Octopus's Garden, part of the A Piece Of blog hop (plus giveaway)

Today kicks off the start of Island Batik's A Piece Of blog hop and I'm so excited to be on the first day!!  I received the collection Black Pearl by Kathy Engle as my surprise fabric back in January and I started my project in March.  So, without further ado, here is Octopus's Garden!

I pretty much started singing Octopus's Garden by the Beatles from the moment I saw my fabric and haven't stopped since. My inspiration was this guy:

The fabric is aptly named Octopus and is in the color Frozen Pond.  I knew I wanted to start with an octopus.  I looked at several patterns and finally chose this one from a Sew Mama Sew post by Elizabeth Hartman from 2008. This particular octopus is very opinionated.  She told me very early in the stitching process that her name was Petunia.  I told her that was ridiculous, I couldn't name her after the not-at-all nice aunt from Harry Potter!  But she insists that her name is Petunia.

Petunia the Octopus, from a Sew Mama Sew tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman

Once I found an octopus pattern, she needed some clam shells in her garden.  The clam shells were the first part I actually stitched. The template and method I used is now a dead link--the pitfalls of starting months ago! I stitched down the clam shells with Auriful monofilament in smoke. The center panel contains 17 of the 20 fabrics in the collection.  I saved the Octopus print and another with sea turtles to be featured in the rest of the quilt, and I used the 20th fabric (Fern Leaves in Gun Metal) for the sashing and binding. 

Coral and Fish also from Elizabeth Hartman tutorial

My vision for the rest of the quilt was to have other sea creatures and the fabulous Black Pearl fabrics surround the octopus in her garden.  I wanted it to feel fairly random, and I pictured something similar to the Mondrian-inspired quilt patterns that Liz of Savor Every Stitch has created.  I did not end up using her generator--I graphed mine out using graph paper and pencil--but her pattern generator was part of my inspiration. The experience of graphing it out has told me that it's time to consider buying quilt design software!

My old-school design method

There are a total of 18 blocks of animal applique or piecing that surround Petunia the Octopus.  All are on a background of Island Batik's gray solid.  I used a few scraps of the solid black and white as eyes for various animals.  My train die for the Accuquilt Go! has two different size circles and I use those for eyes whenever I can--it's a great time saver and, unlike me, the Accuquilt cuts perfect circles. All twenty fabrics from Black Pearl are included in Octopus's Garden and all make multiple appearances.  

Fish Pattern from Animal Parade by Cheri Leffler

I wrote down a list of sea creatures I wanted to include and went about collecting possible patterns.  I started with those I already owned.  Several fish plus the sea turtle, seahorse, crab, and jelly fish came from the book Animal Parade by Cheri Leffler.

Sea Turtle from Animal Parade by Cheri Leffler.  Trio of fish from tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman

 I picked out the fabric for each animal as I made it, so there wasn't a lot of pre-planning.

Seahorse from Animal Parade by Cheri Leffler

I did not originally have a shark on my list of ocean animals to include, but my son entered a big shark phase this summer and insisted that I add at least one shark.  I let him help me pick the fabric for the shark; he liked the lines in this one and says it's a tiger shark.  The outline came from a downloadable coloring page I found online. 

My son wanted more sharks so we agreed to call this little guy a shark as well, even though I originally meant him as a fish.

The whale is another pattern I already owned.  It's from the book Fat Quarter Baby by It's Sew Emma.  It came together really quickly and is a pattern I'll use again.

whale pattern from Fat Quarter Baby by It's Sew Emma

The whale and this row of fish (below) are the only animals that are traditionally pieced; all others are applique.  I used a variety of Auriful threads for the satin stitch around my applique pieces.  I didn't write them all down, but my main threads were 2783 (a medium blue), 2785 (dark blue), 4020 (bright pink), 2520 (a lovely lavender), 2615 (gray) and 2710 (light blue).

fish pattern is Summer School by Missouri Star Quilt Company on their YouTube channel

I also used the 2710 (light blue) for the quilting.  I considered many different threads but I wanted something that wouldn't be too dark against all the gray solid background.  I used the wave stitch on Willa the Wonder Machine (my Pfaff) because I wanted it to look like waves in the ocean.  The lines of stitches are every two inches.

jellyfish from Animal Parade by Cheri Leffler

The batting is Hobbs Heirloom 80/20, my favorite batting.  This is a queen size batt.  I made the quilt for our guest room bed which is actually a double/full, but the quilt fits even our queen bed.  The guest room is also my sewing space and I'm sew excited to have this special quilt where I will see it every day!

I really wanted a mermaid but man, were those fingers hard to stitch around!!

crab from Animal Parade by Cheri Leffler

I started this when I thought the quilt would be a part of the August Beat the Heat blog hop, and I thought that being under the ocean would fit that theme well.  Then there were some changes to the hops for this year and I was moved to A Piece Of.  Bonus is that I got more time!  Downside is that I wasn't sure how to make this fit the new theme, even though we're told we don't have actually have to fit the theme.  But I put so much of me into this quilt that I now think of it as a piece of me, so it fits after all!

Want the full schedule for the hop?  You can find it here. Island Batik is also doing a giveaway each week of the hop.  This week, it's a precut bundle of Little Sir, Little Miss.  Hop on over and check it out!

starfish from Keepsake Transfer Collection: The Big Book

There are two of us who were lucky enough to get Black Pearl to play with for today's hop.  Be sure to check out Janet Yamamoto at her Whispers of Yore facebook page to see what she did with these lovelies.

fish from Animal Parade by Cheri Leffler

You can see that I added the octopus fabric throughout the quilt. 

dolphin from 150 blocks for Baby Quilts by Susan Briscoe

The materials used in this quilt were provided to me by Island Batik., Accuquilt, Aurifil, and Hobbs.

fish from Animal Parade by Cheri Leffler, squid from a coloring sheet

Now that you've made it through all those pictures, want a chance to win some fabric?  I have scraps of Black Pearl to give away.  You can see two piles of scraps, below.  Some are fairly substantial, meaning you could cut at least a layer cake square.  The pile on the far right has the smaller scraps, but they would be great for improv or EPP.  And there is almost a yard and a half of Octopus in Frozen Pond, plus an Island Batik black and white scarf.

prize package includes yardage of Octopus, black and white scarf, plus scraps of Black Pearl

Enter using the Rafflecopter below.  If you need a prompt for blog comment, tell me your favorite aquatic animal.  We visited the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta last weekend and I particularly loved the beluga whales. Giveaway is open for the duration of the A Piece Of blog hop and closes November 24th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway