorry, too many tangents. 

Finally, the quilt was completed.  I revised the pattern, including detailed step by step instructions for on-point setting, complete with coloring sheets for two sizes. 

In process

Paul was kind enough to give in to my antics by the river.

Paul, the model

Cathy was kind enough to test drive the pattern and Reed (fellow Island Batik ambassador) provided the technical review. 

The pattern is listed in my Etsy store for $10, but on 20% discount till Thursday, 4/27/23. That is $8 for 12 pages of detailed/color instructions.

What is a pattern release without a giveaway? Leave me a comment on this blogpost, making sure that if you are Anonymous/No-Reply Blogger, I can reach you by email.  One lucky winner will receive a PDF copy of the pattern - A Fishy Story.

For a second chance to win, head over to Cathy's blog.

I will be sharing with all my favorite linky parties (See full list on the sidebar), including Angela's.

Sunny Day, Happy Fishes

Did you see pigs fly? No, but I saw fish climbing the tree :-D

A Fishy Story continues... I will announce the winner next week.  

Update on Friday, 4/28/23 - The winner is #12 Kathy Quilts. Email has been sent!

Mabern

Happy New Year to you! Hope you are staying warm, safe and sane.  Hey, two out of three ain't bad :-D

Looks beautiful, feels horrible

I have a new finish!

First finish of 2022.

Meet my first finish of 2022 - Mabern, a combination of Mari and Bernie :-) 

Paul, the model

Mermaids Backing

Sunny Day

Mabern is so named because all the background fabric came from Mari and several of the focus fabrics came from Bernie.  Mabern finished at 40" by 48".

I will be sharing with all my favorite linky parties. See full list on the sidebar. 

Walking Foot Quilting

Light Grey Binding

Labelled

The block in Mabern is not new. I had seen it a few times but hadn't given it a second thought. 

But on a particularly depressing day I was watching youtube, as I was on hold for a very long time with X&%$ airlines trying to cancel my flight. One video led to another and autoplay brought me to this one.  Just then Expedia called. I disconnected the existing call and took the incoming call, as I paused the video. 

While I talked to the Expedia representative, the shapes on the screen danced and twisted and turned before my eyes. By the time the phone call ended, I had a new idea. I had to try it. I dived into newly acquired scraps from Mari and Bernie.

YIPPEEE!!!

I DISCOVERED something - a new way to make an old block. I have been so excited to share it with you, but decided to wait till I completed the quilt.

This method has its limitations. If all you have are 2.5" strips, then you cannot use this method. If your block is made up of three fabrics (two focus fabrics plus the background), it won't work either.

But if you like it and use it and share it, please do include a link to this page. 

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In other news, I received an email from Island Batik. It was a tough choice, they wrote. They could only pick 25 ambassadors for the year 2022. 

I am one of them :-)

I have already received my first shipment, loaded with gorgeous fabrics. The unboxing blogpost and video will be published on January 21, 2022. The challenge for January is Step by Step - make a lap size (or larger) quilt using the Gradations Fat Quarter Bundle. Mine is Tantalizing Teals :-)

Tantalizing Teals by Island Batik

Sneak Peek

I will be sharing my Step by Step finish next week, I think. Photoshoot is contingent on model availability (trying to bribe Paul to brave the cold) and weather conditions (praying for a non-rainy and non-windy day).

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I will be playing along once again with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. RSC 2022 has been announced and January is red. Here are my blocks. 

I am not sure if I should just leave them as such now and then set them on point in the flimsy. Or add corners to each block. Hmmm... what do you think?

On-point setting

Added Corners

Sharing with Angela's Linky Party. Love to hear your thoughts.