Road Trip!

"R" is For Road Trip!

This is a collage of several small postcard-style quilts that show a road trip through the Southwest. The background is a city skyline while the border represents the wide open road. Text includes not only the free-form cut letters, but  also the background map behind the two figures. My quilt measures 22" x 21".

Pouring T

21" x 17"

I seldom include letters or words in my pieces, but the challenge called for them, hence, Pouring T, quite literally!  I tried cutting the letters out from fabric, but since I was unwilling to sew all around the edges for each letter, I tried out a technique that came through Joggles.com recently.  They had a video of printing using adhesive foam and pieces of foam core for printing, and since I always have loads of foam core scraps, I gave it a try.  The printing came out a bit light, but I filled in the T's with the same marker I had used for ink, and outlined the H20 steam and felt satisfied with the result.

At first, I was going to crop the kettle, but it wanted to be included in its entirety -- though it didn't want to have a handle!

Thanks, Ann, for a fun challenge.  I welcome any comments.

Fresh Fish!

This piece began with sun dyeing muslin using Dye-na-Flow, cut paper shapes, and plant material [read: weeds!] from my yard. It’s a fun, quick and easy process. A fellow art quilter loaned me a wonderful Fred B. Mullet fish stamp that I applied with black and gold textile paints.

As I worked on the piece, this narrative kept going through my head: Five fancy fish, freely floating, fleetly flitting, and fitly finning from Fiji to France, from Finland to Formosa. Fascinating, friendly…and flagrantly flirting! -- Fresh Fish!
I had notions of somehow including that text via free-motion quilting, but I’m just not that good! Maybe one day.

12"x26"

Enjoy, and feedback welcomed.

Robert Hartley

S is For Smile

 

Take a smile. Or two.. Or three…

The Daily Smile Countdown!

Beads, buttons, charms, lace, lock washers, sequins, trims, washers, yarns, zipper.

 

Temperance

This quilt is about "Temperance" and is the newest in my series of family history quilts. The photo in the center is of my great-grandmother, Laura Kincaid Seaman Meade. To the left is her father, the "father of Sumner [WA]," who was very pro-temperance. To the right is Laura's second husband - a "hops king" until aphids destroyed that industry. The photo in the top row is of a hops kiln and workers in Sumner. Sumner was a "dry" town, but many residents became rich from hops, from which beer is made. I have no idea how Laura handled this situation.
I have not quilted this top yet. I enjoyed finding lots of antique-ish red prints. I will probably add more quotes. There are also quotes and images about temperance and the hops industry on the back.

A is for Attitude

In March, 2013 Craftsy.com sponsored its first ever quilting cruise. They provided us with four great instructors. Each one taught us a different technique. Pam Holland taught us how to make a quilted alphabet book. This was our first block entitled "A is for Attitude". Pam has written a book entitled "The Adventures of the Amazing Alphabet" and has created a different character for each letter. Her website is www.pamhollanddesignsandproductions.com if you want to check out her quilts, which are amazing. I enjoyed learning the technique of creating a pattern and then tracing it onto my background fabric. You then either color in the areas you want hi-lited with colored pencil or use textile marking pens. You then quilt around everything to make it more pronounced. I would like to make all the letters for my grandchildren, but I think it would take me forever and a day, so this may be my last attempt at letter quilts. The quilt measures 8.5" x 11". I have two granddaughters, Angelica and Alivia so one of them may get this little quilt. Comments are welcome.

C is for Cute

This challenge was just too good to pass up.  I have been working on a technique in Photo Shop called Typographic Portraits.  I am teaching that technique along with others that I incorporate in my computer image quilts next week.  I needed to work on a few more samples and this challenge gave me just the excuse I needed to create another text portrait.

Generally I incorporate a lot of adjectives that describe the person who's portrait I am working on to make up the image.   Because I wanted to use only one or two words for this challenge I chose cute and cousins.  These two are so cute together as they show their love for each other frequently.  As usual I don't have time to finish this piece but wanted to post it as printed on fabric. 

Summing it all up...

The letter I chose is the Greek letter SIGMA. In mathematics, it stands for "summation", and also "series."

It's probably obvious that I did this in a hurry, (Fast Friday), and it was fun. The letters in the quilt, all sigmas, are cut from the yellowed pages of my high school calculus book, now an antique. The text on the pages is about summation and series. I used tulle over the paper cutouts to protect them, and I did a little echo quilting. It is about 14" x 16".

Speaking of series, this might be the beginning of a series for me. My next letter would be DELTA, which stands for "change." 

Thanks for an interesting challenge!

Marilyn Foulke
Louisville, KY

Challenge #81: What's the Word?

Theme: WHAT’S THE WORD?

Host:  Ann Turley, Fallbrook, CA

Due:  June 1, 2013

Create a quilt that illustrates a word and a letter of the alphabet. Think outside the realms of normal with subtlety, whimsy, or emotion.  For example, when you think of the letter “A”, the image most of us see is of an apple. Go beyond that, thinking of nouns, verbs and adjectives. For example, I might want to find an interesting way to portray an arpeggio – a quick succession of musical notes. Or perhaps I may want to find an emotion and a letter match. Think “F” is for fear – how would you work with that imagery? Lastly, add a bit of relevant text to your quilt. This could be a subtle as repeating your chosen letter in the shadows, or as in-your-face as a large block print in a corner.  Maybe a bit of poetry that speaks of your image could be used. Whatever you decide, make it yours and make it personal to you.

This is one that I made that illustrates the idea, entitled Pea Pod Soup (the words are there, on the right, if you look closely):

Links that may be helpful:

Hexagons, music and text

http://luannkessi.blogspot.com/2012/11/hexagon-text-quiltmore-progress.html

A collection of paper-pieced blocks that get my idea across better that I ever could!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/basildonkitchens/8112518230/

Scroll down to the little heart quilt:

http://www.pjhornbergerfolkartist.com/2013/03/new-textile-art-art-quilts.html

This one could easily illustrate an emotion:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/102618933/framed-guardian-angel-original-outsider?ref=v1_other_1

In my opinion, Susan Shie is amongst the best at adding text to her pieces:

www.turtlemoon.com/gallery/gallery.htm

So have fun, don’t over-think your quilt, just do it!

Joy, Peace

These two quilts, "Joy" and "Peace", are in remembrance of my sister, Joy, who died May 3, 2013. I wrote a lot of memories and thoughts on them, both fronts and backs.

His Eyes Bored Into My Soul

 
I took this picture of an owl when my husband and I were in Alaska a few years ago.  His intense stare has always enthralled me.  I used Photoshop filters to alter the picture of the owl.  I found a yellow fabric in my stash that matched the yellow of his eyes, to help highlight the eyes.  I used browns as the frame so as not to take away the intensity of the eyes. As shown by the close up, the owl is heavily quilted except for the eyes and the beak. I have always wanted to do something with this photo and really enjoyed making this quilt. I have several other ideas for eyes but decided on this one.  I may continue with this theme for a while. I truly enjoyed this challenge!

The Eye of the Beholder

I loved the idea of this challenge but really didn't have the time to put my design into fabric.  But it excited me so much that I felt I could at least do the design work and I will work on creating it in fabric later.

I entered a photo of an eye into PSE 11 I also entered a photo of this cute little baby.  I deleted the background from around the baby and reduced its size in order for it to fit into the pupil of the eye.  I also made the baby a little more opaque than the eye.

I then went to my filters and used the cutout filter in eight layers to create this image.  I'm very happy with the results, wish I had time to work on it now.

Night Vision

15" x 19"

5/9 -- I have renamed this piece "Night Vision" instead of "Night Eye"!
----------- Setting out to do this challenge, I looked up drawing an eye in a "how to" book for the basic shape.  The original picture was in pencil, so there was only dark versus light -- and the dark seemed to prevail in what came together!  The "eyebrow" is from a fabric scrap from a costume project I did this winter, which had a grey floral border on black fabric, used for a 1910's mourning dress, but the curve seemed right for an eyebrow.  The red of the eye came from another costume scrap.  It doesn't show very much, but above the eye I used some navy blue as "eye shadow".  The netting and a bit of thread painting created the shading in the upper part of the eye.

I had tried out a silver sharpie for lines below the eye, but it wasn't right.  Black ink did not cover it, and unfortunately seeped into the white.  I ended up using black foil to cover the silver, and a bit of silver foil to create the reflection of light in the eye.

For a quote, I had this in mind: "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."  Various translations have the words "healthy", "sound", "unclouded" or "good" instead of "single" so maybe I should try to get that black smudge out!

Comments welcome -- as well as suggestions for a better title!

The Eyes Have It

"The Eyes Have It" is mounted on black felt, then quilted, is 6" x6".

I Only Have Eyes For You

 

The quilt is uses positive /negative images for the eyes and is based on the quote:

 The eyes are the mirror of the soul

Designed in Make the Cut software, cut with an electronic cutter and free motion quilted.

 

Iris

The iris of the eye is named for the Greek goddess Iris who was goddess of the rainbow, so I chose to incorporate the whole of the rainbow as the color of this eye.

This was a fun challenge.  I'm most pleased that I was able to pull all the colors from my scrap bin -- except for the rainbow stripe and black & white background fabrics.

The finished piece is 15" square.  Comments/critiques are welcomed.

Robert Hartley

My Eyes

My eyes are from a Photoshop drawing that I finished over the weekend.  Much of the work I've been doing lately are combinations of freehand line drawings and my altered photographs layered in Photoshop.  One day, maybe some of them will find their way into art quilts.

Challenge 80: The Eyes Have It!

Theme: The Eyes have it.

Host:  Tobi Hoffman

Due Date:  May 4, 2013

When I was growing up, one friend of the family had a drawing by an artist who specialized in scientific illustration.  The picture was maybe 15 inches wide and 10 or 12 inches in height, and quite accurate in detail; at that size, it was a striking piece of art.  A one-time artist roommate of mine once chose a Time Magazine cover of Martin Luther King Jr. as a subject; she painted one eye first, and then moved out from there for a complete portrait, but that eye was still notably the center.  Many writers and sages have used the eye as a metaphor, praised the beauty of a lover’s eyes, talked about it as the window of the soul.  For this challenge, focus your eyes on the Eye, or Eyes, as the subject.  It may be part of the face, or stand by itself, be realistic or not, be a single eye, a pair of eyes, many eyes or pairs of eyes.  For that matter, it may not be even a human eye, but an animal’s, cat or goat or fish.

As an added piece of the challenge, take one of the following quotes (or find any other that you like) for further inspiration:

The eyes are the mirror of the soul.  Yiddish Proverb

The eye is the jewel of the body. Henry David Thoreau

No eyes that have seen beauty ever lose their sight.  Jean Toomer

When life gives you lemons, squirt someone in the eye.  Cathy Guisewite (“Cathy” comic strip)

There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect. G. K. Chesterton

The eyes like sentinel occupy the highest place in the body.  Marcus Tulius Cicero

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.  Mark Twain

The eye sees a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination awake. Leonardo da Vinci

You never know how you look through other people's eyes.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.  Mahatma Gandhi 

Images of the eye:

Cartoon eyes: http://tinyurl.com/FFFC80-1

Human eyes: http://tinyurl.com/FFFC80-2  

Animal eyes:  http://tinyurl.com/FFFC80-3  

Abstract eye art:  http://tinyurl.com/FFFC80-4

And some specific examples of eyes in quilted art:

Rose Rushbrooke:  http://www.roserushbrooke.com/sheeps-eyes.html

Cindy Bettinger (check out the header on her site and her portraits): http://www.cindybettinger.com/gateway/art-quilting/

Maria Elkins: http://mariaelkins.com/index.php/quilts/

And one further note: have fun with this!

Harrison quilt

Although this quilt is not quilted, I have finished piecing it. I will be having it long-arm quilted. The pattern in this quilt has infinite possibilities. I learned this technique from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, while on a Craftsy Quilting Cruise a few weeks ago. It's a very simple technique that requires that you start with a 10 1/2" wide strip of tan fabric and a 1" inch strip of red fabric. You cut off a piece of the tan fabric in a width anywhere from 1.5" to 4.5". You can then cut that piece up into further segments, stitch the red strips onto the cut edges and reassemble the piece, and add it on to the existing strip. You could keep going forever, but I stopped at 80" long and 48" wide. I will be donating this quilt to my family for our Harrison Family Reunion coming up in 2014 to use as a fundraiser raffle quilt. I think the red strips seem to form the letter "H" in different heights, if looked at from the side, so I'm hoping that this will make a good Harrison quilt.

Infinity Spiral

This 7" quilt was supposed to show a dark square spiraling infinitely into a light center. There are actually 5 different yellow fabrics in the center, but they are almost too small to see. It didn't come out as envisioned, but it was fun to make and a surprise to see how it turned out.

Snail Flower

This was a quick piece...started and completed it tonight!

A few years ago, I created a quilt block design based on a pair of snails.  Tonight, I worked with that block in Photoshop flipping it vertically and horizontally a few times, and then printed the image on a cotton fabric sheet.  The snail part of the printed image was enhanced with free-motion thread work.

How does this relate to infinity?  It relates because the design could be continued to infinity and already travels beyond its border.

By the way, the top part of the finished piece reminds me of a flower which is how the piece got its name.

Detroit Skyline

Detail: 

A photo from a cruise on the Detroit River is in the center. I learned how to apply special effects to it  in a software program, Fabric Studio and printed it on fabric. It was hand quilted with silver thread

Here is a second version.This time I did not tile it prior to the special effects.

Infinity

My idea of infinity is the horizon line and the change of seasons. There are places in this world where the horizon is endless and it seems that one is on top of the world.

I used two pieces of kimono silk overdyed and printed, a piece of cotton ikat and a commercial sky fabric. The grid stitching is in a dark blue cotton thread; French knots in perle cotton are on the bottom left side suggesting a calendar.

This was a fun project and I'm impressed I got it done in the time frame alotted.

TRIFID NEBULA

My interpretation of infinity is outer space.  My inspiration was a photo by R. Jay GaBany. (permission granted)

"Unspeakable beauty and unimaginable bedlam can be found together in the Trifid Nebula, also known as M20.  The energetic processes of star formation create not only the colors but the chaos.  The red-glowing gas results from high-energy starlight striking interstellar hydrogen gas.  The dark dust filaments that lace it were created in the atmospheres of cool giant stars and in the debris from supernovae explosions.  Which bright young stars light up the blue reflection nebula is still being investigated.  The light we see today left perhaps 3000 years ago, although the exact distance remains unknown.  Light takes about 50 years to cross M20."

The quilt is several different layers of organzas, some of them jewel encrusted.  The nebula is constructed with hand dyed silk roving.  All is covered with tulle and then cut-out appliques of the jeweled organza in a different color are added and the stitching around them is the quilting.  Last I added more Swarovski crystals.

This is the 3rd quilt in a series of Nebulae I am working on.
The piece measures 19"x32"

Thanks Lisa for a wonderful challenge.
All comments and or critiques are welcome and appreciated.
Cherie

Challenge 79: Infinity . . . . . . . . . ...

Theme: Infinity

Host: Lisa Albanese
Art Concept: Perspective

Due Date:  March 30, 2013

My favorite number is infinity.  It goes on and on, without end, a concept of continuation more than the mind can grasp.  What is the largest number you can conceive?  Whatever it is, you can always go further.  And mathematically, you can take that infinite number and multiply it by any other number (including by infinity!) – and infinity is still what it is.  M.C. Escher provides a visual concept of the art of infinity with his tessellations and perspective – and still, does he actually achieve infinity?

Create a quilt that tries to show infinite possibilities, possibly using perspective to do this.  It may be realistic or abstract, or anywhere in the infinite spaces between reality and abstraction.

M.C. Escher:
http://www.mcescher.com/
http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/march2010/features/capturing_infinity

Definition of Perspective:
http://perspective-book.com/artist/perspective-art.html
http://www.artic.edu/aic/education/sciarttech/2d1.html

Fractal art (With the right software, you can generate a fractal image, enlarge any part of it, and get as much detail as you saw in the original – and then do it again, and again, and again . . .):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_art

http://www.abm-enterprises.net/fractals/mandelbrotgalaxywallpaper.html

http://www.alicekelley.com/

Art quilts:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pbev/2225491694/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lalouque/3317979644/in/set-72157614503820779/
http://pinterest.com/pin/7740630581616124/
http://www.andiperejda.com/studentwork.htm
http://www.annquilts.com/ArtQuilts%20Pages/naturesperspective.html
http://aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com/2012/12/park-place-40.html

And one more note: have fun with this!

Windy Windows

This quick quilt shows windows - looking in and looking out. The wavy quilting reminded me of wind. This "freeform" technique was inspired by Rayna Gillman's book.

Night Time Window

Size: 16½" x 14¼"

I finished this yesterday and took photos, but didn't post because I felt I really didn't have good enough lighting, but it's no better this morning with our heavy snow still coming down.

This is a rather three-dimensional piece, with the curtains coming out from the background and the little table is actually a little shelf of foam core.  I recently got that background fabric in a Sweet Treats collection, and even before this challenge came up, it said simply "wallpaper" to me!    I tea-dyed the curtains and tablecloth because they were too light for the contrast I wanted.  I made the bowl out of polymer clay and the flowers and leaves are separate pillow-like pieces.  The tablecloth is lace backed with fusible interfacing and edged with the same lace that edges the curtains.  The black sky seen through the windows is a glimmery black fabric, backed by a dark silver.  The last touch was a scattering of tiny foil stars that I came across in my stash, which I hadn't known that I had.

I'm not fully satisfied with the flowers, actually, and might look for miniature artificial flowers to replace them - let me know what you think!  Comments welcome.

The Window of My Heart

This is the first piece I have done since before my husband passed away last summer. 

My late husband and son are in the window.  I used a window with shutters because I no longer can see them in this world but they are very much a part of my heart. I have a series of window and door pictures from New Orleans.  Many of them are shuttered closed.  I picked this one because although it is shuttered, the shutters are open to see inside.  I used photoshop PS5 to merge the faces into the window.  I printed out the picture on cotton and cut it out.  The background is some fabric I painted last year and it seemed like a good background for a window.  I have quilted the piece but have not bound it because I plan to matt and frame it.

Tiny Door



The top photo is the full quilt front, the middle photo is a close up and the bottom photo is the back. The quilt measures 10" x 8 1/4". Having just lost my father-in-law, Frank, on February 19, I wanted to do a quilt in his memory. He was on the Greater Siouxland Alzheimer's Board, because his wife suffered with the disease for many years. She was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers at 58, and spent the last thirteen years of her life in a nursing home. Frank visited her every day. Before she entered the nursing home, he cared for her in their home until it was no longer safe. She got lost many times in trying to get home, hence the small door in the center of the quilt depicting the great difficulty Alzhiemers patients have in finding their way. The braided embroidery thread outlining the medium green triangle symbolizes the twists and turns life takes with this disease. The hanging tails of the braider thread signify how patients sometimes feel that their life is at loose ends. The beads in the lighter green section symbolize the fragmentation of life and thoughts. The lime green ribbon creating an inner border symbolizes the ring of support provided by Frank, and the sunshine that he tried to bring to her life. The ribbon has hundreds of little loops on the edges symbolizing the many trips to the nursing home, and the loving kindness he continued to show his wife throughout her long illness. The back of the quilt symbolizes the waning and waxing of memory. Sometimes the memory goes dim, and at other times it comes shining through. This quilt will be donated to the Greater Siouxland Alzheimer's Board along with several others made by members of our quilt guild to help raise money for Alzheimer's research. This was a great challenge. Comments and suggestions are welcome. 

"Lets Make A Deal!"

I fell in love with the theme of doors for this challenge.  It is my belief that our lives are a direct reflection of the choices which we make.  We do not know what doors will open and what doors will close as we walk down the path of our life.  However, the decision of the path we will take is usually left up to us.  The title references the old game show "Let"s Make A Deal!".

This photo of doors for sale was enhanced through the use of Photoshop Elements.  I printed it on Lutradur treated with Golden Digital Grounds.  The background is a monoprint which I did a couple of weeks ago using a Gelliplate.  I then freemotion quilted the foundation, adhered the photo to the quilted foundation, added a decorative ribbon behind the photo, and then added the black bias tape around the photo.  I raided some of my old costume jewelry to add the embellishment at the corners of the photo.  I will eventually be mounting it on canvas to complete it.  This is the first challenge which I have done in a while, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

                                                                          



Kayaking Boulder Bay

Just love this challenge - Gave me a chance to quilt my photo (last pic) that I took during one of my daily kayaking sojourns.  I not only love to kayak for the exercise, but the photos I can get right down on the water are just unbelievable.  I can get into areas so shallow that my husband and I cannot do with our boat.  Here in Big Bear Lake, there are many beautiful sights, several bays, lots of animal life, and the most beautiful Southern California days of sunshine.

I used two batiks, one for the water, one for the cement wall supporting the Big Bear Boulevard/Route 18 overpass where, as you can see, is a "portal" leading to another small part of Boulder Bay.  (I love to paddle through this into the small sanctuary of birds, dragonflies, ducks and boulders.)  Then I used dry brush technique with acrylic paints to create some of the details, followed with a few million yards of thread for more details.

                                                    detail one

                                                    detail two

                                          Inspiration photograph

Looking forward to your critiques.  Thank you for a wonderful challenge.
Sandi

Window to the Creative Process

 

 Creativity is represented by a beaded lame sun.

 A Brainstorm (heated Tyvek/ actetate) results in lists, risks and making mistakes.

Mountains represent lots of resources, art inspirations and design principles.

New growth (plants and light bulb) represents new ideas.

Refining these ideas and using tools like stork scissors, rotary cutter, and the sewing machine result into making new quilts.

The fiberglass window screen has buttons for knobs.

The creative process is a rollercoaster ride that is enhanced by a relaxed state of mind.

A Cart of Geraniums

A Cart of Geraniums for Sharon

8 x 10 mat      5 x 7 thread painted

It's been a long time since I've been able to complete a challenge for FFFC.

The minute I read the challenge I knew that if there was any way possible to get something done I would.

I love to take photographs of windows and doors.  This photo taken in France, has both.  It also has geraniums, which I love.

I printed the photo on fabric and then thread painted various sections of the piece.

I have a friend who is going through a lot at the moment.  I am going to send it to her in hopes that it will brighten her day.

Fast Fused French Door

I started this yesterday, and although I love the fabrics,  I am a little disappointed at how it turned out.  

I based the quilt (9" x 12") on a photograph I took about 10 years ago in France.  I think the photo was a little off kilter, and I had problems with perspective on the quilt.  However,  the Stonehenge fabrics turned out to be perfect for the weathered stone on the building.

I also like the complementary colors of the door and door frame, and I think the door provides the "contrast" that was part of the challenge.

I consider this a learning experience, and I would welcome any suggestions.

Marilyn Foulke

Louisville, KY

Window of Imagination

I improvised this window from somewhere in my imagination. More accurate details would have been caught with a reference photograph, but I wanted to use the challenge theme to let the window open a door to imagination. I went for a painterly, impressionistic approach, so it’s not meant to be exact. In fact, the lines are hardly straight and things are rather askew, but I’m generally satisfied with the results.

Glass and reflections are so tricky to replicate. That’s where a reference photo would have helped. I think there should somehow be more life and light radiating from inside the window, but I’m not sure how to go about that.
I chose the yellow border thinking it would accentuate the window frame, but seeing it finished I’m now questioning that choice and considering changing the yellow border with a paint finish or other approach. Feedback is welcomed.
The piece is 11”x13.5”

Robert Hartley

ROBIN CARUSOE'S TREE HOUSE

I had so much fun with this one!  The background is hand painted and treated with salt.  The leaves are either  hand dyes, or two layer sheers fused together and cut with a stencil tool.  The flowers are three different polyester sheers fused together and then freehand cut out using the stencil tool.  (I love this technique!)  They are attached in the centers only, using french knots.

The trees and tree house are decorator fabrics and thread work.  The Robin is printed from a photo and then enhanced with colored pencils and stitching.

The quilt measures 12"x12"

Great challenge, Susan!  I loved it!

Comments and critiques greatly appreciated...Cherie

Whoohoo...response to Challenge #78 completed!

Portal of the Nobles

(Inspiration Photo)

Thank you for this most enjoyable challenge, Susan!

My first step was to go through oodles of travel photos to find doors and doorways until I found this inspiration photo (a door in Scotland).  Then I made templates for certain elements and auditioned lots of fabrics (especially background fabrics) to see how contrast could be achieved in the piece.

The background I chose is a lovely sheet of fiber paper (overlaid on a piece of white cotton fabric) that I found at a local art store recently.  It sewed through beautifully!

As always, comments welcome!