I Saw A Fish!

26Nov
by Janine @ Rainbow Hare

The other day I visited the lovely Karen from Laughter in Quilts and she had made this stunning drunkards path mini quilt – do have a look! I was admiring her amazing fmq and suddenly I saw a fish! 

Who knew you could arrange dps into a perfect fish shape! Probably everyone but it was a revelation to me. So I found a scrap of paper and scribbled away until I had a seemingly small ocean of fish. Then I did some calculations and discovered that would make a bigger-than-kingsize quilt unless I made 1″ dps, which I wasn’t really up for. So I scaled back and decided to make one fish to start with.

Then I added added some triangles to square up the ‘sea’ and added and an improv curve and a boat…and it was looking very blue, which was good because blue is the colour of the month in the Colour My World Challenge with M-R at Quilt Matters. I’m sorry M-R, I have cheated but only a little!

I also thought the fish was looking a bit obvious so I added some blue stitching to blend it in a bit…

…and some more blue stitching for the sky…

…and having become just a touch fixated with adding thread, I decided, for my fisherman to try some improv knitting (using six strands of anchor embroidery thread and 2mm needles) and I was really happy with how he turned out – a fisherman needs a jumper (+ hat, scarf and mitts!) and it was so much easier than appliquéing fabric! I basically gave up knitting to quilt but I see more of this miniature knitting in my future!

1. before the quilting, 2. blue fish, 3. blue sky, 4. blue fishing detail, 5. an old man and the sea, 6. old man, knitting detail, 7. old man in a boat, 8. blue fish detail, 9. blue sea and binding

And I waited all day for some of that natural light I’m always reading about that’s recommended for taking great blog pics but this is England and today we had none at all and now it’s getting even darker!

Have you sewn something blue?

The linky party for the Colour My World Challenge isn’t until the end of the month so you still have time!

Janine @ Rainbow Hare

33 thoughts on “I Saw A Fish!”

  7. Teje Karjalainen

    Hi Janine! Your quilt is the best for a long time! You are an artist! I have seen many beautiful quilts with drunkard's path but never thought it could make so great fish! and I have mad fish quilt with triangles. Thank you for inspiration! x Teje

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  8. Karen

    You crack me up! I saw this in Flickr and wanted to look at it closer but had absolutely no idea you saw a fish from my mini! HEHE This block is brilliant! I absolutely adore the details it is so dang cute!

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  10. Allison

    wow! the handstitching adds so much fabulousness to the fish and water! and i'm in speechless awe of the fisherman's clothing. i don't think I would have ever thought to make a fish out of DP blocks, but now I'd love to make and ocean of them in rainbow colors!

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  23. Elizabeth Olney

    I am absolutely captivated by this piece. The knitting is beyond brilliant, the mixture of machine and hand quilting is perfect, your perfect sence of line and balance overwhelmes me. For lack of more eloquent phrasing, “you nailed it, Janine”!

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  27. Shannon

    I love your big stitch quilting! It adds so much depth to your adorable fish mini. Your poor fisherman looks like he might have a cold nose but grateful for the gloves and scarf!

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  29. M-R

    Gorgeous, Janine! I'm so glad you linked up to the challenge. It's so interesting to see how we both had boat/water ideas but they were executed differently to produce two beautiful pieces. So fun! :)

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