Rectangles

I apologize for these being so late, but I thought I had better get them up. I actually finished the bigger one at left (as far as the quilting and the stitching goes) in time...but I found myself playing that "what if" game. I seem to think that I am wonder woman and can do it all.

My choice of shapes was rectangles. I randomly cut them from quilter's lame and either layered them on top of or underneath florist's organdy ribbon in gold. I left the edges raw because I wanted to add in the texture of the fraying edges. I'm not convinced that that was a good idea and I might try to upload a photo tomorrow that shows that better.

The entire piece measures 29" (w) x 26 1/2" (h).

I wondered how beads would look in it...and I laid these rectangular pieces of imitation tiger's eye on top. I think I like it, but I'm not convinced.

I made this smaller version, 13" w x 12" tall to make sure that my tension and choice of quilting elements were what I wanted. I quilted it by coming down in two lines in the center of the rectangle then splitting out and outlining it....sort of like a paddle, and coming back in again at the bottom of the rectangle. I quilted it using Valdani hand dyed thread in a variegated color called "Volcano" which is cherry red, gold and a lighter shade of gold.

After quilting it, I wondered again about beads. I started beading around the edge of the smaller one to see how I liked it. I like it a lot on the small one, but I think it wouldn't look as well on the larger piece. The smaller beads work well on the smaller piece to give it extra interest and texture, but I think they would be distracting on the larger piece.

This is way out of the box for me as I usually do realistic images and I rarely bead. I took a class with Mary Stori and liked it, but I haven't done much with it.
Critques are always welcome. And next time, when I'm working with 100% silk, I'll zigzag the edges before I start working on it!

Lisa Broberg Quintana (Michigoose)