In early April I was invited to teach at the fabulous MQX quilt show in New Hampshire.  You may have read my blog post about the show here.

This year MQX fell during my kidlet’s Spring Break, so I took them with me on my trip and before the show we stopped in the Boston Aquarium.  What a great place!  They had a large sting ray petting pool that my kids really enjoyed.  I loved all the penguins and star fish.

My mother had found a whale watching tour that leaves from the Aquarium and we decided to hop aboard.  I’m so glad we did!  It was one of those bucket list kind of experiences.  There are very few things that will make a teenager squeal with delight but whales swimming next to our boat qualifies.

We were able to see about 20 whales of 4 different species and a super pod of Atlantic Bottle-nosed Dolphins.  These creatures were amazing to see up close.  We all know they are giants of the animal kingdom, but you don’t realize how big they are until you are right next to them!  The beauty of their movement as their tails broke the surface of the water was breathtaking.

Whenever we travel I always buy a Christmas ornament as a souvenir.  Each year when we put up our tree we enjoy remembering all of our trips over the year.  The ornament from the whale watching trip was perfect and provided the basis for this quilting inspiration post.  Do you see the five whale tails?

Let’s take that shape and play with it a bit.

Here’s a whale tail inspired border:

I like it, but let’s stack it and show how it looks mirrored:

Now let’s fill it out a bit:

Imagine this on a large border.  It would fill the space and with a nice variegated thread it would look really impressive, but is a very simple shape to master.

Go take a look at the world around you and find quilting inspiration in the unexpected.