Last but not least - the fifth piece...

 I think this is my favourite of the five pieces, although it could be a close second to the white silk trees!
Again, it is a wholecloth quilt, with a dyed (in a cffee jar) background.  Since discovering acrylic ink there has been no stopping me!!  I drew the design on the fabric (the tree shapes) with a permanent white marker pen, quilted the outlines with black invisible thread, and some of this was eventually picked out with white gouache.  The small painted flowers in the centre are just one layer of acrylic ink, and the blossoms on the trees are several layers, up to nine I think, to get the brightness of white I wanted.  I made up the pattern for the 'mound' under the right hand tree as I went along, and filled in with acrylic paint afterwards, and added tiny blobs of gouache to look like beading (Oh how I wish I could do beading!)

Here is a closeup of part of the centre section.
I'm on duty tomorrow and Sunday, and we take the Exhibition down on Monday.  It has been a huge success, with lots of quilting friends coming quite a distance, and lots of people visiting RHS Rosemoor Gardens just stumbling across us.  It has been a wonderful experience, but very hard work, I must admit.
Till next time ........

Fourth piece for our Exhibition

Whew!  The Exhibition is going very well - the weather has been quite kind really - sunshine and showers.  When the venue is an RHS Gardens, the sunshine brings them to visit, and the rain sends them inside!!

Anyway this is my fourth piece, which I call The Copper Tree (for obvious reasons!)  The pieced background was inspired by Kay Neilsen and the tree itself by Virginia Skerrett.

Here is a closeup - the quilted background is more obvious here.

I also made a few postcards for the sales table.......

I think they have all been sold, so I'11 be off to make a few more, as I am 'on duty' again tomorrow!
Till next time ......

Third piece for our Exhibition ......

As I said (on the 20th July) in the first post I did about these five pieces of mine, most of my inspiration comes from the Swedish artist Kay Neilsen, and quite a few of you might recognise this as being from his fabulous illustration of The Twelve Dancing Princesses.  In his piece there are twelve dancing princesses along the bottom, dancing through the trees, on their way to the ball!  
The background is hand dyed cotton fabric, and most of the applique is with silk, in its many forms.  I made silk paper for one treetop, used a silk hankie for another, silk rods for tree trunks, as well as paper string and mulberry bark!  Quite a bit is embellished with the embellisher machine, and I also hand stitched with silk thread on the tree tops!!  There is lots of hand stitching around the bottom too (I don't do hand stitching - that's why I mention it!)  If you click on the image, you should get a bigger picture.

This is a closeup of the little fawn.  I call this piece "Rendezvous" as I reckon she is waiting for her friend.
We are hanging the Exhibition on Thursday, and I am really looking forward to seeing all twenty pieces together.  We reckon this is our best yet!
Till next time ......