At LONG last (I think this class was last fall -- it's been long enough that I can't remember!)... here's MY finished top from
Carol Taylor's Sensuous Lines & Curves class. I had to do a little fudging when I cut the length of the center panel too short, but it's barely noticable, so I'm pleased. My "big idea" was the beach, like at home on Lake Michigan -- water, sand, dune grass and sparkles of sunshine.
There's a LOT of work still to do before this piece is finished. The center panel has all the yarns and trims couched onto a "full" quilt already (top fabric, batting and muslin). The entire piece now gets layered with batting and backing, then that panel needs to be quilted to outline each of the couched yarns. In my mind, that was overkill, but I tried it on a sample (I'll show you that in a minute), and it's definitely worth it. Boring, though! I'll do that in invisible thread, I think, and then add in a few strands of copper hologram thread as accents (and to help balance the left, which is a little pale). I'm not sure what I'll do in the outer blocks yet... I guess take it one step at a time!
I just have to finish the edges, probably just overcasting with blue. A couple of the couched yarns fray a lot, so I dabbed on a little fray check first. Once it's dry, I'll finish these off before moving on to the next thing on my "to-do" list.
