The next quilt in my “Travel Log Quilt” series is one that was made from a trip that my daughter, Jenny, took back in 2006. Now I know that this isn’t MY travel quilt, but I had been to the same area LONG before digital cameras were a thing, so I claim it anyway.
She was a Freshman at University of Georgia and decided to do “May-mester” (a short 2 week term) in Australia. Since she had been born in Australia this seemed to be the most natural thing for her to do!! She had a wonderful time there, studying the flora and fauna of such an amazing continent.
Probably her favorite part of the trip was time spent on the ocean in the North-eastern state of Queensland. She enjoyed snorkeling, sky-diving (NOT part of the course) and watching the sea turtles as they made their way from the nest to their home in the ocean.
When she returned with photos from the trip, I was enamored with this picture of a gorgeous sea turtle floating along in the ocean………
….and also these photos of other undersea creatures……
At the time I was doing a lot of work with photos in quilts and wanted to do something that mixed the photos and fabric. I started out by setting up a “new” photo that placed the turtle slightly off-center with lots of ocean surrounding……
Each of the lines in the photo represents a small portion of the ocean that I “grabbed” from somewhere else in the photo. It looks choppy here, but the final printing looked great. I printed this photo on fabric using “Printed Treasures” fabric and then started adding”stuff to it.
The three yellow and black fish are all the same photo but just printed in different sizes. They are appliqued to the ocean…..
The reef picture was also printed but I placed it over some fabrics that had a similar look…..
Back then I didn’t have the confidence to free-hand the thread corals but drew them on a wash-out stabilizer, sewed them in place, and then washed the stabilizer away.
The other small fish were simply cut out and appliqued in place without any detail added. I really wanted to give the impression of a school of fish swimming along……
Finally, I added a fabric “coral” and then thread painted over it…..
I was SO pleased with the final quilt…..
I loved mixing the photo prints, fabrics and thread work, and I loved the way the quilt spilled out into the border!!
But mostly, I love that it is a fun reminder of Jenny’s trip to Australia……
