Phoenix Feathers are finished

Let's go back to the beginning.  This was very finely quilted on my Gammill.  I am quite chuffed with the way it turned out.  I think I practically had my nose beside the needle trying to see what I was doing!  It was done on white PFD with white cotton (Alex Anderson) and then it was dyed.  The first dyeing was a little too blotchy so I bleached it, then over dyed it.  Which is the result below.   It looked good up close but didn't really draw attention.

So I started to paint.  I put gold paint mixed with red and yellow on all the circles and flames.  Then put yellow on the suns.   Still not happy,  so out came the paint stix (markels) and the yellow showed up really well.  I then used a dark red on the feathers.  I feel that it has a little pizzaz now, but I sure would do things differently next time!

Phoenix Feathers

Here is the final quilt, before dyeing.  Lots of work, and I know what I'd do differently next time!

Negative space

I've really discovered the meaning of negative space.  I am doing a design with feathers and suns (phoenix is my theme) and thought I was being quite brilliant, until the entire design was quilted and then I looked at the unquilted parts and wondered how I was going to make the design show, not the unquilted sections.  The picture shows bits of both.  So I am going cross-eyed with tiny stippling.  Had I realized all this, the "flames" would have been much fatter.  

I realize that with the pic something else may come to mind.  I may have to rename it b--bs and boas.