Naturally Nautical Quilt Finish!

I'm SO pleased to share a finish with you today! I've been itching to complete my Naturally Nautical quilt, but soon after I started making a few blocks a bunch of commissions piled up so sure enough, it dropped to the bottom of my to do list. I've had some free time recently so I've been beavering away with the quilting and managed to get it done and dusted a couple of weeks ago. I pulled it out at the weekend for a little photoshoot in Mousehole, a quaint little fishing village 3 miles from my house. 

A perfect location for such a seaside'y fun quilt! The day I visited was the same day they turn on their famous Christmas lights, which has become quite a popular event here over the years. You might spot the 'Mousehole Harbour Lights' sign in the photo above. The whole village lights up with pretty Christmas decorations, which everyone enjoys.

OK, back to the quilt. It finishes up 64" x 78", it almost ended up smaller when I finished the top and basted it only to realise I had forgotten to add the 4.5" borders! I wanted the boats to float on the quilt so I knew I had to go back and re-add them :-/ I added a border around my backing fabric too, in order to make up the difference. I used scrappy fabrics and it ended up making a nice feature for the back, but I forgot to photograph it, as my very helpful prop assistant was getting cold ;-)

I loooved the original version of this quilt (find the free pattern here) so I stayed close to the simple blue theme. I chose some great nautical fabrics I had on hand from Sew and Quilt, and even managed to fussy cut some ships in a few of the blocks! Also, this is my FIRST free-motion-quilted quilt! Wow, it was a slog... and a steep, steep learning curve but I got there in the end. I chose baptist fans to echo a wave'y style that would work well with the design. Plus baptist fans are pretty amazing, and work well on every quilt, I think. It's certainly not perfect, by any means! But I'm really pleased I managed to do it, as I'm one of those quilter's that moan "I can't FMQ" without ever giving it a proper go! ;-) I think we've all been there, yep? So if I can do it, anyone can. Really.

There's been some great quilter's quilting along with me, if you're on Instagram (I'm @messyjesse1) you can use follow using the hashtag #naturallynauticalquiltalong, there you can see some other fabulous nautical quilts! Don't forget to use the hashtag if you decide to join too, so I can find you :-) Hope you're all having a good week. xo