Artsy Fartsy with Island Batik – Complete

Here it is. The day we have all been waiting for. My Island Batik fish quilt is nearly complete! (This is as complete as it will get in July.) I hope it lives up to your expectations.

Island Batik challenged their ambassadors to make an art quilt using at least three weights of Aurifil thread this month. I made this a double challenge, and worked in fabric manipulation for my art quilt group.

I seriously don’t understand my fish fixation, but I’ll just call this a summer of fish and lean into it. Please forgive the fish names. It’s a hot summer and my brain is melted. Also, I used to be pretty heavily into fish tanks, and based on Barb’s drawings, two of these fish are clearly males. The other two fish don’t come up in the PetSmart trade, so I’ve carefully chosen names that could work for any sex.

Fish

Neville is a Siamese Fighting Fish in his prime. He has a body made with the echidna pattern. Lots of little prairie points, made with 1 1/2″ squares. His tail is made with a variation of controlled pleats and quilted with a variegated 50 weight Aurifil in yellows. His fins are quilted with Aurifil in a variegated 12 weight. His eye is 28 weight Aurifil.

Pat is perhaps a piranha, although he is a little cagey about it and suggests I dip my toes in the water and find out. His body was done with trapunto – I used a layer of Hobbs Tuscany wool beneath the top layer of fabric and quilted a scaley design on my Bernina 153. I quilted his body again once he was on the frame, so if you zoom in, you can see two weights of thread. I like the effect. His face is made with a windmill cathedral window, partially stitched closed at the center using Aurifil 80 weight – my favorite weight for when I want invisible stitches. I quilted over his body, fins, and tail with a variegated 12 weight. His eye is stitched with Aurifil 28 weight. The holes around the eye are from stitches I didn’t like the look of. I actually really like the holes.

Jared is a sparkly green guppy. His body is this awesome diamond fabric origami. Rather than beads I used sequins, because FISH SCALES. I wanted to add more sequins, but I exercised self control. (I may add more later.) His tail is made of pin-tucks. I didn’t measure them, so if they seem uneven, it is because I was going for an organic, underwater movement. Also, lazy. Fins and tail are quilted with variegated Aurifil in a 12 weight.

Micah is a barracuda. It should have at least had silver lamé fins, but Island Batik doesn’t carry lamé (yet!). I used another variation of cathedral windows, with fish gills in mind. My son pointed out that gills don’t go that way. He’s so supportive. Quilting is again just in fins, face, and tail, with Aurifil 12 weight variegated thread.

Further details

Kelp in faux chenille. Not super impressive now, but I can’t find my chenille brush, and Amazon doesn’t carry them. We are at an impasse. Trust me when I tell you that the kelp will eventually be fuzzy. You can see the beginning of fuzziness on the second photo. Just not today, because I’m pretty sure that brush is in the bottom box in the Closet of Doom. This is just 5 layers of Island Batik greens, stitched together on the bias, then cut into strips. ___ has a great tutorial.

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Sea Grass – I quilted this on my Gammill using Aurifil 12 weight in variegated greens. (I bought a pack of several different variegated Aurifil 12 weights in a class, and I used most of them in this project.)

Bubbles – There was some debate as to whether fish actually do make bubbles. They are always in the coloring books, so that is good enough for me. The bubbles are yo-yos, which are too small for commons sense. They would make great barnacles if I ever do a beach rock scene. Made with Aurifil 50 weight, attached with 80 weight.

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Quilting – I layered my top with two layers of batting. I used Hobbs Heirloom Cotton as the base, then Tuscany wool on the top. Double batting is a quilt show trick – you get fantastic definition in your quilting. It is a bit of a double edged sword, though, because if you screw up, it really shows.
I just used a freehand back and forth “watery” design over the whole top, avoiding the fish, using a dark blue Aurifil 50 weight. I filled in details on fish tails and fins with heavier 12 weight threads. They worked really well in my machine. Eyes were added with 28 weight Aurifil.

Binding – I used my AccuQuilt 2 1/2″ strip cutter to cut my binding. It is so fast, and always accurate. I love my new AccuQuilt Go! so much. I used a really dark Island Batik – the pattern is marble and the color is storm.

Quilt Specs
Size – 34″ x 40″
Pattern – Babyhood by Barbara Persing
Fabric – Island Batik – scraps from everything I’ve made
Thread – Aurifil in 12, 28, 50, and 80 weight.
Batting – Hobbs Heirloom Cotton and Tuscany Wool

Further Thoughts

I will fluff out my chenille kelp once I find the brush. I am also considering adding a thread painted jellyfish up in the left corner (I am really bothered by there being an even number of fish). I almost certainly will add more sequins into the diamonds on Jared. I might tack down his pin tucks in different directions to make it more interesting, too. I’m not absolutely in love with Neville’s tail. I might pick out some of the stitching and re-work it a bit. Also, the top bit isn’t quilted, because my machine decided it didn’t want to quilt that area. I tried several times, and it was skipping stitches, so I stopped. He might get a hand-quilted tail.

Special Thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil, Hobbs, AccuQuilt, and my family for supporting my creativity. Barbara Persing created a fabulous pattern, Babyhood, that I had a lot of fun with. Teresa Down Under provided fantastic fabric manipulation tutorials that I took full advantage of.

Extra special thanks to Oscar, who is always supportive when it is time to blog.

Read about how I made the background here.

Linking up with
What I Made Monday with Becca of Pretty Piney