Ekman’s Arrows Quilt Pattern

I’m pleased to introduce the third quilt I have hanging in this year’s QuiltCon, which is Ekman’s Arrows! The pattern for this quilt is in this year’s edition of QuiltCon Magazine.

Ekman’s Arrows

This design is inspired by an oceanographic phenomenon known as the Ekman Spiral or Ekman Transport, after Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman. When the wind blows across the ocean, the surface water moves at a 45-degree angle to the wind, and each successively deeper layer of water moves at a greater angle, but more slowly (due to friction), than the surface. As you descend down through the ocean, the currents form a spiral. The quilt here is my 2-D interpretation of this 3-D phenomenon!

I entered this quilt in the Minimalism category, since that’s where it seemed to fit best. Thus, the quilting is pretty minimal too. The lines are spaced about ¼” apart, but this quilt reminded me of why I vastly prefer uneven matchstick quilting (example here). It is so hard for me to keep those lines evenly spaced. They are definitely still not perfect here, even after I spent way too much time ripping!

The quilt was finished in a bit of a rush so I don’t have too many photos of it, but I did snap one of the label, for which I used a leftover block!