BLOG: Quilting + Appliqué

Free Receiving Blanket Pattern

January 18, 2018

Make an easy baby gift with this free receiving blanket pattern.

A receiving blanket is seriously the easiest baby gift you can make. Choose fabulous fabric and no embellishment and you can make one in 15 minutes. Even if you add an applique (like the fox shown) you can still make it in less than an hour.

Here’s how. . .

Step 1

Cut two squares of fabric about 36 inches square.

Any kind of fabric is fine. I’m using quilting cotton here (from the GORGEOUS Into the Woods collection from Michael Miller Fabrics) but I’ve also used flannel, terry cloth, baby corduroy, and more. Just about anything goes.

I like to use one fabric for the front and a different fabric for the back, but you don’t have to.

And when I say “about” 36 inches I really mean it. I bought one yard cuts of fabric, but by the time I washed them and squared off the cut ends they were more like 34 inches. So I cut two 34 inch squares. No problem.

Step 2

Put the two squares of fabric right sides together and pin all the way around the edge.

Take a little care here and make sure you get everything laid out and pinned neatly. If your squares aren’t really lined up, it will show in the finished blanket – and make the pressing in Step 5 hard.

Step 3

Sew almost all the way around the edge, leaving an opening big enough to fit your hand for turning right side out. I usually leave 4-5 inches. Use a quarter inch seam allowance – or something close. I use the edge of my favorite presser foot as a guide which makes a seam more like 3/8 inch and that’s just fine. 🙂

Step 4

Clip the corners right up close to the stitching.

This will eliminate bulk in those corners when you turn it right side out.

Step 5

Turn the blanket right side out – taking care to poke out the corners and smooth all the edges. Press the edges flat.

Step 6

Now you have a choice. You can leave the edges as they are and hand sew the opening. I like to use ladder stitch (that links to a video tutorial) for invisible stitching.

Or (if you want a no-hand-work project) you can topstitch your blanket all the way around the edge. That will make your seams extra secure and sew up that opening at the same time.

close-up of the topstitched edge of a receiving blanket made with a free pattern from Shiny Happy World

Here’s how close to the edge I typically stitch.

Finished!

But that’s not all. This receiving blanket pattern is basically a blank slate for you to play with.

Sure – you can use fabulous fabrics and make it just this simple. How beautiful is this?

deep blue fabric with foxes - Into the Woods collection

Honestly – no further embellishment needed at all.

But if you want to add something fancy, you can.

You can add some embroidery. Maybe stitch baby’s name and date of birth in the corner? There’s a free alphabet pattern for hand embroidery here.

You can add some applique. On this sample I added the Fergal Fox applique pattern in the lower right corner of the blanket.

Finished receiving blanket made with a free pattern - plus an added fox applique face.

No resizing needed – and it’s a great way to get extra mileage out of patterns you already own. If you do this, make sure you place the bottom edge of the neck right up against the raw bottom edge of the blanket.

applique fox face added to the corner of a receiving blanket pattern

That way the raw edge will get sewn up in the stitching that sews the front and back of the blanket together and it will look like the fox is peeking into the frame rather than like a decapitated head floating in the corner. 🙂

There are lots more single block applique patterns available here – perfect for adding to this pattern. And there are a few free applique patterns here. Add a free applique pattern to the free receiving blanket pattern for a perfect low-cost gift!

Have fun with this pattern! Be sure to tag any photos of your finished work with #shinyhappyworld – or share it in the Shiny Happy People group on Facebook.

Here are several free patterns that work with my basic 10-inch applique squares – no resizing needed!

Here are several free patterns that work with just some simple resizing. This post about making coasters has info about resizing an applique pattern that can be applied to any of these projects.

Free Bib Pattern
Simple Christmas Stocking
Mini Bunny Tote Bag
Turn Any Quilt Block Patterns into Cute Coasters
Cozy Bear Coasters
The Big Bag (applique on the pocket)
Cloth Book for Babies

Return to the main Let’s Make a Quilt Table of Contents.

Happy stitching!

Free Santa’s Village Signs to Make a North Pole Quilt

December 18, 2017

I’ve been working on a super fun North Pole quilt by adding a bunch of cute Santa’s Village signs to houses and buildings made with the Shiny Happy Houses quilt pattern.

It’s been so much fun!

Now you can do the same thing!

Get the Shiny Happy Houses quilt pattern here.

Click here to get the free pattern for all the signs – there are 26 – plus a page of blank signs so you can come up with your own fun names. 🙂

The pattern for the signs includes instructions for how I do the lettering. It’s easy!

I wanted everything in my quilt to look like it was made of candy so it’s a lot of bright colors on spun-sugar pastel backgrounds. 🙂

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

Mrs. Claus – free applique pattern

November 29, 2017

There’s a new free applique pattern for you! Merry Christmas! 🙂

This Mrs. Claus pattern is the same size and style as the other free Christmas applique patterns (10 inch finished blocks). There are four now so you can make a square wallhanging!

Here are links to the other three. . .

Download the Mrs. Claus pattern pieces here.

Here’s how to make her!

Step 1

If you’re using Quilt As You Go, quilt the background to the batting. I’m showing mine from the back so you can see the stitching more clearly.

Step 2

Print or trace the pattern pieces onto the paper side of fusible adhesive.

I love these printable sheets of Heat & Bond Lite because I’m lazypants and don’t like to trace.

The pieces have already been reversed, so no need to flip anything.

Step 3

Roughly cut out the pieces, leaving a little extra all the way around each piece. Leave a little extra extra wherever there’s a dotted line. That edge will tuck under other pieces for a clean finish.

Fuse the pieces to the back of your fabric, following the instructions on your fusible.

Step 4

Trace the features onto the front of the face fabric.

If you hold it up to a window, you’ll be able to see the lines very clearly through the fabric.

I trace just inside the lines marking the position of any applique pieces – like the eyes.

I trace directly on any lines to be stitched – the nose and mouth.

I just use a fine tip black Sharpie.

Here’s what it looks like without the light shining through.

Step 5

Cut out all the pieces neatly.

Cut directly on the solid lines. Leave a little extra seam allowance past the dotted lines.

Step 6

Peel off the paper backing and layer up all the pieces.

Remember – those dotted line edges will tuck behind other pieces. For example – the bottom of the bun has a dotted line, showing it tucks behind the top of the head.

Line up the lower edge of her shoulders with the bottom edge of the block. You’ll trim away the excess when you trim your block down to size so you don’t see that cut edge.

Fuse the design in place, again following the instructions on your fusible package.

Step 7

Stitch around all the pieces to secure the edges. Stitch right over your traced lines for the nose and mouth. (This video has tips for stitching those tight curves.)

I like to use a simple straight stitch in thick black thread. I think the cartoony outline suits my simple designs, but you can use matching thread and any stitches you like.

This post has more info if you’re trying to figure out in what order you should stitch the pieces.

Step 8

Trim it down to size and you’re finished! I recommend starting with an 11 inch square and trimming it down to 10 1/2 inches if you’re making a quilt or a wall hanging – but you can also use this design to make some placemats (free placemat pattern here) and that will need a different starting block size.

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

Think BIG! Fun and Easy Giant Applique Class

October 30, 2017

Think BIG is here!

It’s a brand new class covering everything you need to know to do GIANT applique.

How to enlarge any applique pattern to any size you like – including an easy formula
How to work with that giant pattern
What to do when the pattern pieces are bigger than the biggest fusible adhesive you can buy
What to do when your applique is way bigger than your ironing board

You’ll get general information that you can use for any applique of any size for any project – but you’ll also get all the pattern pieces and instructions to make four fun projects.

Make a BIG poster.

You’ll get the giant cat pattern, the alphabet, and the instructions to make a big poster.

I made this reminder to hang in my new studio – but you can make anything you like! This would be a great project for a new baby. Make a baby quilt, then enlarge your favorite block from the quilt to make a matching poster with baby’s name and birth date!

Make a BIG pillow.

You’ll get the giant fox pattern plus all the instructions to make a big pillow. Mine is 26 inches square – but the class includes instructions to enlarge to any size you like. Make a big floor pillow to match one of the blocks in your favorite applique quilt!

Make a BIG bunny baby quilt.

This bunny quilt is fast and easy. You can make it in a day! The corner bunnies are “normal” 10 inch blocks and the center medallion is a whopping 30 inches square. The class includes instructions for easy peasy Quilt As You Go construction. You could easily adapt the pattern to work with any applique design in your stash, to match any nursery theme – but you’ll get the bunny pattern in both sizes.

Make a BIG napping quilt.

Whoa! Look at that giant version of my Augie Dog! It’s way WAY bigger than the original. 🙂

You’ll get the full-sized puppy pattern plus complete instructions to make a 50 x 60 inch napping-size quilt – my favorite size for curling up on the couch. Using Quilt As You Go doesn’t make much sense for a quilt made of one HUGE block, so I include a video with tips for quilting it.

Of course, the class includes instructions to enlarge any block to size for a quilt like this. I’ve already had one reader suggest a quilt with a single “doll” from the Paper Dolls quilt, enlarged to be the same size as your child or grandchild. What a brilliant idea!

By the end of the class you’ll be able to adapt ANY applique design to ANY size you like – and add huge fun to all your favorite patterns. 🙂

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

Free Trick or Treat Bag Tutorial

October 27, 2017

Need to whip up a super easy trick or treat bag for Halloween this year?

Then I have the pattern for you!

It’s fully lined (which actually makes construction easier), requires no hand sewing, can be made with any of my square quilt block patterns with no resizing – and you can make it in an hour or less. 🙂

This project will work with any of my square applique patterns. If you’re using someone else’s pattern, you may need to resize it to fit a 10 inch square.

I’m using two monsters from the Scary Squares monster quilt pattern.

If you have a witch who needs a black cat, you could use the free Spooky Cat applique pattern.

If you have a farmer who needs a few farm animals, you could use any of the blocks in the Noisy Farm pattern.

If you just want to customize it with a name or Halloween greeting, use a fun Halloween print fabric and this free alphabet applique pattern.

The sky is the limit!

What You’ll Need

1/2 yard medium weight fabric for the main bag (I used black cotton twill)
1/2 yard light weight fabric for the lining (I used a Halloween novelty print)
fusible adhesive (I recommend Heat & Bond Lite)
fabric for your applique
black thread
applique pattern of your choice

Cutting Instructions

Cut two 11″ x 11″ squares from the main fabric.
Cut two 11″ x 11″ squares from the lining fabric.
Cut two 14″ x 4″ rectangle from the main fabric for the handles.

Put It All Together

Step 1

Applique the main fabric squares with the design of your choice. If it’s one of my portrait designs, make sure the cut edge of the body is lined up with the bottom edge of the square.

Trick or Treat Bag - a free pattern from Shiny Happy World

If you’ve never done applique with fusible adhesive, it’s super easy! You’ll find instructions with video links in any of my patterns, and there’s a general video tutorial here.

Step 2

Fold the rectangles for the handles into double-fold strips and press.

There’s a video here showing how to do that if it’s new for you.

Stitch through all the layers down each long edge.

Set the handles aside.

Step 3

Layer the two lining pieces right sides together. Sew down one side, across the bottom, and up the other side using 1/4″ seam allowance.

I clipped the corners here out of habit, but you don’t need to do that. They’re about to get chopped off in the next step.

Repeat for the two main trick or treat bag pieces.

Step 4

Box the corners of the lining so the bag is 1 inch deep

If you’ve never sewn boxed corners before, this video will show you how.

Repeat for the main bag.

Step 5

Fold the bag in half to find the center of the top edge.

Pin the handles to the bag so that the inside edge of the handle is 2 inches from the center pin, and the raw edge of the handle is lined up with the raw edge of the bag.

https://wendigratz.wpengine.com/2014/07/video-sew-boxed-corners.html

Pin the handles in place on both sides of the main bag. You can baste them in place if you like, but I usually just hold them with pins for the next step.

Step 6

Leave the main bag right side out, and the lining inside out.

Slide the lining over the main bag, so that the right side of the lining is facing the right side of the applique, and the handles are sandwiched between the two layers. Match the side seams and centers and pin the two bags together around the top edge.

Sew around the top edge of the bag using 1/4″ seam allowance and leaving an opening on one side between the inside edges of one of the handles.

This is easiest if you start sewing right at the inside edge of one handle. Sew through that handle, around the side seam, through both handles on the other side, around the second side seam, and through the last handle. Stop as soon as you sew over the last handle (remember to backstitch!) and you’ll have an opening about 4 inches wide.

Step 7

Turn the bag right side out. This step is a little mind-bendy if you’ve never done it before, but it’s actually really simple.

First pull the main bag out of the lining so that both parts are inside out.

Now reach into the opening, grab the main bag and pull it through the opening so that it’s right side out. Keep pulling and the lining will follow – also right side out.

Now just tuck the lining down inside the bag. 🙂

Step 8

Smooth and press the top edge of the bag.

Fold under the seam allowance from the turning opening and press that as well.

Edgestitch all the way around that top edge. This will finish your bag, sew up the turning opening, and reinforce the handles – all in one step. 🙂

Finished!

Now go out and fill your trick or treat bag with lots of yummy candy. 🙂

For a slightly smaller tote bag, made with the same method, head over here.

Here are several free patterns that work with my basic 10-inch applique squares – no resizing needed!

Here are several free patterns that work with just some simple resizing. This post about making coasters has info about resizing an applique pattern that can be applied to any of these projects.

Free Bib Pattern
Simple Christmas Stocking
Mini Bunny Tote Bag
Turn Any Quilt Block Patterns into Cute Coasters
Cozy Bear Coasters
The Big Bag (applique on the pocket)
Cloth Book for Babies

Return to the main Let’s Make a Quilt Table of Contents.

Happy Halloween!

Scary Squares vs. Mix & Match Monsters – What’s the Difference?

October 19, 2017

As of today I have two different monster quilt patterns in the shop. Scary Squares and Mix & Match Monsters.

There are a lot of similarities between the monsters (because I drew them all) but these are not the same pattern!

Scary Squares is the easier pattern. It includes full-sized applique patterns for twelve different monsters, plus all the instructions and links to videos you need to make your quilt. The pieces for each monster are exploded and labeled and ready for you to assemble in the usual way. This one is great for beginners.

Mix & Match Monsters includes 24 pages of mix and match monster parts. The pieces are all carefully sized and proportioned so you can combine them in a bunch of different ways to make a kajillion different monsters.

How do you know which one is right for you?

If you’re new to Quilt As You Go and applique with fusible adhesive, or you just want a monster project that’s fast, easy, and fun – with all the design decisions already made – then the Scary Squares pattern is the one for you. Get it here.

If you look at the Scary Squares pattern and think, “I like the eyebrows on that one monster, but I want to add them to this other one, and maybe add the horns from that guy onto this guy, and use some faux fur while I’m at it. Oh – and I think this guy needs a contrasting belly and that guy could use some stripes and I wonder if I could add some springy, curly hair to this one, and wouldn’t it be fun to make it look like that one is busting out of his block. . .” then the Mix & Match Monsters pattern is the best choice for you. 🙂 Get it here.

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

How to Clean a Cutting Mat

September 20, 2017

blue rotary cutting mat with fuzz embedded in it

I love Quilt As You Go and use it for almost all of my quilts – but cutting the batting squares and then trimming the finished blocks to size makes a real mess of your cutting mat. All those cotton fibers get embedded in the mat and no amount of rubbing with a rag will get them out.

But there’s a really easy solution – easy, fast, and cheap.

rotary cutting mat with fuzz embedded in it and a white artist eraser

Yep. One of those inexpensive white artist erasers.

Just rub it on the mat wherever it’s fuzzy, like you’re erasing the fuzz.

blue rotary cutting mat with white artist eraser and balls of fuzz

It pulls all the fuzz right out of the cuts and balls it up so you can just brush it into the trash.

Easy peasy.

In five minutes your cutting mat will look almost like new, all ready for your next quilt. 🙂

Here are some related posts about rotary cutting tools and how to use them. . .

Rotary Cutting Tools – which ones do you really need?
Rotary Cutting – How to Square Up Your Fabric and Cut Strips – a video post showing how to cut straight strips and bias strips – and what the heck the difference is.
How to Make Half Square Triangles
How to Trim Quilt Blocks
How to Make a Polaroid Quilt – a free tutorial

Here are handy links to all the posts about quilting tools and supplies.

Sewing Machine

Iron

Rotary Cutting Tools

Scissors

Other General Sewing Room Supplies

One More Hugely Popular Post that Seems to Fit Here Better than Anywhere Else

How to Declutter a Craft Room

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the posts about choosing your quilt pattern.

Happy quilting!

Quilting with Decorative Stitches

September 7, 2017

The Fish Quilt pattern is finished! I did the final quilting with decorative stitches that come standard on my sewing machine. More on that in a minute.

All week I’ve been sharing peeks behind the scenes at some of the design decisions I made for my sample quilt.

In this post I showed how I quilted my background blocks in a fun wavy pattern.

In this post I talked about choosing fabric – especially the color.

In this post I talked about how to work with the print/pattern of your fabric – using the example of the striped fabric I used for some of my fish.

Today I’m talking about the final quilting.

This is different from the waves I quilted into the background blocks. This is the final round of quilting – just over the seams joining the blocks – that holds the backing to the quilt.

Usually I do either straight line quilting 1/4″ on each side of all the seams, or a fairly open and narrow zigzag over the seams.

But sometimes I find a decorative stitch on my machine that will be perfect for a quilt – and that’s what I did for this one.

Doesn’t this look like bubbles?

close up of quilting with decorative stitches that look like a stream of bubbles

I used it for all the vertical seams, because streams of bubbles like this travel straight up. 🙂

For the horizontal seams I used a small wavy stitch to echo the wavy quilting within each block.

Fish Quilt - wave quilting from Shiny Happy World

I used a variegated blue thread for both of them.

(For the Beep Beep quilt I did the final round of quilting with a decorative stitch that looked just like tire tracks. Perfect!)

Decorative stitches like the bubbly one CAN BE TRICKY – so I recommend doing some test stitching on a swatch to make sure it’s going to work for you.

The biggest problem is with stitches where the feed dogs move the quilt back and forth to achieve the stitch, instead of always steadily forward. It can be very hard to manage that back and forth motion with a large, heavy quilt in there!

Here’s where I went wrong on my quilt.

close-up of quilting with decorative stitches gone wrong

I didn’t have the quilt “fluffed” loose enough and it was hooked on the corner of my working surface. That was keeping it from feeding through properly, and you can see in the top of the photo where the stitches are all scrunched together and those bubbly circles are distorted and almost overlapping each other.

Instead of properly fixing the problem, I gave the quilt a tug – and ended up feeding the next section through too quickly, so that I made distorted wavy spirals instead of circles. 🙁

Sigh. I really know better. I slowed down and “stuffed and fluffed” properly for the rest of the quilt and everything else looks great. 🙂

Fish Quilt - bubble quilting from Shiny Happy World

(If you don’t know what I mean by “stuff and fluff” this post about quilting a full-sized quilt in a standard machine will explain.)

So – the moral of the story is. . .

It’s a lot of fun to use decorative stitching for the quilting, but only do it if you have the patience for it. If not (or if this is your first time machine quilting) use either a straight stitch, or a wide stitch that moves steadily forward, like a zigzag.

I hope some of you will share close-ups of your quilting in the Shiny Happy People Facebook group! It’s always so much fun to see what design decisions everyone else is making!

You can order the Fish Quilt pattern here.

You can order the Sea Creatures quilt pattern (designed to combine with the Fish pattern) here.

Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.

Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.

How to Tie a Knot
Hand Quilting Basics – traditional hand quilting
Hand Quilting without Marking
Big Stitch Quilting
How to Quilt All the Way to the Edge

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about binding and finishing your quilt.

Happy quilting!

Make Your Fabric Print Work FOR You in Applique

September 6, 2017

ing Fabric Print Wisely - applique fish showing using a striped fabric for the fins and tail

Some of the most common questions I get are about choosing fabric for a quilt. People often want to know how to choose colors that go together, but I also get questions about how to choose the right print.

Usually I make things really easy on myself by choosing a tone-on-tone print or blender. These work GREAT for applique, because the fabrics read as a solid (making it easy to “see” each shape distinctly), but they have texture from the print (making your finished block more interesting).

A lot of times a high-contrast print fights against your applique, because you tend to see all the shapes within the fabric more than you see the shape that you’ve cut the fabric into.

But sometimes we can use that tendency to our advantage and make a high-contrast print work for us.

I’m using examples from the Fish quilt pattern – but this applies to choosing and using your fabric print for any quilt. Here’s just one example of a block from the Wild Flowers quilt pattern that uses stripes really well. Having smaller vertical stripes in that top section suggests the stamens of a flower.

red and white applique tulip - showing how to make the fabric print (stripes) do extra duty for you

So – back to the fish. In addition to the crosshatch and tiny polkadots prints I used, I also used some skinny stripes. It’s those stripes I want to focus on today.

When you’re working with stripes, you really want to pay attention to the way you position the applique pieces. I actually do that with all kinds of fabrics. See how the crosshatching on Gerald’s body runs at an angle, and on the spot and his tail it runs straight up and down?

Yellow fish on a blue background - Fish Quilt - Gerald - from Shiny Happy World

I actually did that on purpose, but most people don’t even notice it.

That’s not the case with bolder patterns like stripes. You really have to think about how those stripes will run.

On Hank here I made the stripes run horizontally.

Striped yellow fish on a blue background - one block from the Fish applique quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World

On Charlie I chose vertically.

Striped green fish on a blue background - one block from the Fish applique quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World

You could use striped fabric on some fish and skip the smaller applique stripes, Like Louis here.

Striped turquoise fish on a blue background - one block from the Fish applique quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World

If you wanted to simplify that fish, just skip the purple applique stripes and use a striped fabric set vertically for his body. Easy peasy!

On Angelina I used the stripes to mimic the way a lot of fins have ribs in them, and how the angle of the ribs change – kind of sweeping back as the fish moves through the water.

pretty pink fish on a blue background - one block from the Fish applique quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World - showing how to use fabric print effectively

In both of her fins, the stripes are parallel with the front edge of the fin.

I fully admit that that last example may be overthinking things a bit. 🙂

But I do stand by the notion that when your fabric print is bold, you need to put some thought into how you use it in your applique.

This post is part of a series specifically about working with the Fish pattern. Here are the rest. . .

Here are links to all the posts about choosing fabric.

And here are links to posts about using specialty fabrics.

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Happy stitching!

Fish Quilt Step 2 – Choosing Fabric

September 5, 2017

Want to learn how to make a quilt with an easy online workshop – totally free?

Sign up for Let’s Make a Quilt here. You’ll learn how to get started, the tools and supplies you’ll need, and how to make a quilt from start to finish using Quilt As You Go and applique with fusible adhesive.

It’s the easiest, most fun way to make an applique quilt. You can do it!

The Fish Quilt pattern is finished!

In this post I showed how I quilted my background blocks.

Today I’m talking about fabrics. What color will your fish be?

I opted for the brilliant colors you see in a coral reef. Think bright, bright, BRIGHT!

I used two different fat quarter bundles for my fish. Most of the colors come from the Rainbow Brights fat quarter bundles.

That bundle has a darker and lighter shade of each color in the rainbow. That allows me to combine the light and dark for contrast in one fish, like this. . .

Isabella is made with the two shades of green in that bundle.

For a little extra contrast, I also added the Little Stripes fat quarter bundle. I love stripes so much!

Even though the fabrics in the two bundles come from different companies, I picked them so that the colors would still work really well together. 🙂

If I was making this for myself – and not as the sample quilt for a pattern – I probably would have also included fabrics from the Dots fat quarter bundle.

Those irregular dots and the crosshatch background would have added another nice texture to the fish – and the colors coordinate well with the other two bundles.

But I try to keep the numbers of fabrics I use in my samples to a minimum because I don’t want anyone to feel like they need to buy a TON of different fabrics to make the quilt work. Fabric is expensive! But if you have some Dots left over from making a Dinosaurs quilt – add them into the mix!

But what if you don’t want to make brightly colored tropical fish? What if you want to make fish that look like what you can pull out of any freshwater lake or stream?

For you I recommend the Warm Neutrals fat quarter bundle.

That will give you fish that look trout-tish and bass-ish and perch-ish.

(All of my fish are Ish Fish. The only fish in the quilt that really looks like a very specific type is the angler fish – and even on him I eliminated the exceedingly-scary-looking-very-sharp teeth.)

Which brings me to my final topic while we’re talking about color.

Camouflage.

I designed most of the blocks so there would be a very high contrast between the fish and the background water. I really wanted those fish to pop!

But I made a few be lower contrast. Angler fish (mine is named Kevin) have a very dull, practically invisible body so that all you really see is that glowing lure. I tried to sort of duplicate that (without making him too invisible) by making his body and the background the same darkness of fabric. You can see that really clearly when I switch his photo to black and white.

I added the lighter purple fin to help you spot him a bit, but you could go all dark for a more hidden fish lurking down there.

I chose purple on the blue because they’re in the same color family – both cool – so there’s even less contrast.

(If you want to read more about my normal “rules” for choosing applique fabrics (which I break here for Kevin) check out this post.

So Kevin is the lowest contrast, and most of the blocks are very high contrast, but I added in just a couple of low-ish contrast blocks to help make the overall quilt mimic a bit the look of a school of tropical fish – where some really stand out and some are less noticeable. Like this block where the lighter purple fish blend a bit with the lighter dapples in the background.

These guys appear in another block where they have higher contrast, so it’s only this pair who tend to recede into the background just a bit.

So there you go! That’s how I chose the colors for my fish. I can’t wait to see what you all do! I hope you’ll post photos as you go in the Shiny Happy People Facebook group. It’s awesome to see samples with different fabric choices!

You can order the Fish Quilt pattern here.

You can read about how I quilted my background blocks here.

You can read about how I worked with the print of the fabric here.

You can read about how I did my final quilting (bubbles!) here.

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Finished!

What You’ll Need

Cutting Instructions

Put It All Together

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