The quilt is hand appliqued ( including the 2 inch Chinese Zodiac characters and the border of Zodiac symbols) and machine quilted.  The Mariner's compasses and braided border are pieced though. The pictorial Zodiac patterns are by Aie Rossmann. I enlarged them and changed them from squares to wedges for the Zodiac circle. The rest of the design is original. It was great fun, and very challenging to make!