Endangered Species – Sea Turtle Project

The 2021 Aurifil Color Builders are a capsule of 12 mini-collections dedicated to an incredibly worthy cause that falls in line with Aurifil’s goal to increase sustainability and positive environmental impact – Endangered Species. Each collection contains three large spools of their supple and strong 40 wt thread – a warm, a medium, and a dark.

The box of fabulous Aurifil thread that I received was none other than “Sea Turtle”. I have to say I was pretty scared about this project, but also excited that I received the Sea Turtle Collection.

The first thing I did was to do a Google search on Sea Turtles and see what I could find. There were some fun lessons on drawing sea turtles, but I couldn’t seem to make that work.

I did keep on gravitating back to this cool clipart that was a free download.

After seeing this picture and checking my Island Batik Fabric stash, a plan was formed. I enlarged the picture to the size I needed, then I traced the designs and turtle body (using some of my own variations) onto Steam A Seam 2 Lite and then ironed it to the fabric of my choice.

Once I had that done, I had LOTS of pieces to cut out. At that point I was not sure I had made the correct decision…..lol!!! My Karen Kay Buckley scissors were wonderful for this though!!!

I used Island Batik Oatmeal for the base of the shell of the turtle.

Once I had the pieces ironed on to the turtle, I fused the entire turtle to the background fabric, which was a very soft turquoise/blue fabric, which I felt would reflect the turtle swimming in the water!!

Now on to my favorite part…..the quilting. My plan was to secure all of these pieces down and quilt this all at the same time on my stationary longarm.

Since I was going to quilt this on my stationary longarm, I used two layers of Hobbs Cotton Fusible for this project.

When I auditioned the thread, I knew it was going to be perfect!!!

I was super excited to start using the Sea Turtle collection. I quilted this on my Handi Quilter Capri. Since I was going to be moving the fabric, my favorite way to control the fabric sandwich is by using my Machingers free motion quilting gloves.

Once quilted and squared up, I decided that this quilt needed a faced binding.

All in all, I am in love with this piece and can’t wait to hang it where everyone can see it!!!

Disclaimer: I would like to thank the following companies for providing the products I used in this project: Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, and Hobbs Batting.

Please make sure to check out all my other fellow ambassadors and their projects!!!

Megan Best ~ Best Quilter
Pamela Boatright ~ PamelaQuilts
Elizabeth DeCroos ~ Epida Studio
Jennifer Eubank ~ Archipelago Quilting
Jennifer Fulton ~ The Inquiring Quilter
Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts
Joanne Hart ~ Unicorn Harts
Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania For Quilts
Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch By Stitch Custom Quilting
Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs
Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood
Denise Looney ~ For The Love Of Geese
Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights
Sally Manke ~ Sally Manke, Fiber Artist
Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine
Claudia Porter ~ Create with Claudia
Gail Renna ~ Quilt Haven Threads
Brianna Roberts ~ Sew Cute and Quirky
Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde
Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail
Andi Stanfield ~ True Blue Quilts
Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations
Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt
Janet Yamamoto ~ Whispers of Yore

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