Under the Sea themed quilt

Well, my cousin Nate and his lovely wife Jo are having a baby...gender yet to be determined. I'm THRILLED they are waiting and it's going to be a surprise, but gift-giving in a gender-neutral fashion is definitely challenging!

So, I started off by checking out their Babies R Us registry. Urm...green? ecru? Not really what I imagined they'd be going for.

So I emailed both Jo and her sister, and the consensus was "bright, primary colors that could work for either a boy or girl."

Ok, so what do I do with that one?? I immediately thought circus. I sketched some lions and some seals balancing balls on their noses. It just wasn't working for me. Then I thought...Chatham, MA? Sailboats?? OOH. So I sketched two different sailboats. Then I thought about how I can't do anything "normal." It needed more than sailboats...how about fish?? Then I remembered Mr. Octopus from Tyler's animal quilt. I adore seahorses, so I threw in one of those...and a jelly. I was thrilled with how it looked on paper, but I had no fabric. Or did I? I remembered my mother in law had given me some blue flannel and striped flannel. Plus I had a ton of scraps. So I measured and cut squares, then I used the navy blue remnant I had picked up last week. Then I started cutting out applique pieces, and voila!! I had a quilt top. I don't do anything in a forward fashion. I took pictures of the squares after I had a tentative layout, and went from there.

I had it all planned out, but then I got to Joann fabrics and the one in Walpole had NO good flannel!! Oh my, what do I do?? Then suddenly this interesting circle-pattern caught my eye, add some bright yellow, red and aqua and I had my selection.

So final product was stunning, if I do say so myself. I was so happy with what I had come up with, and the parents-to-be seemed really happy with my soft, fuzzy, one-of-a-kind creation.

Front of Quilt:

Back:

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