My First Quilt 1994

I had admired quilts for many years before I said, I can do this. LOL My youngest son was going to graduate from HS in 1995 so I decided, I am going to create a quilt that would remind Shane of our time we spent together in Alaska. I took a picture I had taken of Shane catching his first King Salmon in the Kenai Fjords National Park to many quilt shops asking if they could teach me how to make a quilt that would reflect this picture. All accept one told me that I should start with a small block first. A new shop had just open so I went in and looked around trying to get up the nerve to ask one more time. I took out the picture and ask the new shop owner if she could teach me how to make a quilt that would look like this picture. She smile at me and said, when would you like to start??? I smile and said, how about right now!!!! vbg We went into the class room and we started drawing. This quilt took me two years of constant work learning as I went along. It was a year after my son graduated before it was complete. I used Madeira Metallic Embroidery Floss to stitch on the King Salmon because I wanted them to sparkle and be the focus of the quilt. I also thought I needed some whales swimming in the ocean so I included them too. I also added some star fish which I created by using silk ribbon french knots in two different colors and then I filled in the area with beads. I took the actually picture of Shane catching the salmon and photo transferred it onto the quilt front. I also included several pictures of Shane fishing in different places in Canada and Alaska and photo transferred them on the back of the quilt. I did all the machine quilting with metallic because I wanted the whole quilt to shine. Boy, that was so difficult to do . I can not tell you how many times that thread broke. LOL Shane loved the quilt and we still talked about our wonderful memories in Alaska.