I’ve made pretty good progress on my Seaside quilt over the last three weeks, this is the quilt from the book by Kathryn Whittingham, the same designer as my gorgeous Cottage Garden quilt.

I organised myself slightly differently this time and it’s worked really well. Basically, rather than preparing a picture with all the bondaweb applique and then embroidering it and then moving on to the next, this time I prepared several blocks and then put all the threads in my workbox downstairs so I could pick it up for short spells of embroidery here and there, like 15 minutes when I have my morning coffee.. I could then spend an afternoon making all the blocks up and then last night I stitched the blocks together.

Three weeks ago I was embroidering the cottages by the sea…

I love this block, it reminds me so much of holidays in Whitby. I finished the embroidery and added the borders. The only bit I have doubts over with this block is the stripy roof, I’ll wait until the quilt is a bit bigger to see if it disappears a bit, but if it still stands out I might colour it with some inktense pencils.

I fussy cut the centralblocks in to flying seagull blocks..,.well actually they’re flying geese but as Kathryn says, seagulls are a bit more apt!

The central block of the quilt is a red and white lighthouse. The coast of Yorkshire is pretty treacherous for boats with lots of cliffs and rocky bits, so there’s quite a few lighthouses along the coastline.

There’s quite a few seals, minky whales, porpoises and dolphins spotted along the coast too so they’ve been included both in the bigger pictures and little blocks too. This block is called a friendship star, there’s another one at the other side with a dolphin on…

So, last night I arranged the colours of the filler squares and started to stitch the blocks together. I’ve quite a few different seaside patterns, in fact I’ve probably got too many as it does need a few calmer prints to balance it out. This is the middle row so far…

…and this is the quilt so far…

I’m over half way now, with just one square block and another beach hut to embroider to finish this row. It does look bright and cheerful, I love it!

If you fancy stitching this quilt (or the cottage garden one) please follow the link to Patchwork Katy. Please note I was kindly gifted this book by the author (with no strings attached) but my views and opinions are my own.

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, and Daisy

I’ll also be inking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.