Storm at Sea with a Snail Trail Border

My son is 21 years old and making his way through college. I wish I had taken up quilting when he was younger, he would have tons of quilts by now, but when I thought about making him a quilt, it wasn't easy coming up with a pattern for a boy. It's funny how I still call him a boy because he is growing up into such a man, at least over 6 ft tall and so very handsome. I'm blessed but that didn't make it easy to find a pattern. So I rummaged through all the books, magazines and online patterns -- still turned up with nothing that spoke to me.  Nothing stood out until I made my way to the bottom of a pile of books I have next to my desk. A book that was handed down to me from a woman I never met.  It was given to me through a friend's friend. I suppose that is how these books remain in existence.  "Quick and Easy Patchwork on the Sewing Machine" by Susan Alysworth Murwin and Suzzy Chalfant Payne. The templates in the back of the book are made of heavy card stock.  I browsed through and saw the "Storm at Sea" block. That's it! Eureka!!! 

However, and I do mean "however" this block was far from "Easy Patchwork." I never used paper templates before, so as not to destroy the ones from the book, I copied them, and made my own from heavy card stock paper.

But...what colors should I use? Patrick likes blues and purples. So, why not try batiks. I ran and grabbed a bunch of batiks and when I looked at the colors, washes of blues -- I needed something to bring out a contrast. I don't know why but I chose this orange, sort of purple, pink/green batik. Needless to say, I was a bit reluctant to use these colors.  When I had them in my hand, I couldn't see how they would work together. 

When it came to cutting the fabric, I carefully measured the width so I can cut strips, but that also did not come as easy as I thought.  Although the width was correct, I still had to trace the template, especially the diamond. I was cutting, marking chalk lines and cutting again. I was nervous that I was cutting all of this fabric for the garbage. I normally use traditional colors, earth tones, or something more subtle. Some of these colors made my head spin and quite frankly, I was a bit out of my comfort zone. Between the paper templates and the fabric, I was not sure I was going in the right direction and I most likely drove anyone I spoke to about it, simply crazy. Even when I carefully laid out the first row, I was posting it on Instagram FIRST STORM AT SEA BLOCK 

The fabric I chose and the idea I had with picking the pattern was, like most of my quilts, the thought of the person who would be receiving the quilt.  My son being 21 years old, I'm sure has gone through those years where things have seemed stormy, confusing, and a bit rocky. I wanted to bring any of those emotions from him into the quilt, having challenges, that storm that can build within you, so the colors of the stone which represented rocks on a shoreline, blue waters and greens from the sea, the oranges and yellow for the sun's reflection and then the dark blues and small celestial stars within the middle block to represent the moon light over the water at night was what I had in mind. The quilt represents challenges and overcoming them. I had a plan and I was hoping it would come together.

I carefully labeled the pieces I cut in alphabetical order and marked up the pattern in the book so I knew which piece went where. I knew I couldn't sew all these pieces together until the entire quilt top was in order.  Lucky I used my head with that; however, I have no wall in my little apartment to hang up a design wall, so the dinning room/living room floor was the only option. At this point, I was grateful I didn't have a dog or cat running around my house, although I miss having a pet, this would not have been a good time to have one.   Once the blocks were laid out on the floor, I must have switched them around several hundred times until it came together. 

The sewing was not difficult except when it came to keeping my points. I had to carefully sew on the exact crossing of the seam lines for the diamonds, or just above it so I wouldn't loose those points. For most of the blocks I was successful, but not all the points came out exactly how I planned, because I was loosing my 1/4  inch seam allowance.  Oooooooh, that 1/4 inch. God bless it (sarcasm at its finest).  After some time, I was thinking of taking the picture off of my dinning room wall and putting up a design wall, but that idea came quickly to an end when I thought of someone sitting down for dinner or passing to get a jacket from the closet -- the likelihood of them taking a block or two with them from the design wall was more of a worry.  

All in all, I am happy with the results. It was difficult but very much worth the challenge. Once the Storm at Sea was completed, I knew it wasn't done.  There was something missing. I let it rest for a few days and thought about it. I can tell you that some of the ideas I had were off the wall. I recall one time, waking from a nap and writing to a friend of mine on Instagram.  She was gentle in her response, but my thought was completely from another planet. When I looked at the quilt, I thought about the water. Yes, water ...like...like...a ROMAN BATH! I thought of building marble steps that would be the border, possibly doing a little  applique of palms and ivy wrapping around the steps, so it would be as if you were stepping down into a Roman Bath.  What in the world was I thinking!  Of course, that came to a quick end when my dear friend just told me to think about it some more. I'm sure she thought I had completely lost my mind as well.  So I did and let it rest, until I came across the snail trail pattern.  It hit me like someone had slapped me across the head. Of course! It looks as if waves are crashing up against the quilt and the quilt still holds its form, stronger than ever. The meaning of its entirety came together. I carefully had to do the math on this one  and each block came out to be 7-1/2 inches. If you look at the picture, I wasn't paying enough attention, so the bottom right corner block got a bit messy, but nothing that can't be fixed.  Actually, I have decided to leave it. Why you ask? Because it is a reminder that you cannot be perfect in an imperfect world. We stumble and pick ourselves back up but just like anything in life, you have to meet the challenges head on and even thought you feel the waves are crashing against you, no storm is too big to conqueror.