I took a workshop on stained glass technique at Silks & More, now known as Apple Tree in Columbia with Margie Lee March, 2003. I took the workshop because I liked the look of stained glass, and the pattern of a sailboat appealed to me as my son Alan is in to boats, and I enjoy water scenes. He later chose this quilt to put in his home.

I found a fabric that looked like rain in the sky. I immediately fell in love with it, and made half the sky that fabric and half a solid blue "sky" fabric to give the impression that you're out to sea, and about to have a little excitement and adventure with rain coming, hence it's name. 

I enjoyed working with the bias tape. It was a challenge, and also my first exposure to a double needle. The quilting of the piece was done as we appliquéd down the bias tape through all 3 layers. That left areas that were not quilted. After the class, I didn't like the wide expanse of the border with no quilting, so I tried my hand at free-motion. I then decided that I didn't like the puffiness of the sails, so added some free-motion quilting there. This quilt was my first endeavor to free-motion a quilt. Not knowing better, I tried it with metallic thread which is not the easiest thread to use, but I didn't know that at the time. You can now find all kinds of tips on-line for working with metallics. I picked the thread because I liked the glitter of the thread, and thought it would give some bling. So, trying a new thread was also something new that I tried on this piece.

Tip - I learned from this quilt that you need to quilt evenly throughout the piece, so that it lies the same and there are no areas of puffiness.