The first thing that I learned, at least for this style of quilt, I am better off to stitch first and embellish with paint and pencil afterwards, and that sparingly. I botched some areas from the get go and had to replace them. This is where sewing the pieces with clear thread pays off. It pulls easily or you can sew a new piece on top of the last one and it doesn't show.
Embellishment and quilting are proceeding in the same order as the piece placement - from background to foreground. I started with the sky and opted to do back and forth lines in the darker area and just straight rays in the lighter area, emulating sun rays. The clouds also just had some back and forth quilting, with some of the white thread going out for cloud wisps. Then I used water soluable oils and colored pencils that were blended with floating medium to color the clouds and deepen the horizon.
All along the dark purple on the right that had a supposed sun spot was bugging me. I finally decided to replace it with a fabric that sort of emulates a dark region with light streaks in it. I am not after a faithful rendition of the scene and this comes across better than what I had. Once that was replaced, I needed to change the foreground a little. I am now happy with what I have.
In the meantime, the first mountain ranges have been quilted. I have two more ridges and the front basin to go and then I will tackle the arch and foreground. I have done a little on the arch with rust thread to define some of the major cracks and will add a few more such details last.
Hopefully I'll have a finished quilt by the end of next week! It needs to be done by the end of the month for sure, as I intend to enter it into an art quilt show.
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| Current status of Delicate Arch |