BERNINA Corporate Blog -Last year, I participated in the Summer Lovin’ Sew Along organized by Allie (@exhaustedoctopus) and Kitty (@nightquilter). We made a Sea Glass quilt, which turned out to be perfect for practicing free-motion quilting on the Q 24!
I’d love to share more about the concept of the project and how I quilted it on the BERNINA Q 24.
Earning Pieces of Fabric
In this sew-along, you kept track of various summer activities for three months. For each activity, you earned a piece of sea glass, which you could use to create a quilt at the end of the three months.
The fun part of this project was that you could set your own “rules” for earning pieces of sea glass. You decided which activities to track and how many pieces to award for each activity.
For example, I chose running and paddleboarding, and I awarded myself one piece of sea glass for every kilometer. For activities like yoga and journaling, I earned one piece per session. It was so enjoyable to collect the colorful pieces in a pretty jar.
During the sew-along, you cut your sea glass pieces out of fabric that already had double-sided fusible webbing applied. At the end of the three months, all you needed to do was arrange the pieces in a beautiful pattern and start quilting.
Choosing a Layout
Selecting a lovely layout was quite a challenge. There were endless possibilities!
I initially started with the design above, but I wasn’t completely satisfied. It felt like there were just too many different colors.
Normally, I would have left it as it was—I had earned all the pieces, after all! 🙂 But since the quilt was going to hang in our living room, the colors needed to match the space. So, I eventually decided to leave out one color group.
Ella didn’t mind at all that some pieces went back into the jar. This gave her the chance to create her own mini Sea Glass quilt. Are we already seeing a mini quilter in the making?
I wasn’t entirely happy with the organic shape I initially created either. Some examples of Sea Glass quilts are rectangular, which looks stunning. Since the pieces already have irregular shapes, the clean edges of a rectangular layout add a striking contrast.
I sorted the pieces by color and arranged them on the background fabric in groups to create a gradual color gradient.
It was quite the puzzle to fit everything into a rectangular shape, but what a satisfying feeling when it all finally came together!
Assembling the Quilt
I used Steam-A-Seam Lite as the double-sided fusible webbing. It sticks lightly before ironing, which is super handy because you can reposition pieces as needed. Once everything is in the right place, you press the pieces down to secure them permanently.
Simply sticking the pieces isn’t enough, though. To secure them fully, you stitch them down using free-motion quilting. This can be done completely freehand and doesn’t need to be perfect. You just stitch around the edge of each piece a few times and then move on to the next one.
The quilting, combined with using thick batting, makes the pieces pop even more.
Practicing Free-Motion Quilting
This project turned out to be such great practice on the BERNINA Q 24. I still have a lot to learn about free-motion quilting, but with this pattern, it doesn’t matter if the lines aren’t perfect. It’s actually charming if you slightly miss the edge, creating multiple loops around each piece of sea glass.
You do need to think a little ahead: Which piece comes next? Which direction should I go? This quilt offers just enough structure to guide you, while still giving you the freedom to find your own rhythm. It’s definitely a great project if you want to practice free-motion quilting.
The Finished Quilt
This is the first quilt I’ve hung on the wall in our house. The hanging rod still needs to be shortened, and I might need to adjust the height a bit, but I’m so happy with the result!
All in all, this was such a fun project to make, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat! Maybe next time with winter activities?
Groetjes,
Irene
Love the feet videos They are so cute I use the 350 and have a second hand 830 that I love Merry Christmas Bernina Thanks for the helpful
Love the feet videos They are so cute I use the 350 and have a second hand 830 that I love Merry Christmas Bernina Thanks for the helpful pistings
Love the design of this quilt. How is the binding done?
Thank you Judy! The binding is folded to the back of the quilt. I don’t have a tutorial on that, but I think you can find some more information when you google ‘no show binding’ or ‘invisible binding’.
Thank you for this inspiring article.
Delightful quilt. Will surely be making one of these. Thanks for sharing your project with us.
Thank you Elizabeth! It was such a fun project to work on.