This is a quilt made for some dear friends of our late daughter who are expecting a baby boy soon. I learned from daughter Susan that the mothers of this little boy are decorating his nursery with a beach or ocean theme. I found two wonderful fish and seashell coordinating fabrics at a local quilt fabric store. Actually, several years ago I had used one of these fabrics to back my quilt called "Lake Michigan Beach Boys," a quilt that hangs in my studio, and a duplicate of that quilt was given to Susan for her 40th birthday.
I'll be able to present this quilt to these friends when next I am in California.
I "fussy cut" the larger fish images from the primary fabric. It was printed as wide stripes, featuring the fish alternating with the seashell and alphabet stripe. This latter stripe I used as the top and bottom borders. I also used from that section the shells and seaweeds that form the "cornerstones" of the sashing. The side borders are the coordinating, "tossed fish" fabric. The sashing is a fun fabric that looks as if paint had been splashed onto it. The binding is a wonderful stripe that contains all the colors in the quilt.
I had a stripe in my stash that has made an appearance in a number of baby quilts to use for the narrow inner border. For the backing, I used a sailboat print, another fabric printed as stripes.
Good friend Rita did the quilting, using an all-over pattern called "Double Bubbles," which fit in beautifully with the bubbles that are in the other two main fabrics.
Below are some close-up photos. For all photos, you can "click to enlarge":
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| Above are close-ups that show the nice quilting that Rita did. Too, you can see a few of the cornerstones. AND also one of the things that I liked best about this quilt--the way in several of the blocks, part of one fish is "continued" in the adjoining block! See the yellow dotted fish above. |
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| The baby's name will be William. As is customary, I included the names of the designer and piecer, as well as the quilter, the date the quilt was completed, and where it was constructed. A bit of the yellow sailboat fabric can be seen in this picture. |
