Poppies done and dusted!

Closeup of the finished stitching

The finished piece

Well, I did get my Poppies sent off to SAQA last week and now, I am in "baby mode" for  brief time , making a diaper bag. Once that is finished, we will check all of my quilts for proper hangers and make new ones where needed. I have one more piece I am dying to make before the babe is due ( early March!!) I hope I can manage that.

Today is my birthday so we have some plans- well, apparently SOME of us do :-) One thing we are doing is going to the Apple Store to the Genius Bar to ask a few questions and after that... who knows!! It is looking like it MIGHT be a little sunny today  which would be nice. I have not checked the temperature but  we have had a very mild weekend and lots of ice melted but I think it is cold again today. There is a Carolina Wren serenading me from the back garden as if he thinks it is spring. Silly, dear little bird!

I am going to post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com when the time comes. Not a lot for me to post today but this piece is finished and mailed away. Have a grand Tuesday and enjoy TNTN.

Glowing poppies

No, not GROWING! Glowing Poppies! I took this photo ages ago, just one of those happy accidents . The poppies were really red but in this particular light, they glowed golden orange to scarlet and the background turned out very nicely. I am finally making some progress on it. Good thing, as it is due in Houston TX by 31 January for the SAQA trunk show. So far, so good!

Here is my little photo. LOVE this picture!

I painted silk Habotai for the background using Dye Na Flow paints. It seems to have worked pretty well- VERY well, actually. I want the two main poppies to be very crisp and in focus and the background  to be watery and soft.

Here are my two poppies and part of the background ready to fuse.

I am using hand dyed cotton for the two poppies but apart from the green stems and buds which will also be cotton, the rest of the red/orange mushy poppies in the background are being made with translucent fabrics over the painted silk. I have fused polyester chiffon for some of the bits at the top left and down the right side. The two fairly distinct poppies are going to be made of silk chiffon painted loosely with Dye Na Flow.

Two painted gloppy poppies ready to be made fusible and then cut and pasted.

I did not know how well the translucent fabrics would be with fusible material on the back. I have used Misty Fuse ( white) and it is fine- nicely transparent. Not much of this is fastened down yet, but it soon will be . If I have more done before before it is time to post this to WIP Wednesday, I shall add to the post. I am going to post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com. Hope you will check out the rest of the posts there. ALWAYS something interesting to see there!

Well, I HAVE made some progress , so here are the latest pictures. Hope you enjoy them . I SHALL post to TNTN , as promised :-)

The bottom poppy

The top poppy

Here is the finished piece so far. It WILL eventually be 7" x 10" when I send it to SAQA. Right now, it is just a bit larger
to allow for quilting and facing.

And now, I post!! Enjoy.