Project Modern Challenge 2 Quilt--A Day at the Aquarium

The winners for the second Project Modern Challenge have been posted so I thought it would be a good day to finally share my submission.  I titled it A Day at the Aquarium.  I've included the submission paragraph below.

There is something wonderful about that moment when a quilt comes alive for me.  It usually happens during the piecing process as it takes shape.  Sometimes it doesn’t happen until after it’s bound and washed.  Sometimes, unfortunately, it never happens at all.  This particular quilt came alive for me as I started cutting and arranging the blocks.  I had a completely different quilt in mind when I ordered a pile of blue solid fabric for this challenge.  That quilt didn’t work out like it did in my head, but then I came across a great tutorial from Bumble Beans Inc. that was perfectly suited for my original intention of creating a quilt that mimicked water.  I originally planned to create something that reminded me of the ocean, but as I cut my blocks for this quilt, I realized how boxy the quilt was becoming.  I was initially disappointed, but as I stood there staring at the quilt blocks on my design wall, I realized it reminded me of something much more personal and important to me than the ocean.  It reminded me of the visits I’ve made to the aquarium with my children.  In fact it made me think of one specific tank.  My oldest, who is three, is particularly taken with the tank where Nemo lives at our aquarium.  We always have to stop at this large tank and find Nemo and his daddy.  She is thrilled when she finds him.  It’s a very important part of the visit.  As I continued putting this quilt together, it made me smile, remembering crazy memories of taking my three-year-old and my one-year-old twins to the aquarium multiple times in the past year.  I added a small orange square among all this blue to remind me to treasure the simple things in life that make my children so happy. 

This quilt was created using the WaveRunner tutorial from Bumble Beans Inc. The finished quilt measures 50x60.  It was pieced with approximately 20 different blue and blue-green fabrics and machine quilted with five different shades of blue thread. 

A few more pictures after it's all washed and crinkly.

I pieced my back using scraps and the same technique as my World of Goo quilt back.  I'll post more pictures later this week to show the transformation as I cut, rotate and sew everything back together.