Gumnuts in Tutus

I enjoyed making my 'Gumnuts on Plastic' so much I just had to do it again as a quilted version with fabric.  The background is just sun dyes on calico.  After the stitchery I padded out the flowers for a 3D look before quilting.  This is what gave me the name "Gumnuts in Tutus" because that's what they look like.  I keep coming back to the old eucalyptus trees.

Rainforest Jewels

Bought this wonderful piece of fabric, Convergence by Ricky Timms, and it perfectly suited my plan. I was trying to depict flowers and ferns that would be seen on the rainforest floor with the dappled  sunlight filtering through the canopy.  This was the first time I used discharge paste to create the feature design,  so the outcome was always going to be a surprise as far as the colours were concerned.  In a couple of areas I put a second application of discharge paste to lighten it a little bit more.  When quilting, I made use of the fabric pattern to stitch leaves and ferns as a surround.  There's a little extra wadding used to raise the main flowers.  Made in 2009 Size 5ft square. 

Wetlands

It took me about two years after seeing my first Quilt Show to actually try "painting with fabric".  After joining the Caloundra Quilters group, I thought I'd better learn about traditional quilting before getting too adventurous and doing my own thing.  Glad I did.  Wetlands was made in 2007 and is meant to capture a moment of peace and tranquility in the teatree swamps. The easiest part was sketching the birds and using that as a template for the pattern.  Fabric isn't as forgiving as paint.  No painting over or changing the shape or dimensions once the fabric is cut.  If I'd thought more about it at the beginning,  I would have made it a small wall hanging instead of a larger quilt of  5ft x 6ft.  It now hangs in my studio on the only section of wall free of cupboards and shelving.