A Tale of 2 Squids

 I finished this pair of squid.  Each finished at 20" x 26"

 Based on this photo by Pat Di Giazomo. 

 I started with this one.  It was started during lock down so I was limited to fabrics on hand.  I found a fat quarter of this fabric and set about fussy cutting the darker grid areas for the top, and lighter sections for the bottom.

This squid was made using my favorite applique method of back basting needle turn.  It was hand quilted.  That makes the whole piece very soft and drapey after washing, and bigger pieces have some poof to them that makes them look very dimensional.  It took about 11 hours to complete.

Quilt shops opened, the week I started this project, which was fortunate as I didn't have a good, dark background fabric.   While at the shop I found this spotted brown fabric. I was sending updates to Pat all along, and she really preferred the brown, so I made a second one.  I made some minor adjustments to make the body a little skinnier, and the pupil of the eye larger.  I used my least favorite applique technique of fusible web.  To further save time, I top stitched it during the quilting process. The squid is much stiffer in the body due to the fusible.  However, it is going to be used as a wall hanging, so that works out OK.  I have concerns about the durability of raw edge applique for quilts that get a lot of use.  It reduced the time to about 5 hours and had the additional cost of Wonder Under and much more thread.

Pat's brown squid will be bound and finished for a wall hanging.  The green one turned into a pillow case.