Beach Quilt

With only a week left until my next Stretching Exercises class, I knew I had to get started on my project. The Saturday plan was to go to the local quilt show right when it opened, get inspired by all I saw and then come home and dig in.

Lots of lovely quilts at the show but most were pretty traditional so I didn't get the shot in the arm I needed and then somehow the rest of the day got away from me and then it was noon Sunday so I had to get serious. First a line drawing of my beach scene, then final fabric selections and I was ready. I cut a piece of Wonder Under (which behaved wonderfully for me) to the approximate size of that section. I ironed it on the fabric, pealed off the backing and then free cut it to the shape needed. That's not really accurate, first I set the uncut pieces out in order and dithered a while scared to cut, but eventually I put scissors to fabric.

The outside edge of the piece is very irregular, and now I'm dithering about how to square it up. I put the piece on my scanner. It's actually a little bigger than the scanner bed, but here it is with a vertical cropping.

This cut my mountains off a little so I repositioned it horizontally, which cuts the bottom. I'm getting a better feel for it. Unfortunately I can't have it both ways, there would be a hole in the lower left side corner if I try to make it as wide and as long as both of these so a decision needs to be made.
I'm feeling better about it seeing these pictures, but I'm not sure of my next step. The farthest right piece of fabric represents sand, and it's really too dark, I'm contemplating sponging a little paint over it to lighten it up. Then there's the quilting, I really wanted to show the different textures: small grain sand, rocks in the wet sand, shiny shallow water, frothy waves and deep water. I guess more contemplation is in order.