Anchor Me.

It’s done. It’s finished. Well… except for the label.

Anchor Me is Inspired by this quilt, 

But I didn't buy a pattern, I made my own way, designing it in my head as I sewed. 

It measures 96 x 104 inches.

When I suggested to Josie she and Jiffy would be anchored together, she loved the idea. So the Name came before I even started.

The very first fabric pull for this quilt happened way back in April last year, when I realised I didn’t have quite enough blues and greens. Batiks are hard to come by in New Zealand at the moment, so I shopped around here and found very little. Later, in Bathurst, enabled by Janice I hunted down more, and between us we gathered what I needed.

Those fabrics then sat quietly in a box on my cutting table for months, whispering at me every time I walked past. Finally — with a bit of encouragement from several people — I began cutting in the first week of January 2026.

Chooky had suggested using 4‑inch squares, so I cut them at 4.5 inches to finish at 4. There are 580 blue‑green squares in total, forming the background and the outer border. The inner border is a 4‑inch strip of Moko, a Māori‑inspired charcoal‑on‑black fabric. 

It isn’t a batik, but it sits beautifully with the blues, and I used the same fabric for the anchor itself.

As you know, I played around with scrap paper to get the proportions right before drawing the anchor freehand onto Vliesofix. I’m very happy with how it turned out — bold, clean, and exactly the right presence on the quilt.

Last week, on my days off, I layered and quilted the top using an E2E design by Keryn Emmerson called Waves. It felt perfectly appropriate. Yesterday I trimmed it and added the binding, stitching about half of it down by hand before heading to bed. This morning, I finished the last of the binding and then waited for Joe and family to arrive so he could help Tony hold it up for a good outdoor photo.

The back is a huge piece of wide back in another kiwi inspired fabric called Kiwiana Koru Frond. The binding is more of the Moko fabric. 

It was an absolute delight to make. There’s something so satisfying about the simplicity of squares — the calm rhythm of straight lines, the ease of nesting seams, none of the drama of bias edges or tricky angles. Just fabric, shape, and flow. These blues and greens sing together exactly the way I hoped they would, each one adding its own note to the whole.

And there, sitting proudly on top, is the anchor — bold, steady, and unmistakably the star of the show. The quilting design, Waves, felt right not only for its name but for its gentle movement. It adds texture without stealing the spotlight. The anchor may shine, but those blues and greens hold the whole story together, the perfect sea for it to rest upon.

∘◦❀◦∘

Of course, no quilt around here gets finished without a little “help” from Tony. The final photo shows him unpacking his shopping all over my ironing board, happily showing me fishhooks and bits of tackle while I was trying to sew rows of squares together. He has an uncanny ability to appear exactly when I don't need interruptions, but he does it with such enthusiasm that I can’t help but smile as I roll my eyes.  

The rest of life doesn’t pause for quilting, and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I can't wait for June!