This month’s challenge, Storm at Sea, was a JOY to make! I love the Storm at Sea pattern and have made it many times in the past.
The first time I made it was about 1996 or 97. I made it as a going away gift for a paraprofessional in my classroom. It was purple, cream, salmon and had silver metallic lightening bolts in it. I only tell you all the colors because, unbeknownst to me, I only had black and white film in the camera.
See those sweet girls in the first picture? They turned out to be the mommas of the babies I gave these two quilts to:
To get ready for this month’s challenge I started early with a couple of newer patterns printed at 50%, a bunch of scraps, and ideas swirling around in my head.

Blue/green/purple/pink pattern is Ripple by 3 Dog Quilting
Both patterns were very fun to make at a smaller size. I love how the Ripple turned out–I think it looks like an eye with all it’s 45 degree angles. It willl make an amazing back of a quilted coat someday. The orange and blue is a little too big to be a placemat so I think it could be a nice table topper eventually.
When I opened the package to find out my color way, I completely fell in love with the Passion Petals collection. This collection was designed by Kathy Engle for Carol Moellers of Carol Moellers Designs and its colors are soft and BEAUTIFUL.
I was trying to figure out how I could incorporate one of the circular Storm at Sea patterns I had when I stopped by my quilter to drop off a quilt. Martha had been going through her patterns and had A Little Bit More Storm at Sea quilt pattern from Cindy Edgerton that she was looking to get rid of. PERFECT for one of my ideas. I snapped it up and ran home! These patterns are printed to a “meatier” tissue paper and are really fun to work with. The pattern instructions are just a page and really are simple and straightforward. Its original size is 52 1/2 by 52 1/2.
I decided to also quilt the Storm at Sea 3D pattern I had gotten from Sylwia BK of I Love to Quilt which is approximately 34 inches wide and place it in the center of the “flat” Storm at Sea pattern. So I got to work using the delicious “Butter” foundation fabric included with the collection color way.
It turned out great except I didn’t use enough of the collection for my liking–to show off the delicate, soft pinks and purples in the rest of the collection. I also decided I needed more of the butter fabric and so I ordered five more yards thinking I could back it with the left over. Once it arrived I got busy working on the background Storm using A Little Bit More Storm at Sea pattern. I kept placing the circle as I worked on it–wondering if I was doing the right thing!
I finally got all background pieced. I made a few decisions about color/pattern placement: I only had four different pinks and didn’t want to have too much of one pattern “clumping up” in the design. Also, with only two blue on blue fabrics I wanted to be purposeful on where they were placed. The purples were too lovely to make super scrappy so I deliberately pieced them on same blocks, hoping it would give the quilt a solid background to place the circle in so it would sort of “float” off. I reversed the butter fabric on the background Storm hoping that the dark purple on purple would define the sphere and have it lift off the background.
I have found on previous quilts the trick to something like this is to place the circle into the background rather than appliqué it. In order for the placement to work out, I needed to find the center of both the background Storm and the 3D Storm.
To make sure I placed the 3D block correctly I pinned north, south, east and west with longer pins to the background and then really pinned down the rest of the circle to the back of the background. The trick to dropping in a circle is that the cut away circle has to be 1/2″ SMALLER than the circle you are putting in. Well, these were monster pieces–a 34″ circle?!? What to do? Mark it with a pen? Chalk? How to do it?! I needed to cut UNDER the 3D Storm. For the sake of ease I decided to sew around the 3D block (using Schmetz 70/10 needle) with a different colored Auriful thread–bright red!
Once I had my red thread guide, I unpinned the two pieces, grabbed my small ruler and cut 1/2″ inside the red line.
I found my north, south, east and west pins and repinned the background to the 3D center. Sewing such a nice gentle curves on my Bernina 350 is just so easy–as long as I pin the heck out of it! Then, once placed, sewn and pressed I simply snipped out the red thread.
While I “drifted” a little on the placement–it’s not quite centered on west/east placement–I like how it turned out! After the bubble was placed, I finished up the border using, Opal, another great foundation fabric that was sent with this collection.

This made the quilt size stretch out to 52 1/2″ by 60 1/4″. Once the center was placed, the border added, I pieced the left over butter fabric I bought for the backing (perhaps five yards was a bit overkill!), grabbed my Hobbs Batting and raced off to my friend, Martha, who is my long arm quilter. She quilted a pattern that looked like a wild wind.
Kodiak is an island where the storms at sea last for days, sometimes weeks! The storms are unforgiving, ferocious and wonderful. This will be a quilt I will give to a graduate next year–to remind them where they come from and how wild it can get here–to keep them warm wherever they go.
Don’t forget to enter the Island Batik Blog Hop giveaway!
There are some beautiful quilts already posted and more to come! Jump into the hop and see what the other Ambassadors have made–I predict you will love them!
November 1:

Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail
Preeti Harris, Sew Preeti Quilts
November 2:

Pamela Boatright, Pamela Quilts
Jane Hauprich, Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting
November 3:

Denise Looney, For the Love of Geese
Megan Best, Bestquilter
November 4:

Gail Renna, Quilt Haven Threads
Claudia Porter, Create with Claudia
November 5:
Blog Hop Round-Up Week 1 and Giveaway
November 8:

Mania Hatzioannidi, Mania for Quilts
Jennifer Fulton, Inquiring Quilter
November 9:

Joanne Hart, Unicorn Harts
Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs
Jennifer Eubank, Archipelago Quilting
November 10:

Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations
Janet Yamamoto, Whispers of Yore
November 11:

Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood
Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine
November 12:
Blog Hop Round-Up Week 2 and Giveaway
November 15:

Elizabeth DeCroos, Epida Studio
Andi Stanfield, True Blue Quilts
November 16:

Brianna Roberts, Sew Cute and Quirky
Michelle Roberts, Creative Blonde
November 17:

Sally Manke, Sally Manke Fiber Artist
Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights
Suzy Webster, Websterquilt Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail
November 18:
End of Blog Hop
This is amazing, well more than that I just cant find the word. Beautiful job.
I am nearly speechless at how this looks with that round variation. Absolutely stunning!!
This quilt makes my heart sing! I love it so much – congratulations on a fabulous job! I used that trick of sewing the line before with a mariner’s compass; it is a great one to remember and easier than trying to mark such a big circle!
Very different and interesting idea a 3D storm.
WOW! This is amazing! I’m so impressed with the 3D effect and sewing the circle to the middle of the quilt. All your other storm at seas are also gorgeous, and you are right that your ripple circle will make a stunning back for a quilt coat! Stunning quilt!
The storm at sea is definitely on my list. And now the 3D version as well. And, any Bonnie Hunter scrap quilt to stretch my ability to use all the fabrics at once.
Absolutely beautiful! It really is amazing how you managed to get the circle in there. Well done!
Love it!!!
Absolutely gorgeous!
I love it.
Kisses from Greece
I love the 3D effect! This is gorgeous!
Beautifully done. Really looks dimensional! I’d love to make a traditional storm at sea quilt and then I’d like to try a pineapple quilt. After that? An applique quilt using Hawaiian designs.
This quilt is just so fantastic! I would have been terrified cutting that circle out. The resulting quilt is mesmerizing. Love, love, love!
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What an amazing creation. The 3-D effect is stunning and you have amazing bravery to pull this all off! You nailed it.