Divided in Calm Lagoon

Welcome to my stop on the Calm Lagoon blog hop! As a lover of all things ocean and all things blue, I couldn't resist these Island Batik fabrics from Sherry Shish's new signature line. I decided to use them to make a baby size version of my Divided pattern. Get the Divided pattern in my Etsy shop.

Am I amused that I'm sharing beach themed fabrics with snow in the background of the picture? Yes, I am! Welcome to life in Newfoundland! Though to be honest we've hardly had any snow yet and today is supposed to be 12°C (53F) and rainy, so it doesn't really feel like December.

I had a moment of panic when I first received my box of Calm Lagoon fabric because there wasn't as much contrast as I expected between some of them and the whale fabric I planned to use for the background. Oh, the joys of choosing fabric through a computer monitor, right? These two fabrics were the ones I was most concerned about. Without contrast with the background the appliqued orange peels would be almost invisible.

I thought I'd stitch around the orange peels with a navy thread to give them a more defined edge, but then my friend Michelle suggested I use white instead. That hadn't even occurred to me, but it was the perfect solution. The white zig zag definitely helps them stand out against the background. Phew!

I have a hard time choosing a favourite fabric. It might be these shells...

Or it might be these shells...

Or it might be the swirls. 

Once all the orange peels were stitched, putting the whole quilt top together was pretty quick. Gotta love baby quilts for being quick to assemble!

Michelle also suggested the fish quilting design I used, while helping me baste the quilt. Don't you love having friends that make your life easier? Now if only I knew someone who loved cleaning bathrooms, lol. I used Aurifil 1125 (medium teal) for the quilting, which blends nicely with most of the fabrics on the front and looks nice even where it stood out. With solid white for the quilt back, that teal thread really stands out, making for a fun, fishy back.

The fish were fun to stitch, but I worried at first that they looked more like balloons than fish. It took a while to be able to make fish that were longer/narrower, rather than rounded since the rounded ones tended to resemble balloons more than the longer ones did. Even with those efforts, some parts of this particular lagoon have rather fat fish!

Want to make your own Divided quilt (maybe as a quick, last minute Christmas gift)? Get the pattern now! It's available as a PDF or as a printed pattern and I offer free shipping. The pattern includes a throw size along with the baby size shown in this post 😊

Sherry has put together a great group of designers to share their Calm Lagoon projects, so be sure to visit and see what everyone has made.

• December 1 – Sherry Shish of Powered By Quilting
• December 2 – Kimie and Missy of On Williams Street
• December 3 – Kate Starcher of Katie Mae Quilts
• December 4 – Jen Strauser of Dizzy Quilter
• December 5 – Nancy Scott of Masterpiece Quilting
• December 6 – Sally Williams of Paleofish Designs
• December 7 – Leanne Parsons of Devoted Quilter - You are here!
• December 8 – Pamela Boatright of Pamela Quilts
• December 9 – Rebecca Lidstrom of Studio R Quilts
• December 10 – Laura Piland of Slice of Pi Quilts
• December 11 – Kathryn LeBlanc of Dragonfly’s Quilting Design Studio
• December 12 – Linda Bratten of Linda B Creative
• December 13 – Anja Clyke of Anja Quilts
• December 14 – Sherry Shish of Powered By Quilting