Mom’s By the Sea Quilt
This is an early quilt from my love affair with Kaleidescope quilts. Although the quilt looks blue, it is predominantly purple in one corner, green in another, arctic ice in yet another and blue in one. The trick is to blend these colors and make them flow, at the same time creating a sea-like motion.
I have done several variations on the sea quilts since. I have an entire shelf of fabrics of sea colors. My delight in the kaleidescopes is using the same piece of fabric in one place as a dark, and in another place as a light.
In the bottom left corner, I quilted sea grass. I hand appliqued fish and sea horses, and even an octopus on the finished top, then quilted in a huge octopus in the purple corner, (the appliqued octopus hints to the location) and sea horses in another spot, and swarms of fish in various other places. I don’t tell people about the quilting, I just leave it to them to discover it for themselves. Some do, some don’t. I always tell them there is a secret or two in every quilt.
You can see some octopus tentacles if you look closely, but it is hard to see the entire quilted octopus:
My pre-digital camera photos of this quilt were taken on a clothesline in a small farming village in Germany. Gone! Gone forever!
harmonie22 said,
July 30, 2007 at 7:01 am
This is one of my favorite quilts of yours. You’re very talented.
I love the colors and the variated shades, the motion of the fabric pieces in relation to one another, it really captures the feel of the sea and somehow gives a visual depth to your quilt.
worldquilter said,
July 31, 2007 at 8:57 am
Harmonie22, you are very kind.
I am having a great time. Some quilts turn out better than others, I just move on. So many quilts. So little time.
Thanks for visiting, and leaving your kind words.
Cate Neely said,
September 28, 2008 at 12:03 am
I do love this quilt–I am an octopus fan. But I can not seem to find the name of the artist who did this?
Cate Frazier-Neely
http://www.washvocal.com
worldquilter said,
October 1, 2008 at 8:57 am
I did this quilt! Me! WorldQuilter! I’m glad you like it, Cate.
I checked your website – does your group also sing in concerts?
Cate Neely said,
November 6, 2008 at 12:08 am
Well, you did a beautiful job! No, we are a teaching Consortium