A Compass Rose


My surrogate favorite nephew, Carson, has a birthday tomorrow. He is a sailor, so I had been wanting to make him a Mariner's Compass for a while. It is a wee quilt, and I hope it will fit in the cabin of his boat.

I used a paper patchwork method, and, I swear, never will again. My brain just doesn't do upside down and backwards. Every blessed section had to be sewn at least twice.

The pre-loved fabrics are an international lot, variously from South Africa, Indonesia, Japan, and North America. I hand dyed the solid indigo fabrics, and an experiment in arashi shibori forms the background triangles.

I used a Faber-Castell brush marker to draw the fleur-de-lis and other directional symbols. Waterproof, lightfast, Indian ink in an easy to use pen - I love all the colours it comes in. These pens are also good for covering up stitches that show too much.

And Angus, of course, decided that no other comfy resting surface in the house would do for his afternoon grooming session.

Comments

  1. It is a gorgeous work of love, I'm sure he will appreciate it very much.

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  2. well maybe it was difficult, but it is perfect.

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  3. Wow, looks great!! And the cat--of course, where else? ;D

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  4. Your nephew will love it because it comes from you! Beautiful job!

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  5. Anonymous3:12 PM

    Oh I am so happy to see this post, I have made the mariners compass as well, I got as far as just the compass and didn't know what to do to finish it, I would like to finish it like you have, can you tell me what the letters mean.

    Thanks.

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  6. The directions are from the roman times when the centre of the world was the Mediterranean. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass_rose

    Cardinal Point Wind
    North: Tramontane
    North-EasT: Gregale
    East: Levante
    South-East: Sirocco
    South: Ostro or Austro
    South-West: Libeccio
    West: Ponente
    North-West: Mistral

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  7. Anonymous1:44 AM

    Thank you for the information, I didn't know any of that. I am very excited to get mine finished now, plus it will have an interesting tale to go with it.

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  8. Anonymous1:42 PM

    I'm hoping to do something similar for a quilt soon. I'm sure my orange cat will do exactly what yours is doing!

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  9. I went to a Mariner's compass class some years ago, and we did ours with freezer paper, so easy. Well, a lot easier , we thought . Love your cardinal points, and this will be a wonderful gift. When I made a second one for a friend for his 91st birthday, he died shortly after that, and his daughter sent the wall hanging to the Felixstowe Museum where WW2 memorabilia of the Naval Forces were kept on display. So I dedicated my blog to Walter, and the name " All Points of the Compass" as I remember a very dear friend.

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