What I see at my feet on my morning seaside walks

My 16x20" collage for the Bayberry Quilt Guild's challenge to make 16x20" quilts to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Seashore, which includes a great part of the upper cape. I chose to gather shells and various bits of flotsam from the sands as I take my morning walks beside the sea -- about 25 miles further west but the same sea, same variety of stuff.

My basic fabric, which can be seen on the binding, was, for the body of the quilt quilted and lightly painted with a mixed acrylic paint to get approximately the color of the wet sand just at the line where the tide is receding and leaving behind the wrack -- mostly shells but a great deal of both fresh and old seaweed. The seaweed is various wool yarns, the rest are found materials. The general rules said there were no restrictions on method or materials so I didn't attempt to use fabric to represent the shells and other materials, they are real. All had natural holes in them, created by abrasion and other creatures, except of course the gull feather. Everything is sewn down. I did not use any kind of glue. It's hanging here at home and all seems very solidly attached.

One must see it in natural light to see the variations in the seashells which very much fascinate me when I'm walking. Nature is a very subtle colorist, very good artists can imitate nature but the real thing is best is endlessly varied. I love the shapes, also, of the battered shells, like the spiral inside of the welk shell, all worn away but the "spine" which I think is beautiful. It will be, along with possibly 50 others, shown at our guild's show a week from now, and then all the "National Seashore" quilts will go to the visitor's center for display until October.