Santa Ana Winds

I recently finished another piece in the series that I call "Celebration".  All of the Celebration works are pieced so that there is the feel of confetti or streamers running throughout.  This one is called Santa Ana Winds.  All of the fabrics in the piece are hand-dyed Kona cotton.  You can see the shibori "stripes" in the yellow and teal strips.  The background, which is a soft melon color is quilted using teal thread to knock back the color and give the piece a dustier look, much like you would expect when the Santa Anas blow through.  The blowing leaves are screen printed with metallic paints.  The entire piece is free motion quilted.

Agapanthus in Winter

After weeding the gardens around our deck of the dead foliage from last summer, I accumulated a pile of dead agapanthus (Lily of the Nile) stems.  They looked a little skeletal and sad, but I liked the way they looked almost as much as when they were in bloom.  Using that inspiration, I created my 12" X 12" SAQA Benefit Auction piece.  The piece is Kona cotton, hand-dyed, and over-dyed using a Shibori technique.  The agapanthus stems and leaves are raw-edge appliqued, then thread painted.  I free-motion quilted the background.