Sewvivor Challenge 1: Nautical

Well here it is people, the first challenge of Sewvivor.  This week your votes really count so please, please, please go and vote. I doesn't hurt if you vote for me, only if you like mine of course.
When I think of the word nautical I think of water, beach, sun and fun.  Good thing I'm an expert on all of those things but how does one translate that into something quilty?  It has to be something worthy of Sewvivor.  Here is my attempt at NAUTICAL, hope you like pictures.

I knew I was going to use my fq bundle of Swim Team.  From there I had to decide what I wanted to make because if you really think about it I could combine three of the four challenges into one item but I wanted to showcase different sides to my craftiness and do something really different for each challenge but would a quilt be too much for the first challenge.  I decided if I don't give it my all I wouldn't be happy in the end so I went for it. 

This pattern is called "Stacked Square" and it is available here.  I made one last year for a high school friend and knew I wanted one for myself but you know how that goes there's always something new to try.  I'm glad I decided to add a pop of yellow, its funny how one thing can make it just perfect.

This quilt was cut, pieced, basted, quilted, and bound in 3 days.  Why rush you ask, well we were going to Niagara Falls and I couldn't think of a better place to take pictures so I did what I had to do and boy did I sew like a mad man or woman should I say. This is the fastest a quilt has ever come together for me and this is the biggest quilt I've free motion quilted.

Here's a view of the back.  I used the nautical symbols J,L,K,E for our names and Mr. Crab was embroidered on.  Don't you love how he's got sun in his little claws.

Isn't the falls just beautiful.  Look Mr. Crab is trying to jump into the water.

Here's a close up of Mr. Crab, my hubby wanted me to make sure everybody knew it was embroidered on and that it wasn't part of the fabric.  Mr. Crab sure loves holding onto that sun. 

A little close up of the quilting never hurts.  Let me tell you the first round of this was driving me nuts. The back kept getting sucked under and I didn't like the way it was looking blah blah blah, the same thing happens every time I start fmq, I get so nervous and anxiety completely takes over and I become super hyper critical of everything. Then I'm like its too late to go back so just bump it I need to get it done who care what it looks like at this point it's already messed up.  Finally it gets finished and it's the best thing you've ever done.  LOL:) I found inspiration for this quilting on Pinterest. 

I mean how much more could you ask for you got the falls, you got the boat, and you got a bird.

So what's a girl to do when she finishes a whole week early? Make pillows with all the scraps would be the only reasonable answer.  Seven pillows to be exact! To celebrate the biggest quilt I've made for myself I decided to make a whole bed set. Please don't laugh...

I'm probably going to have to do another post just for the pillows I made.  After all this I still have a huge pile of scraps.

 How would you like to win some nautical scraps? All you need to do is go and vote and come back here and leave a comment here telling me that you did.  I'll be doing another giveaway on Instagram (@Callingallstitchers).  Again don't forget to go check out everybody else's entry and VOTE.

Thanks to Rach for hosting such a fun competition.