Funny story – my pattern, Underwater Basket Weaving, started out as a mistake.
No – the pattern wasn’t a mistake, but rather inspired by a mistake.
I made a quilt (one of my first) for my oldest son following a pattern in a magazine. Thing about the magazines though… they often refer you to tutorials for techniques. It was my mom’s mag – I only thought to snag the pattern.
Oops.
So when I went to make my blocks I realized I needed the directions on another page – so my mom was super kind to text me a pic of those directions.
Only it was missing a page.
Oops again.
Anyway- I wound up with extra pieces I shouldn’t have had, plus too few blocks. I modified that quilt and then tried to figure out what to do with all the extra scraps.
Enter graph paper and my imagination.
I came up with something all right – but it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted.
That’s totally ok, though, as I was able to gift someone a quilt for their new baby boy – happy little accident (I love Bob Ross!).
You might be asking yourself why I am telling you this story? Well – two reasons –
- I want to let you know about this awesome project
- I want to let you know that just because something didn’t work out the first time, doesn’t mean it will never work out!
Fast forward to a few years later. I couldn’t really get this design out of my head – so one day I sat down and revisited my original drawing.
And I figured it out!
Original
The original version – the one with the not-as-nice-as-I-would-like-it picture, is many shades of blue.
I love blues.
I love the ocean.
I love watching the breakers.
Hence – blues and whites.
Christmas
Later on I thought to myself – wouldn’t this be fun to do in Christmas fabric? I liked the idea of having a special Christmas throw – so I grabbed my handy pattern and went for it again!
Here you have Santa belts!
Strip Packs
Then, I wanted to see if it would work ok with a strip pack (though it definitely loses something in the overall look by using strips vs yardage) and so I went shopping at my fave LQS and grabbed a fun set of batiks.
Here you have the beginning of that version – I haven’t added the borders yet as I finished piecing the center during our lockdown.
Though it works, I am not super fond of the not-quite-scrappy look of it. It’s not that it isn’t still kind of cool, but I miss the really woven look you get with yardage.
Oh well – that’s just my preference!
As you can probably tell – this is actually pretty fun to piece given that I’ve done it multiple times. Aside from this blog I design and write patterns as well as quilt to help earn a living. Underwater Basket Weaving is for sale here (digital download) and if you make it please be sure to share pictures! You can upload to the Quilt It List Adventures Facebook page or drop me a note!
Let’s get quilting!