"Lost in the Music"

I belong to an online group called Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. The last Friday of each month a challenge is issued and theoretically you have a week to get it finished. This month I was able to get the top made but didn't have time to do the quilting. I finally got around to it today.

The challenge was to us the word "Solitude" using abstract realism. I came up with this piece of my granddaughter, Ellington in a dance recital.

I decided to echo the quilting lines and have them get wider to the right side of the quilt. This represented movement. I used YLI thread for the echo quilting in a color call "thunder". I love the way this thread changes color every inch. The variation of color also show movement.

I thought I might walk you through the steps I took to make this piece. To get my pattern I usually enhance a photo in PSE8. I make a pattern and place it under my applique sheet or on a piece of parchment paper. For this project I started the dress first and constructed it on my design wall.

I then took the dress down and laid it over my applique sheet on my table. This made it a little more convenient for me to work on. Here I have started her head and hair and hair as well.

I've combined the body and head but the top of her dress is wrong. I usually keep the original photo handy as a reference to help me see what the problem is and make the adjustments.

Now I'm happy with the neckline so I iron the pieces together. I always make sure that everything is in the right place before I place the iron to fabric. Misty Fuse is pretty forgiving and it's possible to take a piece or two off to move it around but if you check everything twice you won't have to do that.

I then placed the body on my background fabric and iron in place. The black with a little mottled gray was just the right piece of fabric to depict a stage curtain.
This was one of my favorite challenges. We will be issued another one tonight at midnight. Can't wait.