I earned my PhD in Ecology from the UNC-Chapel Hill, and studied oyster reef restoration in Pamlico Sound and the Chesapeake Bay for my dissertation. When I first saw the challenge palette for QuiltCon 2024 in North Carolina, I envisioned a pop art-inspired oyster quilt as a finished product. With this quilt, I sought to highlight the spectacular diversity in the local Eastern oyster shape and form using needle-turn appliqué. Each of the oyster blocks is entirely improv-designed and pieced, but is an abstract interpretation of one of the thousands of oysters I shucked–and photographed–for my dissertation research. I used a single piece of all 6 challenge fabrics in each block to create 40 unique oyster blocks. October is NC oyster month, and I made this quilt during the month of October 2023.
