Submitted by: Jody T.
Hello,
My sister asked me to make her a quilt for her 70th birthday. She and her husband were married in Maui and all of our family love the ocean and sea life. My sister requested a king size quilt, she asked for the center to be a pattern I’ve made many times called Turtle Talk by Vicki Stratton. That quilt is 42 in. by 42 in. finished size so I had the challenge of creating a 100 in. by 88 in. quilt starting with the Turtle Talk square in the center.
For the first border I used 12 in. by 12 in. squares of Tropical tide pools fabric on which I hand appliqued starfish and tropical fish on each square (the pattern for the tropical fish is from a pattern by Vicki Stratton for making an Aloha Christmas tree skirt).
All other work in the quilt is my design. On the sides of the appliqued squares I put a border of effervescence on Navy with dolphins quilted in this border. Above and below the appliqued squares I used bright blue hand dye to represent the ocean in Maui and those borders flow into a wave design machine appliqued onto blue green palm leaves fabric.
The final border is pastel primrose on multi to represent the colors of a tropical sunset.
The quilt progresses from the turtles at the center through borders of ocean life to the palm leaves fabric to represent land and then to the pasted primrose to represent sky.
The backing fabric and binding are made with Caribbean curls fabric.
I used my long arm machine to quilt waves, octopuses, seahorses, starfish, dolphins and sea turtles in the ocean parts of the quilt, leaf and vine pattern in the palm leaves/land parts of the quilt and plumeria blossoms in the pastel primrose fabric that represents sky.
Your fabric truly inspires my imagination!
Kind regards,
Martha “Jody” T.
