Thursday, January 1, 2009

Tidepool Quilts

This is the first in a series of (so far three) tidepool quilts inspired by the
hundreds of hours spent puddling around in the intertidal with my marine biologist husband and three children. The background is pieced from about six different fabrics featuring rocks and pebbles. Then I added the sand (teeny fabric chips trapped under tulle) and water. The surface is richly embellished with stuffed fabric shells, buttons, ribbons, yarn, beads and fabric origami starfish. I dream about including an octopus but haven't mastered that one yet. This quilt was exhibited at the "Road to California" quilt show, January 2009. I am proud that it will hang in the office of our dear friend and Bob's colleague, Jane Lubchenco, newly appointed director of NOAA in the Obama administration.

Tidepool Souvenirs
2008
18 x 24 inches


The second in the series was made for my sister Nan Downs Leedy who is fortunate to live right on Puget Sound and so can play in the tidepools any time.

Tidepool Souvenirs 2
2009
24 x 30 inches




The third but I think not the last was made
for my husband Bob. It is a real triumph although, sad to say, the photo does not do it justice. It is jampacked with marine organisms including several kinds of algae, two species of barnacles (tiny dime-sized "yoyos"), a nudibranch beaded to within an inch of its little life, two species of starfish of the genus Pisaster, sea anemones (both open and closed), assorted snails and bivalves, a shark egg case and even an octopus. This latter did all it could to get out of the picture; you can see that it is trying to back into a little cave. Only the feathers are found objects; all the rest are fashioned as mentioned above of fabric, ribbons, yarn, buttons and beads. The quilt was exhibited at the 2009 Pacific International Quilt Festival.

Tidepool Souvenirs-Littoral Memories
2009
30x42 inches

2 comments:

Troutbum said...

Wow! This is a littoral feast for the eyes. Love it. Ed

BW said...

I agree - and this is a test of whether comments work.