It takes at least a week for the letterpress printed cotton to dry after I have printed, so while I was waiting I rummaged around in my hand-dyed cotton for inspiration and found a panel of kelp I had stenciled with deColourant and hadn't been able to incorporate into one of the other kelp and otter quilts. Oddly, I had a piece of scrap batting exactly the same size, so a quiltlet it would be.
Kelp Portrait
11"w x 23"h (28 cm x 58.5 cm)
Hand-dyed cotton; over-dyed original otter print cotton; sashiko thread, embroidery thread, button/craft thread; free-motion quilting; improvisational sashiko-style "fish scale" hand quilting
I dyed the original cloth moss green, then through a stencil I applied the deColourant and ironed it out when it was dry. After sandwiching batting between the cloth and a black backing, I free-motion quilted through the fronds to both give the quilt a texture and to anchor it together. After hand stitching around all of the kelp's edges, I satin-stitched just the bulbs (or bladders, as they are called). The hand-quilting came last, in a gold color to match the background (but with a few orange stitches to hint at the Garibaldi fish who live there too).
The border is leftover cloth from when I dyed one of my original Spoonflower otter designs (I had it printed in black and white so I could add the color myself).
This was based on Rosa at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The Back:
We were just in Monterey again, the place that inspires my ocean art, and I brought my sewing with me. I was happy to have a small piece I could roll up and hand sew on the trip.
From a previous visit, Rosa:
KELP AND OTTER QUILTS
and an earlier one: Holdfast
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