"Seaside" Mini Quilt

My partner, Karen, has received the mini I sent her as part of the July 2010 Mini QT Swap.  What does that mean for you?  Remember how I couldn't show you any pictures in this post?  Well, you get to see it, finally!

This month's theme was "beach/underwater". 

My approach to these minis is to get to know my partner a bit and then design something for them.  At the beginning of the month, Karen and I chatted about what we like at the beach. She said she liked to sit and listen to the waves, build sandcastles, and collect seashells. 

I used flickr to pull together some images I thought represented those things.  I added them all to my favorites and then used Big Huge Labs to make a mosaic for inspiration.  I printed the mosaic and took it fabric shopping with me.  I bought the fabric and designed the quilt in my head simultaneously.  When I got home I sketched the design. 
 
Here is the front of "Seaside".


I had plans to add a sandcastle along the shoreline off to one side, but when it came time to do it, it just didn't work for me. 

I did find this awesome seashell fabric at Joann for the back.

Remember how I discovered how to do circles recently?  (See here and here.)  Well!  I tried the same method on ovals and it works.  What do you think of my label? 

Remember the quilting website I told you about in this post?  Well, I used the Echo Shell pattern in the sky.  The water was something I came up with on my own.  The sand is just basic stippling that you can find just about anywhere.

I added a few beads to the umbrella. 

Don't you like my seagull?  I think he's pretty rockin'.

I tried a few new things with this mini quilt. 

• If you look closely at the seagull and umbrella images you can see I used clear thread.  I really liked using it.  I'll do a post talking a little bit about what I used and why I liked it soon.
• I found some fusible fleece for super cheap at the thrift store a while back.  I used it for batting on this one and really liked it.  I made my quilt sandwich like this: Fusible fleece fused to back side of quilt top; fusible web used to attach quilt back.  It worked really well!  I didn't have any puckers at all!

I'm really happy with how this turned out.  I made a second one for me because I knew I was going to love it! 

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