This is my niece Alishia's Dolphin Quilt. I made this for her graduation/Christmas present - as well as Courtney's Fairies (also her graduation/Christmas present) & Mama's 80th birthday quilt all at the same time. We gave them to their recipient's during our family gathering after Thanksgiving in 2005. I worked almost an entire year for this occasion!
Alishia loves dolphins, so I searchrf around until I found a pattern/idea with dolphins. I adapted the pattern to my own style - using appliqued dolphins (instead of paper-pieced), and used just about every shade of blue I could find - from palest grey-blue, to deep dark midnight blue for the half-square triangle background. The dolphins are in a shiny, smooth, satiny fabric. This was the largest quilt I've ever made. I couldn't machine quilt the entire thing without engaging in a major wrestling match between me, the quilt, and my standard sized sewing machine....so I divided and conquered. I made the quilt in 2 sections, free-motion quilted it with lots of wave, swirls & whirls, and then joined the sections. IMO, this engineering feat is hardly visible. Even from the back, you have to search for the seam joining the 2 sections.
I'll never forget Blake's reaction to seeing the finished quilt lying on our bed. He just stood there gazing at it. When he finally spoke he said, 'Can we keep it?' As much as I would have loved to keep it - I know Alishia has given it a VERY good home.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Alishia's Dolphins
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1 comments:
The dolphin was is ssoooo cool!
I give away or sell virtually all of my artwork too. Sometimes after so much time with it, it can be difficult to part with. But if I kept all of my artwork, it would pile up under a bed or something.
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