Do you ever have trouble deciding whether or not to embellish your quilts with beads, paint, fibers, or other objects? I already made the decision to paint over some of the quilted motifs with Shiva Paint Stiks, which has transformed this piece from a piece of quilted fabric to an art quilt. I began to see the illusion of a pagoda, fence, waterfall, creek, and flowers. I have already added some blue-green beads to the waterfall area. 
I will be adding more gold beads to define the gold "structures."
If you are going to embellish, it should certainly make a positive addition to the quilt's design, theme, meaning, or appearance. What I usually do is gather my containers of beads, ribbons, jewelry, silk flowers, buttons, and fibers. I pull out anything I think might work with the current project. Then I lay them on the quilt to see if I like the project better with or without the extra "stuff."
Below is an old brooch on the left side. I like the way the aged patina of the metal looks when contrasted with the gold and copper metallic paint. I may use it.
I am not opposed to adding silk flowers to add dimension to this piece, but have decided against these beautiful coral ones because I don't like think the warm color adds to this serene piece with cool colors. I will save them for another project.
2 comments:
Whooo, hoo. That is really beautiful.
I have yet to embellish, but someday the right quilt will tell me it needs something special.
(Oh, I did put glass eyes on one quilt.)
I like the flowers, they act like a 'zinger'. I also enjoyed your thoughts on embellishing, it is certainly something that I struggle with, and don't do much of.
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