Making a Mariner’s Compass Quilt

I have a new commission! A mariner’s compass quilt in aqua and grey for a housewarming present. Yippee!

I thought I’d bring you along on my design journey for this project since it’s the entire process from start to finish.

First I did some browsing for fabrics in aqua and grey. Right away I came across this collection- Winter Village by Amanda Murphy.

As we had talked about the project, she had mentioned that they’re building the house in the forest because they love looking out at the trees. This fabric could not be more perfect! It has adorable coordinating prints, too!

This print reminded me of snow (which they will get a lot of at this new house) and water (their house is built by a lake). All of which reminded me of a map or navigation.

Time to come up with the design. For me, everything design related starts on graph paper. She wants it for a queen bed- so I’m roughly starting with a size of 100” square.

I thought of a mariner’s compass as my theme. I love flying geese so I incorporate them when I can. I always have the quilting design at the forefront too— making sure my layout will lend itself to beautiful quilting.

Robin Ruth Designs sells a strip piecing Mariner’s Compass Ruler that I love, so I’ll use that to create the compasses. I always use my Bloc Loc Flying Geese Ruler for making my flying geese.

Time to pull some fabric! I chose some solids for the smaller compass and my coordinating fabric for the larger compass. Lots of scraps for the flying geese to give it personality! I’ll use white for the backgrounds.