The ‘headbands’ are used to keep the flies out of their eyes and thus stop infection. The eye parts are shadecloth-type mesh.

I think I improved, and I enjoyed trying some thread enhancements I’d never done before.

I used my Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen to do the quilting, and except for the final practice piece, all practice sandwiches were done on off-white sheeting, with some offcut cotton or bamboo batting (I can’t remember which as I made these practice sandwiches ages ago!). The bobbin thread in all cases was a soft pink Deco-Bob.

Here are my practice pieces, with a little about each. Click a picture to see it in full size.

Practice piece 1

My first attempt; dark green rayon thread:

Front:

Back:

Practice piece 2

I enhanced this piece with some echo quilting; same dark green rayon thread as first piece.

Front:

Back:

Practice piece 3

I elongated these leaves so they were more like eucalypt leaves, and made them stand out by flattening the background with very tight bubbles (a la Susan Brubaker Knapp’s approach). Dark green rayon thread with an off-white Deco-Bob thread for the bubbles.

Front:

Back:

Practice piece 4

To avoid getting into a ‘leaves are green’ mindset, I used a purple rayon thread (Robison Anton) for the base leaves. I then went around them loosely with a fluoro orange thread (Mettler?), then again with a variegated metal thread with copper, gold, red, and green in it (Guterman?). I then used a lighter green rayon thread (Mettler) to echo the leaves and make them puff out a bit more.

Front:

Practice piece 5

Still sticking with the ‘leaves aren’t always green’ theme, I decided to do some elongated leaves in a blue and tan variegated cotton thread (Superior?), then went around them with an aqua blue variegated thread (Rainbows), then I used a silver metallic thread (Wonderfil) for the stems and veins of the leaves ONLY, then followed that with tiny bubbles in the same silver thread. I quite liked how this turned out and call it my ‘Blue Gum’ piece!

Front:

Triptych of practice pieces — #3, 4, and 5 (right to left); each section measures about 5 x 6 inches.

Practice piece 6

My final piece. I decided to get away from the off-white fabric and used a large scrap of bright pink cotton I’ve had for 25+ years! I just stitched basic leaves, but in silver to show the effect of metallic thread (Wonderfil) on a plain background.

Front:

Back:

Grayscale:

I changed the photo to grayscale to show the stitching in metallic thread as the bright pink fabric doesn’t photograph well.

So there you have it — January’s challenge completed!

(These photos are also in Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhondamadeit/sets/72157628756341477/)

I like that the number of visitors to this blog would have filled the Sydney Opera House 19 times over

I’ve never done anything like this before — I’ve always directed myself, not had the directions given to me, so that will be a challenge in itself! Two friends of mine have also signed up, so it will be interesting to compare notes.

So here they are (click on a small image to show it full size):