Several months ago a friend emailed me and asked me to do a baby quilt.
She gave me a rough draft of the beach, banana tree, monkey, lion, and wanted me to add a turtle.
The rest was up to me.
Since she lives in Amerika Samoa I felt that you have to have a lot of sun. If the sun is not shining it is raining.
For me, nothing is better than Island Batik Fabrics for blending and applique so I went to my scrap ben of Island Batik fabrics.
As you can see here I have done a sun with rays. I used paper piecing for this.
Actually I just got a piece of paper about the width I wanted and then started from the middle.
I worked from the inside out with the middle strip, then placing right sides together I sewed a 1/4" seam down one side...flipped it over, ironed down....sewed another piece of fabric onto that one and just continued on that way to one side then I repeated the same process on the other side. I would just cut the strips the way I wanted them.....if it was not slanted enough...I would just cut away.
I auditioned fabrics for the ocean.
Then sand.
If you will noticed the finished product, I cut down the light blue waves, didn't like the look of it so I cut it before I sewed it down.
Here we are auditioning for border fabrics, this is where I let my friend decide on what fabric she wanted for the border (notice the smaller light blue waves).
I went to coloring book pages online... I would write in monkey coloring book page. Did the same thing for everything else.
I had two monkeys I was torn between, finally decided on this monkey.
I can draw but there are some things I can not. If I do take from coloring book pages for a quilt I do not make it a pattern to sell.
Here I am trying to decide on the fabric for the lettering.
Using my Cricut I cut out the letters in cardboard and then drew the letters backwards on the Heat N Bond. Then ironed onto the backside of the fabric, then cut.
Finally finished. This process took me about 3 months. I was stumped for a while and sick.
I wasn't sure about the background so I let it sit hanging from my longarm so I could see it and think.
Lots and Lots of thinking.
My friend wanted a pink turtle for a sibling that was lost before birth.
I hope she likes it. I do believe thinking is the major part of the process....
