Close up

I just wanted to thank everyone for taking the time to comment on my new quilt. I really appreciate what everyone said. I have had a few people ask me to give more information on some of the techniques and how I put it together. I actually painted all the fabric in the colors I needed. I use salt and water to achieve a watercolor effect on the fabric. I then fussy cut out the leaves and storks heads, and birds heads. On several of the leaves I went ahead and did some textural stitching by taking small seams along what would be the veining on the leaf then I quilted the leaves seperately to give them more a three dimensional look. The birds faces are painted with inks and paints after they were assembled. While I was at the Pacific International show I found a hand dyed fabric that I thought would be perfect for the background so I bought it. I actually had problems with it because it was like silk and when I went to quilt it the fabric started to pull and bunch up. Well if I had had half a brain I would of realized that it was doing it before I got so far. As it turned out, I ended up spending two days ripping out quilt stitches. I then stablized it and the quilting went much better. But honestly, I almost tossed it several times before I finished the rip out process. Here is a close up. I ended up quilting the background in the shapes of more of the leaves. I will let you know if I hear from the shows.