Sadie’s background….iteration #1

Now that I had Sadie looking okay….

…..it was time to think about a background for her.

One of the things that I noticed at the International Quilt Festival was that the best quilts didn’t just stop with the main portrait but took it further and added an amazing background. As an example……

I am pretty sure that I want to add a lot of thread painting and other embellishments to the marsh around her feet, much like this quilt from Houston…..

So, the question for me to tackle was….”What kind of fabric background will best show up the threadwork and quilting that I want to employ.

I had attended a guild lecture the night before I started the process and she talked about using a “square” system to get your design onto the background rather than physically tracing it, so I marked out the squares and gave it a try….

It isn’t wonderful but it will get me started!!

Then I pulled out TONS of fabrics that I thought might work…..

…and I started placing single pieces of fabric in each of the spots…..

But it didn’t do it for me!!!!

There was no way to grade from one fabric into the other and it looked too stark……not “stork” (HAHA)

Come back tomorrow for the second try!!