My Pacific

47”H x 32”W (2024)

A photograph of the Pacific I took from an airplane inspired this quilt. The Pacific is dear to me because I grew up in an unhappy and stressful home, but time near and in the ocean brought calm and joy. Working on this quilt felt like I was in the ocean. I usually stitch with the quilt in my lap, but for this one, I had to work on table because I would get disoriented if I couldn’t see the edges. I live far from the Pacific now, and have learned to love other oceans, but none as much as the Pacific.

My Pacific is made from many equilateral triangles in different shades of blue fabrics, sewn in strips. The strips are sewn together on a diagonal, with the size of the triangles and the value of the blues increasing as the move from the right bottom corner to the top left corner. It is covered in free hand stitched spirals, also in many shades of blue perle cotton thread. It has wool batting and cotton backing.

My Pacific was selected as a semi-finalist for the Carrefour European Patchwork Society’s Ocean competition. The exhibit of the semi-finalists premiered at the Meeting 2024, and then travelled Internationally for a year. It also was selected to exhibit at Quiltcon 2026 in the hanword category.