The Mystic Solanna

When I am in a meeting, I always (ALWAYS) have a pad of paper and a pen to take notes (I admit I am a compulsive note taker) and to draw pictures.  It helps me to pay attention at meetings to draw pictures while I listen to the meeting - otherwise I get distracted and my mind wanders and I don't pay attention at all.

I used to knit or crochet in college classes because it helped me to focus on the class - some of my teachers were annoyed until they tried to catch me by asking a surprise question and found that I knew exactly what was going on.  Am I weird that way?  Maybe.

Anyway - here is one of the little pictures that I drew last year - and saved because I liked the "feel" of the little critter.  She sort of reminds me of a fortune teller.

And here is the quilt that I made with that drawing as inspiration.  The border fabric was the inspiration for the colors.  At first I tried many different background fabrics - but none of them made Solanna really shine.

But when I chose the black background, I needed to do something to perk it up.  I used some of my really pretty new variegated thread and I left unquilted circles for contrast and interest and to mimic the circles in the border.  It was an interesting challenge to leave the circles unquilted.  I finally cut circles out of freezer paper and ironed them down and stitched a line around each circle before adding the vertical lines.

I also really like the stitch and different color of thread for the "floor".  I needed something other than a straight stitch and this one really blossomed with the variegated thread.

And I added a LOT of embroidery and beading - check out the detail photos to see some of the added dimension.   All in all a fun project.                  
barbara