Lucinda's Quilt

The surprise I was waiting for…

… without even knowing it!

"Turtle Quilt" by  Lucinda Walker

Creativity runs in our family. 

My daughter-in-law Lucinda is an artist too. 
Like me, she has wide-ranging interests, though we prefer the term “multi-talented”! 
At the moment, her medium of choice is quilting.

She has been quilting for almost three years, and her talents are really taking off. 

She has definitely found her creative “thing.”

Little did I know, she was secretly working on a quilt FOR ME!

She gave it to me for my birthday earlier this month, 

and I couldn’t be more surprised and delighted.

Handmade label, and the oh-so-soft "minky" backing

Well… it wasn’t completely out of the blue: 
we had actually talked about her making me a quilt a long time ago, 
but the project was on the back burner, and in the busy-ness of life, it drifted out of my radar. 
And hers too, I thought.

Jim, myself, my son Taylor, and his wife Lucinda on the southern tip of the Big Island.

When we took a family trip to Hawaii in 2015, we found a quilt shop and bought some tropical batik fabrics, knowing they would someday make it into my quilt.

Batik fabrics from Hawaii with sea turtles and palm leaves.

I have a thing for turtles. 

They have a great life lesson to teach us: 
You'll never get anywhere if you don't stick your neck out. 

Spotting sea turtles is one of the highlights of my Hawaii trips. 
I knew that turtles must appear in my quilt.

Later at home, we looked at her quilt books and brainstormed what I would want, 
and then we saw this picture and I knew it was the one.

Lucinda's inspiration for my quilt.
“The Fire in My Back” by Pat Haas 
(from Gwen Marston's book "Minimal Quiltmaking")

The colors were perfect, aqua and green with a little spark of coral peeking through the gaps. 
We both liked how the squares were not perfect and straight: 

a little irregularity shows the human touch. 

I asked her to replace the black and white part with the brown palm leaf fabric from Hawaii. 

…and then I sorta forgot all about it. 

Until my birthday arrived, and I opened up my gift to find this soft and cuddly, beautiful quilt!

It's all about the Details

There are so many special, personal details placed throughout the quilt. 


Of course the turtles, but I have also have a thing for chairs. 

Lucinda made a couple of quilt blocks with subtle chairs in them, pieced out of fabric! 

Can you spot the chair in this quilt block?

Then there’s a vintage hanky of mine with … yes, turtles on it. 
She worked it into the quilt beautifully, leaving the designer signature intact, 
with the original rolled edge showing, so you can tell it was a hanky. 

Vintage "Wilcke" block printed handkerchief

The sky blue fabric with little birds is some upholstery fabric Lucinda had leftover from a little chair she used to have in her kitchen. She later gave me the chair to sell in my vintage shop, but I never forgot the fabric. 
She still had a few pieces, and now I can admire that fabric whenever I want.

And last but not least, she had to throw in a little piece of leopard print, 
which as I always say, “never goes out of style.”

Turtles and leopard print

Me and Lucinda, two peas in a pod!

Now whenever I snuggle up in my new quilt, it's like getting a little hug from my favorite daughter-in-law! 
The personal touches contain so much of our shared history. This quilt is truly a treasured gift.

Thank you, Lucinda! 

I love my turtle quilt!

Psst… by the way, Lucinda does quilt commissions! 

Check out her website to see more of her quilts and her artwork. 

www.lucindawalker.com