I love the ocean with its salty air, hearing the water slapping against the rocks and seagulls squawking.  Mainsail Set is reminiscent of all things sailing that takes me back to those lovely memories of visiting lighthouses and rides on sailboats.  There's nothing better than seeing the crisp whites, bold blues and true reds to solicit experiences at sea.

Smooth Sailing is a group of beautiful fabrics depicting images of seafaring paraphernalia.  Sailboats, anchors, nautical stripes and water waves cover luscious fabric in colors of sea breeze blue, silver gray and cherry.

 

When considering the design of Mainsail Set, so many thoughts and feelings ran through me; some comforting, some invigorating and some thoughts were just plain silly like old Popeye cartoons.  My grandparents lived on the Pacific coastline so my family made regular visits. I can close my eyes right now and smell the fresh air, hear the tug boats blowing their horns and feel the rhythm of the ocean moving with the tide.

The quilt design is a collection of images from those days past with anchors, life savers, light houses and stars.  The boats are a given!  I first designed the quilt with five different boats but discovered as I was writing it that there were just too many pieces and I was loosing track of them!  I thought that if I’m having trouble writing the pattern people might have difficulty building it so I picked my favorite boat and you got five of them!

I hope you enjoy piecing Mainsail Set as much as I did designing it. By the way, Mainsail Set is featured in the June/July issue of Quilt Magazine on sale today, for all you nautical loving quilters and will include detailed construction information. And, you can order the kit from Connecting Threads to make the exact quilt being shown in the magazine.