Embellishing Fun

During this week, when the weather outside was cold and wintry, I spent a couple of afternoons entertaining myself with my Babylock Embellisher machine. I finished two small art quilts that I began right after Christmas.

I definitely was imagining a warmer place and time...

The first of these is called "Tropical Waters." I remember being in Nassau and watching each wave roll in, and admiring all the shades of blue and green.

Tropical Waters, 2009, 6" x 6"

The fibers include silk tussah tops, wool roving, Angelina, Tinzel, Dupioni silk, and cotton. I actually incorporated an old experiment in making fantasy fabric with water-soluble stabilizer and stitching together. After needle-felting the top together, I took it to my Bernina and quilted swirly waves. I added some tiny seed beads to the waves, surf, and sand for additional shine. The border is zigzagged with a silver thread that also has a little silk roving tucked in.

Tropical Waters, details

The next piece is very similar, but I added yarns to make a tropical island. I have never been to a tropical island with mountains rising practically from the shore, but I can imagine one! This one has a bit of dimension at the edge of the beach to represent shrubbery. OK, I should have started quilting in the center, because the fibers bulged up, but didn't that add a design element?

Tropical Island, 2009, 6" x 8"

Then, I decided to try a project from the book Needle-Felting Magic by Margo Duke. This brooch includes chiffon and silk from the two scarves I purchased last weekend, some silk sari ribbon with a silver glitter stripe, some yarns and ribbons, a little glitter glue, some shiny beads, and a few of those charms I made from shrink plastic last summer. It is a little over three inches in diameter.

Valentine Brooch, 2009

All of these pieces will be for sale in my Etsy shop soon. I can't decide how to hang the little quilts. I am considering mounting them to stretched artist canvas, but am toying with mounting on Plexiglas.