
This is my piece entitled "The Road of Life: Sometimes Straight, Sometimes Circular, but always in my Heart". The piece is dedicated to my Mom, who had just been diagnosed with Dementia.
Now to get it registered and in the mail.

We were free to applique whatever we wanted on our piece, so I decided to add silhouettes of dancers. I took the general shapes from a piece of African fabric that I had by Jordan Morris, for Michael Miller Fabrics. I modified the shapes for my purposes and then did some thread painting on the black silhouette to add the clothes, bangles and shakers. I really enjoyed the thread painting. I didn't want to do it as part of the quilting, so I outlined the shapes on the black fabric, then did the painting using different thread on each shape. I then fused them onto Wonder Under, cut them out and fused on to the already quilted background. Then I used free-motion quilting to outline quilt the shapes on the piece.
This first one, has the center I made, which ends with the white fabric. Doris Green took the center and added everything from the tiny pink sashing, up to the orange half square triangles. What a nice zing this added to my paper pieced center. Catherine Johnston has it now and so far she has added the last black boarder.
The second center was made by Pat Julian. It is beautifully hand appliqued. Jean Moccio added the green sashing and the zigzag boarder. Notice how she pulls out the purple and yellow from Anne's flowers into her boarder. Nice job Jean! Now it is with Teri Lucas to work her magic.
If you remember, Dazzling Geese is my original design, using Paula Nadelstern's Mega Marble's fabric as the focus, and her Classic Stripe from the Opulance line for the piping and binding. I loved this fabric from the moment I saw it, and just couldn't but it in a square. As soon as I learned how to draft circular flying geese, I knew what I had to do, and so Dazzling Geese was born.