Day 67 – Sea Anemone

We’ve been doing a lot of edge to edge and chaining designs lately so let’s shake things up a bit with a new center fill design like Sea Anemone!

My husband doesn’t keep anemones in his reef tanks but all you have to do to see these cool sea plants (or animals) is to watch Finding Nemo.

James is out of school today with a sore throat so we will most definitely be spending some time curled up on the couch watching animated fishies swim home while I hand stitch the binding on Vase of Hibiscus.

Inspiration – Sea anemones were probably the last thing on my mind when I was creating this design.

I was flipping through my notebook of designs and saw Poinsettia. This design is just begging for variations so I decided to try out the most standard first variation: make the lines more wiggly!

Design Family – Center Fill. This design is worked from the middle out, which means that this design will work great placed in the center of blocks or the centers of quilting designs.

It’s probably not going to work as well placed in complicated areas where you have to do a lot of wiggling and traveling in order to get the space filled.

Difficulty Level – Advanced. But please don’t be intimidated! The real difficulty with this design lies in maintaining your swirl shapes even in weird areas.

Just draw it a few times and then give it a go even if you’re a beginner. What’s the worst that can happen? You mess up a 6″ square of fabric? So what!?

Directional Texture – Center Focused. I’m reminded of the circular quilt kit that I purchased 2 months ago from Guildcrafters Quilt Shop in Berkley, MI.

I think I finished 7 blocks using a variety of applique methods, but still couldn’t find one that I liked.

But my last post in which I complained extensively about my hatred for applique has brought forth a new method to my attention!

Krista from Poppyprint has published a tutorial walking us through a very cool, very easy looking applique method that I’m going to have to try today.

You definitely wouldn’t know that this is her first tutorial because the pictures and explanations ROCK! I must learn what camera she uses…

Once I get this quilt of 70 blocks finished, I’m going to quilt each circle with a different center filler design. Quite apart from looking awesome, it will inspire me to invent 70 more designs!

Suggestions for Use – I’d definitely place Sea Anemone on circular coasters or holiday ornaments. It’s cheerful and, while advanced, it’s not impossible, especially if your circle is small.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day

Free Motion Quilting Design #35 – Poinsettia