First Day of Winter - Here's my summer sea side wallhanging!

My quilting niece, whom I used to quilt with every Wednesday night until she went into the Navy, has finished her tour of duty.  She is now a stay-at-home Mom.  She is back into the quilting fold and lives out-of-state.  We wanted to do a project so we made a couple rules then picked a theme and away we went.  Of course she went faster than me, because I have a full-time job, a freshly retired husband, and various community commitments.  I did get it done around the first part of December.  I am loving it!

I was going to try and use fabrics that I already had, but something for a seaside theme was going to be very difficult.  Then a friend wanted to go to First Thursday at The Cotton Club, and so we went.  I looked at their batiks and found four that I decided would be good for an ocean, sand, sky, and a beach house.  Turned out the seagull batik was too dark and busy for the sky, so I used it for the border.  I already had couple other batiks and the grunge basics fabrics.  I like to call this wall hanging "Batiks Meet Grunge Basics".  I like how the grunge basics give a sun baked, weathered look to the houses.  The idea for the design was from a magazine.  A friend of the featured quilter, Lynn Edwards, had given her a wall hanging with an ocean, boat, and two beach houses as the main design.  This is my take on a similar wall hanging -no plaids or stripes here.  What you may not have noticed is the lace curtains in the windows.  One of the requirements of the project was to use a piece of lace.  When Quilting Niece got this in the mail, we skyped and I opened the one I got from her, while she opened the one she received from me.  It was sooo much fun!  And she gave me a cute little message owl, that she sewed as well.  When I hang hers in my quilt room, I will post a photo!