Advice Needed

I need some advice.
I am designing some cushions and am using wrought iron designs from my travels as the inspiration.

I have played around in Photoshop to get the outline.

Transferred it to fabric and appliqued it on and then quilted.

Now I can't decide if it needs more quilting eg brick/stone outlines in the background or just leave it simple. It is really just a cushion and meant to be easy to reproduce.
What do you think?

Houston Quilt Market - Day 2

Today was the first day of the actual Quilt Market and I was astounded at how many fabric companies there are. Having never been to a fabric market it was interesting to see how the store owners had comfortable chairs and a representative to assist them and show the fabrics and take orders. Some companies had very elaborate setups.



Here is Kim Bradley at her booth looking very happy as there has been a lot of interest in her templates.

Lots of other goodies to look at including some gorgeous vintage buttons.

The food hall is a very strange place with a variety of dishes offered but all seemed to have a mexican feel to them - even the Asian ones! Spied Sarah Fielke and Damian grabbing a quick bite too.

Interestingly I don't think it was all that busy. The aisles were relatively clear and many store holders looked distinctly bored. Many have big bowls of candy and biscuits on their stands which makes wandering around even better if you have a sweet tooth.

What I found interesting was all the famous quilting names who were just sitting in booths or standing around talking. I spied Ricky Tims, Alex Anderson, Elanor Burns, Kaffe Fassett all within a few minutes. Unsurprisingly - they just look liked us mere mortals.

Transparency and Quilting

A recent exercise in my C&G course was to layer transparent fabrics to create a small piece. This one was nothing until I added the triangles and then suddenly it was a scene. Amazing what the brain will see.

Then we had to quilt it heavily with different threads to see the effect of colour on the layers.

I quite like this and think it may need some beads.

On a Roll

Today I finished the other sample of Cutout Magic that I showed you before my surgery. It has been all ready to quilt for 6 weeks but I couldn't decide how to do it. I have been procrastinating about which design to use and have been consulting my copy of Dijanne Cevaal's 72 Ways not to Stipple which has wonderful ideas for machine quilting. She has now published a sequel with 72 More Ways. Should get one of them too.

Then - just as fate would have it Melody Johnson published a free booklet on machine quilting designs and the first one in the book was just what I needed.

I quilted this with Wonderfil Mirage variagated thread top and bottom which worked really well.This is a 30wt Rayon - great sheen and colours. I used the red wine shade.

Quilting time - 2 hours start to finish. The quilt is about 38in x 38in.

This is a workshop sample and I am really looking forward to these classes as they are always so inspiring for me as well. Check out my website to see where I will be. If you are interested in holding a workshop yourself please contact me.