Meet Ollie

Meet Ollie, Heidi Pridemore's favorite Octopus! 

Inspired by her Under the Sea fabric collection, Heidi designed this lap size throw for The Quilter magazine, and today she's hear to tell us about it.

"Ollie Octopus" designed by Heidi Pridemore and machine quilted by Doris Pridemore;
featured in The Quilter February/March 2014

Q. What made you decide to do an octopus applique?

Heidi: I designed the Octopus for our fabric Under The Sea and he was my favorite character, so I wanted to showcase him. I made him overlap the pieced portion of the quilt because I like to extend appliqués across borders to break up the grid of the background and soften the edges.  

 

Ollie appears in Heidi's Under the Sea fabric

Q. How did you decide on fabric placement?

Heidi: I like to use the cooler colors for the larger areas and add a splash of the warmer colors in the blocks. 

Q. Love the use of that wiggly stripe for the binding! Did you design that fabric with bindings/borders in mind?

Heidi: Yes, I like using stripes on my quilts and don’t always like to fussy cut the stripe to be straight. So I designed a wavy strip to make it easier to use. 

No need to worry about straight stripes with this wiggle!

Q. How did you choose the two alternating blocks used in this quilt?

Heidi: I like to mix and match blocks in my quilts. I always look for the relationship between the blocks and any secondary pattern it will create when selecting blocks for a quilt.

Q. What do you like best about this quilt?

Heidi: I love Ollie, he just makes me smile and hope he does that for others as well!

Q. Any tips for appliqueing the octopus?

Heidi: When applying the octopus to the background, start at the head and gently push the tentacles down with your fingers to make sure they are positioned in the correct place before pressing them down. 

See the entire Under the Sea collection here.

See more of Heidi's work and purchase the kit to make Ollie Octopus here.

Find The Quilter magazine here.