Jana's Turtles
by mariana s.
(Barcelona)
I made this quilt (my first!!) for the first baby of a very dear couple of friends that I've known for several years.
The dad is from St. Tomé e Principe (african archipelago where Portuguese is spoken) and mum is from Barcelona (Spain) and she loves turtles.
After imagining something more elaborate, I decided on something very simple, as opposed to all the normal baby stuff.
I let the fabrics stand individually, more than combining them, so that each one could tell a different story.
Everything was machine pieced and then hand quilted. The part I most liked to do were those sashiko turtles (that I designed myself from real St. Tomé's turtles) and the quilt label (hand drawn and embroided).
The quilt has about 60x40 inches (crib size), the fabrics are Alexander Henry's and japanese cottons, and linens. The batting is portuguese cotton and the backing is fleece. It took me about 4 months to finish.... with a couple of holidays in between, the fact that summer started....well... it could've been done in at least half that time!
