Readers Project: Barbara’s Nautical Themed Quilt & More

Note from Alanda Craft: Barbara has adapted the pattern and added a couple of rows of rectangles in with the squares. I think that’s a great idea and shows how just how unique you can make your quilts with a simple change. Love the nautical theme, and I think the lobsters and crabs fabric makes the quilt pop. I know what she means when she talks about laying out the blocks. I find that sometimes you can keep shuffling them around until finally, you have to say ‘Enough is enough’. And the quilt always looks amazing anyway. Really don’t know why we put ourselves through so much stress sometimes 🙂

Barbara Says:

I finished the hand-tying this afternoon. I wish I’d laid it out differently but I had already done it and changed the patterns more than a dozen times and I knew I had to stop or I’d never finish.

I know it’s not the way 99.9% of people would do it but it is what it is.
The back is a nice cream on cream color although it shows more white and gold. I used a matching cream embroidery thread to tye it off.

lap quilt, nautical quilt, craft, sewing, quilting

It’s a shade darker than it shows here. (but the quilt colors show up a little better here. Except for the anchors; it looks black here but it’s really navy blue.

nautical quilt, craft, sewing, quilting

The back is a nice cream with a pattern of some sort – cream on cream.

quilt, nautical quilt, craft, sewing, quilting

I would also like to share some of Barbara’s quilting history with you. (I have asked and she has given her permission). You can see photos of a couple of her cat quilts for adopted cats below. I think they are just lovely and what a great idea.

Barbara says::

I make kitty mats. I foster cats and kittens and we give one to everybody who adopts one. We also sell them for a few dollars to raise money for the homeless cats in this little town. It pays for spays and neuters, medical care, food, etc.

Right now I have 110 finished. I’ve been doing it since June 2011 so if there is a kitty fabric out there, I’ve probably used it. Before that, I made crib quilts for theNavy Relief Society in San Diego (where we are from). I didn’t quilt on the machine, though, I hand-tied them all.

cat quilt, quilting, craft,sewing,

To see more of Barbara’s lovely quilts, click on the links below:

You can also visit Barbara’s Etsy store where she has some lovely quilts for sale.

You can watch the video below to see how to make our basic Layer Cake Quilt

Then you can do as Barbara has done and adapt it to suit your needs.