whole cloth starfish quilt

i love my inlaws.  they’re great.  and when they decided to build a new beach house up at their spot of land on the puget sound (in the family since the ’60s), i knew i wanted to make a coordinating lap quilt for movie watching and stormy afternoon book reading.  however, my mother-in-law has very definite ideas about her decorating style, so i waited until the house was done and i could see what colors she was using before i secretly started a quilt for her.  the house was finished last month and her palette turned out to be a soothing natural-and-white scheme, so i whipped up this quilt for her birthday.

i had spotted a pottery barn pillow with starfish appliqué on one of their living room chairs, and took my inspiration from that.  the quilt is whole cloth natural linen with white kona starfish appliqués that i hand-drew.  i used basting spray to temporarily hold the starfish in place and stitched around the edge of each through all layers during the quilting process, so you can see them on the back too.  i really like the texture and rough edges – the whole quilt has a kind of rumpled, worn, beachy look.

the back is a bella solid (spring, i think?) that i picked up in the remnant bin at bolt.  my MIL’s favorite color is this shade of green, so i figured it was a safe bet and a nice complement to the natural tones on the front.

i was pretty excited when i had the idea for the quilting design (and thanks to my buddy jessica for helping talk me through it!).  i wanted it to stand out since the quilt itself was pretty simple.  i drew arches starting at each corner, increasing the distance between them at each layer, and letting the lines intersect at various points.  the idea was to mimic ripples in the water when you skip stones, which we often do on the rocky beach.  i started with a dinner plate, then used a ruler to measure out and mark the next layer, making a bunch of dashes at, say, 4″ from the prior arch, then connecting them to create the next arch.  i drew them on with water soluble marker before quilting with my walking foot, starting in the center.

the binding fabric is a perfect little imperfect polka dot from timeless treasures (Geo-C7741) that reminds me of bubbles.  i get scared that i’ll mess up while machine stitching the binding, so i always finish my quilt bindings by hand.  am i weird for really loving that part?

the quilt is 41″ x 47″ finished, but my mother-in-law is only 4’11” so i think it’ll cover her lap just fine.  🙂

it’s pretty cozy, so hopefully i can grab a little time with the quilt when i’m up there, too.  can’t wait to get up to the sound to see it in its intended habitat!