Laguna Beach
Laguna Beach
This quilt BEGAN with a fabric (the "lights" in this quilt) which fairly LEAPT off the shelf and into my arms during a trip to the quilt shop when Friends from out-of-state (AND out-of-country) were visiting. It took my breath away. Although it appears "white" in the photos, this "light" is the palest of pearl-mist gray, of dawn, of sand-on-the-beach -- dry-brushed with gold AND silver. When I saw it, I thought, "This PERFECT (perhaps mythical) beach, right before a PERFECT sunrise, pristine, clean, the colors CLEAR (but pale). I wish I'd bought the bolt.
I kept the pearl/dawn/sand fabric for a while, and then my "number-two-Son" (by 15 minutes) Gregg announced that he was getting married. Erin (a Treasure on her own) followed with "...on Laguna Beach."
WELL! I grabbed every "water-y" and "beach-y" and "water-colored" and "ocean" and whatever-else fabric I could find out of my Stash, and went to TOWN! Some came from Dear People (especially the fussy-cut Kiwi-bird, from New Zealand -- which IS surrounded by water). Most, I already had. Teals and aquas and greens and blues are my next-favorites (after purples :-) ) There are probably 300 fabrics in this quilt. I didn't count.
And "Laguna Beach" is HUGE! Doesn't show in the photograph (laid out on a neighbor's lawn -- my friend Jess took the picture, standing in the back of Bubba-the-Truck), but it's bigger-than-king-size. Alternating "variable star" blocks and "puss-in-the-corner" blocks. Each of the stars has a different middle-square. The "puss" blocks account for the chain-pattern (I had NO idea that would happen, when I made the first of these quilts ... see also "Crystals and Diamonds" and "The Monster" -- I like the way they work together).
There are eight borders, two of them "Sarah-strips" (see "Family Jewels " for an explanation of this). One is pieced, from the leftover bias-squares from the star-blocks.
And so, this is the ONLY quilt I've made which was started FOR someone (besides ME, just for the pleasure of watching the colors and fabrics and pattern come together). I finished the TOP in time for the wedding (July, 2000), and then, for whatever reasons (not critical), just didn't get it QUILTED. I finally sent this enormous quilt to a friend who has a long-arm machine, and she quilted "Laguna Beach" for me (YES, for a fee, but she's WORTH it!)
And so, just a LITTLE over 3 years later, "Laguna Beach" isn't just a dream, or a figment ... he's REAL.
But know what? Never again will I START a quilt with SOMEone in mind. I'll go back to making quilts for ME -- and letting THEM decide where/when/to whom they will belong!.
Close-up
This is a close-up of the quilting Arline did on "Laguna Beach." The photo does NOT do this extraordinary quilting anything CLOSE to "justice."
This was done on a long-arm machine, and every bit of it is "free-motion " quilting. AND it is the very FIRST project of this magnitude Arline had done. You can see (just a little?) the SEAWEED waving in the ocean current in this closeup. What you can't see (go back to the big picture and imagine) are:
*THREE thread-changes (yes, it'll cost ya :-) )
*Quilting through EACH of the "chains" (twice, I might add)
*"Something Special" in EACH of the variable-star center squares (sometimes, she followed the design in the square; sometimes, she
echo-quilted; sometimes, she outlined (the kiwi), then stippled all around, so the CENTER just POPS!*Quilting within/around/through EACH star-point (makes a GREAT pattern on the back, needless to say :-) )
*A free-motion "wave" pattern in the lightest border
*A DIFFERENT wave-pattern in the NEXT border
*Quilting within/around EACH of the sawtooth squares
*AND THE *SEAWEED*!!!!!!
Arline made this quilt a Work of Art. Yes, I have her name and number. And yes, she IS that good (and hell, she's just a BEGINNER!). She don't work fer free, needless to say. Nor should she.