Ready for the Beach

Oh, it's that time of year again. It has been hot, hot, hot here and I am ready for the escape to the beach. Feel the sand in my toes. Listen to the crashing of the waves. Beautiful walks at sunset. Yes, I am ready to go.  Unfortunately, we won't be going for a few more weeks, so until then I have this quilt to help me imagine what it will be like.

I found this shell fabric at my favorite San Diego quilt shop, Rosie's, and wasn't sure what to do with it when I bought it.  So, a year later I had figured out what I wanted and went back and bought the batiks to make the braid.

I mitered the corners of the braid (first time!) and it went pretty well. Other than that, this is almost a whole-cloth quilt. I just didn't have the heart to cut any of those beautiful shells.

For the quilting, I decided to try and create the 3-D look with a very small meander around the shells.  This is before I looked into trapunto, otherwise I totally would have used that technique on this quilt.

Oh, I just love how this quilt turned out.  It's so soft, and the colors are so beach-y.  I can stare at it and pretend I am already there... :)

I am linking up today with Finished Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. Have a great, relaxing weekend.