Sea Glass Quilt – Sugaridoo

Recently, I came across a fun WIP in my cabinet that I’d love to share with you. Last year, I participated in the Summer Lovin’ Sew Along, organized by Allie (@exhaustedoctopus) and Kitty (@nightquilter).

This sew along was a bit different from the usual QALs because it wasn’t about sewing a quilt just yet. Instead, we spent three months tracking our activities. For every activity, you earned a piece of “sea glass,” which you could use to make a quilt at the end of the three months.

The fun part of this project was that you could make your own rules for earning pieces of sea glass. You got to decide which activities to track and how many pieces each activity would earn.

For example, I chose running and paddleboarding, and for every kilometer I covered, I earned one piece of sea glass. For activities like yoga and journaling, I earned one piece per session. It was so much fun collecting the colorful pieces in a pretty little jar.

During the sew along, you cut your sea glass pieces from fabric with double-sided fusible interfacing already attached. At the end of the three months, I could easily arrange and stick the pieces onto my background fabric, ready to assemble into a quilt.

Choosing a layout was a challenge in itself – the possibilities are endless!

Initially, I thought about creating a flowing, organic shape, but in the end, I decided a straight edge looked better. Since the sea glass pieces already have so many different shapes, a straight border provides a nice contrast.

In addition to deciding on the shape of the quilt, there was the color gradient to consider. After some trial and error, I decided to leave out one color group. I plan to hang the quilt in our living room, and including all the pieces made it feel a bit too busy.

Ella didn’t mind at all that some pieces went back into the jar. It gave her the perfect opportunity to create her own mini sea glass quilt!

I sorted the pieces by color and arranged them on the background fabric in groups to create a gradual color transition.

It was quite the puzzle to fit everything into a neat rectangular shape. What a satisfying feeling when it finally all came together!

Once everything was in place, I secured the pieces with free-motion quilting. It’s all done freehand, so it doesn’t need to be perfect. You just stitch around the edge of each piece a couple of times and then move on to the next.

Thanks to the quilting style and the use of thick batting, the pieces pop out even more.

This is the first quilt I’ve hung on the wall in our home. The rod still needs to be shortened, and I might adjust the height, but I’m so happy with the result!