Last Christmas, I received a mystery box of fabric on my porch. I hadn't ordered it, and after some sleuthing, I found out it was a gift from Benartex, the fabric company! Inside was a bundle of fabric from the Mystical Mermaids collection! I immediately knew I wanted to use it to make a Hydra quilt!
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking the links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
If you're new here, hello! I'm Laura! I design quilt patterns, and I'm a self-proclaimed deal hunter! Be sure to join the popular Quilting & Sewing Deals Facebook group where I post sales, deals, and coupon codes from all around the web!
The Hydra quilt is such a fun one to make! You can see other versions I've made HERE and HERE. The Mystical Mermaids collection is a mix of white, purple, navy, and aqua prints. Most of the prints have silver metallic ink too!
The first step of the pattern is to cut the fabric into squares. You then use the template in the pattern to cut the bottom of the squares into a curve.
Then you just sew two of those pieces right sides together and turn them right sides out. That makes all the scales for the quilt.
The quilt is assembled from the bottom to the top using a quilt-as-you-go method. You add one row of scales at a time, and this quilts it at the same time that you sew it all together! It's quite easy! I like to do mine on my longarm, but it's just as easy with a walking foot on a regular sewing machine!
I used solid fabrics from my stash for the background and binding. (Tutorial for machine binding HERE.)
It's such a fun quilt! I made the baby size, which is my favorite size of quilt to make. They are just faster than larger quilts!
All the scales move and can flip up. Wouldn't this be such a fun I Spy quilt?? Just use novelty fabrics on the back of the scales!
I had gifted the baby size Hydra quilt I had made before to my niece, so this one is going to stay with me this time! I'll use it in my trunk shows!
Have you ever made a quilt with 3-D elements? It's one of my favorite techniques!
Of course I had to photograph a mermaid quilt at the local lake! I love how the water reflects the quilt!
Now it's your turn to share what you've finished lately! Link up an Instagram post, Facebook post, or blog post so we can celebrate what you've made! (Learn more about TGIFF HERE!)
Hi Laura, what a wonderful gift of fabric and a great quilt! Thanks for hosting TGIFF.
ReplyDeleteTHis is such a great quilt to drink in!! Very mermaidish Perfect choice for your fabrics that showed up on your porch. What a nice surprise!
ReplyDeleteHi Laura, you mentioned in your post that you use your long-arm for the quilting of this Hydra quilt, but I don't see any actual quilt stitches in the photos. Do you have some other photos? I'm curious about how you did this. As a newer long-arm quilter this is something I would like to learn. Thank you for your time.
ReplyDeleteYes! I put my backing and batting on the longarm, then work from the bottom of the quilt to the top. So I lay a background strip and all the scales for one row and the next background strip, then use the channel lock on my longarm to sew all the way across to hold those down. Then I just keep repeating for each row! The pattern is written to do this on a regular sewing machine with a walking foot, but I just use the channel lock to sew each row instead. It's super fast!
Delete