Flying Home

From my recent batch of dyeing I had a lot of golden yellows, oranges and deep red, perfect for a new series of sunset inspired wall hangings inspired by the wonderful tropical sunsets we get here over the South China Sea.
 Rather than just use one fabric for the background I used a variety of hand dyed fabrics cut into random strips and sewn together, varying the width and curves of the strips to add interest.

Random strips of fabric pieced together to create background.

I kept on going until I got to the size I wanted, adding blues for the sea too, and then layered everything up ready for the quilting. I used a large variety of threads, mostly variegated but a mix of both cotton and polyester and different weights. The polyester threads have a lovely lustre while the cottons, especially the hand dyed ones blend in more subtly.

For this design I decided to quilt the background entirely before adding any appliqué. 

I made two pieces at the same time so I could try out different effects. The single egret uses only cotton variegated threads.

Flying home - a solitary egret flies home across the South China Sea.

The second piece uses a mix of cotton and polyester threads for the quilting.

Free motion quilting, a blend of polyester and cotton threads.

The final piece "Flying Home #2". The egret appliqué is inspired by photos I took on our local beach when I was walking and luckily had my camera with me. I drew out the design in EQ7 so that I could scale it to any size I wanted.

A pair of egrets flying home silhouetted against a tropical sunset.