This is a beautiful, watery quilt reminiscent of the Great Barrier Reef. Bargello "waves" are stitched with "turtles.
My inspiration was the Great Barrier Reef and Sea Turtles swimming with the current. The bargello method reflects with movement of the water and waves on the surface and the bubbly, watery blue fabric pulls in gently together. My "Turtle Reef" pantograph was designed for the longarm machine quilting. To highlight the turtles in the stitching I used my original "toplique" method to create the applique on some of the turtles. https://www.meadowlyon.com/pattern/13783/how-to-toplique/ https://www.meadowlyon.com/?s=turtle+reef&post_type=product
This quilt has been on my design wall for almost a year! It has a long history. At a trunkshow Angela Walters gave me the happy, bubbly blue fabric and made me promise to show her what I did with it - so it had to be good. Then I decided to make it like another friend Eleanor Sassnet showed on a video - it was harder than I thought. The little 3/4" spacing strips were a challenge to insert without stretching. After finishing I decided to use my "Top-lique" method over some of the turtles by tracing the stitching to highlight them. I stitched with the same heavy thread used for the quilting. That way it highlights the turtle on the back.
