Sunday, November 27, 2005

Banksia Panel




































We had a really wild thunderstorm on Friday night and the sky was a brooding deep blue grey. I tried to photograph it but it looks relatively mild to how it really looked- the rose in the foreground was like a beacon and the light was really eerie.

I am making a long banksia wallhanging. I have lots of banksias in my garden and they come in many different colours ranging from a soft licheny green to deep rust and maroon. The Banksia I have photographed is one of my favourites as the stamens are gold, rust and red coloured.Unfortunately the actual bush has become tall and straggly. However I am always trying to capture this particular one in stitching. I have hand dyed the back ground panel and printed it with bracken and beech leaves with gold textile ink, to liven up the middle ground. Then I overlay with applique shapes and then stitch these before I start quilting when I will go over some of the stitching again. I stitch first because if I do that in the quilting process I lose a lot of the loft of the batting and thereby texture.

I did manage to stagger to 50,000 words for nanowrimo but the story is not finished- in fact I have no idea how it will end as the characters seem to have taken over .

2 comments:

Micki said...

this is really interesting. I also like the stitching on the flowers. nice photos also.

Anonymous said...

Hello Dijanne
These panels are stuning just like the real flowers,I love the storm in the backgroud.. Fabulous work as always, I always know I'm gonna see something awesome every time I visit here..
Dianne