I've now come out from under the semester's work. Finals are over, grades are submitted, and I'm officially on vacation. Between the madness, I've been working on Allie's Madonna, which became a serene meditation to counterbalance the busyness of work.
In the final composition I added that pink and white inner border, which to me adds breathing space to this piece. I then machine quilted the whole piece with metallic silver thread.
The floral part of the composition got some hand embroidered foliage: the dark green is rayon ribbon and the light green is silk thread. The ribbons are top stitched with machine embroidery using rayon thread.
I took a close up of this part of the outer border because it's a little joke I've inserted into the piece. The green fabric has that line of stitching because it was cut from a pocket of a night shirt. I love this fabric and it's appeared in other projects, but I wanted to hint at its prior life.
The Virgin's crown was beaded with all kinds of sparkly things: beads, sequins and pearls.
The halos on the Mother and Child are embellished with tiny mother of pearl buttons, which reflect light like you wouldn't believe, although it's hard to capture on camera.
This is the first layer of embellishment. It only seems fitting to finish this by Christmas, and the final layer is nearly done. More pictures by Saturday.
7 comments:
I love how this is turning out. My favorite bits: the tiny buttons, and the beading on the crown. My very favorite, though: the nightshirt repurpose...so soft, so sweet, so innocent, so fitting =-)
Those tiny buttons are really precious. I'm dipping into the button jar next year for sure.
Lovely piece!
So beautiful, Barbara. I love the detail of the Christ Child holding the cross and all the lovely stitching as well. Lucky Allie!
I am really loving this, Barbara, and can feel your peace as you work. What a treasure this will be for me! Thank you so much....
The buttons around the halos are so lovely! What a sweet piece.
Enjoy your hard earned break.
It's developing beautifully - of course! I admire your ability to use this stitching as meditation in the midst of the holiday season. I've been making lots of notes about what I'd like to be doing but can't seem to settle to any of it!
This is beautiful Barbara. It must feel good to have work behind you if only for alittle while. Looking forward to knowing you better over at Tuesday Stitchers. Have a wonderful holiday time and the best of new years!
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