Yup. I’ve joined the narwhal craze. I can’t get enough of these unicorns of the sea, and this quilt is no exception. Recently, I’ve been designing so many quilts with solids — it’s like bringing the color blocking trend to quilts.
This quilt is similar to Kaden’s in that it’s made up of blocks to create the narwhal design. I still use graph paper to begin my sketches, and it’s so neat to see the curves and pieces come to life as I sew. I wanted this quilt to look loved and worn right from the get-go, and I think that look was accomplished in the end!
Gus’s eye and horn —what is that thing called? — are both sewn on after the top has been pieced, and sandwich quilted. I wanted them to stand out. I love the way the horn shows a bit of dimension by not having any quilting seams going through it.
If I had to pick a second favorite part of the quilt — the first being that narwhal horn — it would be the tail. I love the way that the curves came out.
I’ll get a better shot of the back, but I kept it pretty simple using shades of yellow — the same as his horn and then a bit brighter — and some leftover blues. I machine finished my binding, and I love how it turned out. Sometimes I prefer finishing the binding by hand, but I also love the durability of binding with all machine stitches too. Oh, decisions.
And yes, pattern will be coming soon-ish. I need to warm my cold feet and just get these out there — I put a lot of pressure on myself when it comes to patterns and things like that. I’m always nervous that what makes sense for me will totally lose everyone else, so ack. stay on me, k?
Happy Narwhal Thursday! that should be a thing.
xo
LOVE how this came out!
That is so awesome. I hope to make a quilt someday!
Cute, cute! & I love that you machine stitched the binding. Contemplating my first quilt for Graham’s nursery and wanted to machine stitch the binding but thought that was a huge no-no. I just love the way the topstitching looks and really want to use a contrasting thread on it to make it even more “on purpose.” Thanks for sharing all this fun stuff this week!
yes! i love handsewing my binding too, but for baby blankets that might get a lot of use and/or washing, I kind of love machine binding!! I’m going to do a few tutorials on how I do it — so look for those soon!
This is art! You do beautiful work.
This is adorable! My 13 year old step daughter is obsessed with narwhals. She’s love this ????
Looks great Kacia!! It’s actually a tooth not a horn. Crazy huh? Narwhals are so strange!!! But strangely cute?!
bahahahahahahaha. seriously? that’s awesome! Horn sounded weird…but tooth doesn’t seem any less weird! ha
I am definitely on board with the narwhal trend! I think they are fantastic! And I absolutely love the quilt! The colors are beautiful!
You HAVE to share how you got that beautiful binding!! What foot are you using to bind with on your brother?
Is there a pattern for gus? Would love to make the quilt for my granddaughter.
Coming! :)