Day 5 of the 5 day quilt challenge: Memories of family & the sea

The summer of 2005 my family went to the Oregon coast to celebrate my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. Everyone was there in one house. Lots of fun memories of that trip. One evening my dad came back from a walk on the beach & he handed me this starfish

Yes I still have the original star fish. I keep it in 2 plastic bags (one of which is a zip lock bag) becasue after 11 years it still stinks. No it does not smell like the sea, unfortunately. My Aunt Ruby (who is a master quilter/seamstress) said that the starfish would make a great appliqué. So the next day  a few of my aunts, my mom & I went fabric shopping. I got all of the fabrics that I would need for different star fish, sand & the ocean. My friend Liz told me after the quilt was done "Vicky you are the only one I know that makes their own souvenir". That night I had a machine appliqué lesson from Aunt Runy (She would keep a sewing machine in her car. Gotta always be prepared.) I was able to get a few of the star fish appliquéd before we came home.

Here's the quilt

I made this pretty early on in my quilting life. It very much stretched my skills at the time. I machine quilted it. (Which took forever) I think that I originally wanted to quilt in the blue ocean fabric but by the time the sand/starfish were quilted I was done!

I love it when scraps from this project pop up in my scrap bins. It brings back great memories. I hope that y'all have enjoyed seeing the different quilts. I nominate my friend Joeylyn Feverly for the 5 day quilt challenge.

Have a great day! More later on,

Vicky