Civil War Ocean Waves

When I saw a photo of an Ocean's Waves quilt that used a deep cranberry red for the background, I knew I had to make one! I love experimenting with colors other than white for backgrounds, and the dark red was lovely paired with the Civil War reproduction fabrics I'd been collecting.

The only problem was the half square triangles. LOTS and lots of them. After I made a black and white quilt entirely with 1,500 tiny triangles, I vowed never again! But that was before I discovered the quick method for making 8-at-a-time half square triangles!

Here's the completed top, before quilting. I wanted to enter it in the Sisters, Oregon quilt show, so that became my incentive to get it done!

I used a light gray thread so the quilting would stand out, and did a curved triangle inside each piece. The border was a swirly freehand leafy vine.

A simple swirl in the center of each block.