My girlfriend Jean is a collector of mermaids. For her birthday a few years ago I told her I would make her a mermaid quilt. I thought about making Sun Bonnet Sue mermaids but that just didn't work for me. Two years and 4 ideas later the project finally gelled. I found a picture of a mermaid in a magazine from Carol Mead designs and adapted the picture into a wall hanging design. I then hand dyed the fabrics for the quilt (excluding the border). I was trying to replicate filtered sunlight through water in the top of the quilt. Her hair and the seaweed are embellished with couched yarn and metallic thread. The machine quilting took about 8 hours. The tail alone took 3 hours. This was an extremely rewarding project and sparked ideas for two more projects. I named the quilt after her daughter "Marina was a Mermaid"
