Something's Fishy

My husband loves to fish.  It's as much of a passion for him as quilting is for me.  Last April I bought a couple of yards of fish themed fabric to make him a quilt.  I finally pulled it out of the stash and got working on it.  I'm glad to be working on something that will bring him some joy and comfort.  I don't want to tell all that is going on, but let me just say that we got some bad news about his health in June.

Something's Fishy by Joanne Adams Roth

Here's a picture of the fabric before I cut it apart and after it was cut into separate pictures:

I had a general idea that I would place the pictures in vertical rows, with a background that was earthy and watery.  I pulled out matching fabrics and did some free form curved piecing, inserting a piece of fabric here and there.  Then, I realized I didn't want to cut these all apart to piece in the pictures.  So fusing was the option I decided upon.

Here is a progress picture.  You can see that I pieced the center panel, fused down two rows, then kept adding rows to the right and left.  I tried to match up the rows, but didn't care that they didn't match perfectly, since the overall quilt was going to have a choppy feeling anyway.

Progress 

I'm showing you how I piece the curvy pieces together with a 1/8" seam.  This is my version of what I have been taught by other teachers.  I cut the gentle curve with both pieces right sides up, then toss out the trimmings.  Most teachers tell you to grab both pieces and gently line up the edges as you sew, and let the length just end up where it wants to.  I find that this method gives me a piece that doesn't lay flat when I'm done.  So my addition is to start by adding pins every 4-5" inches to keep the pieces somewhat in line.  This really helps if the curve is deep.

Then I put the pieces right sides together and match up the pins.  I don't try to match up the entire seam; this would take too much time.

I take it to the sewing machine and while holding the pin and the top flat, but not tight, I start to sew the 1/8" seam.  When I need to push the top piece over to meet the bottom piece and use my finger to gently push it over.  When I need to pull the top piece back, I gently pull it back.  All the time, I keep holding it flat and even to the next pin.  This way, I only have to contend with about 4" at a time.  Here are a couple of pictures showing the gently push and pull on the top piece.





















I finished the quilt and presented it to my husband in the picture below.  Looks happy, don't you think?