Chickadees

Between tax season and all our recent entertaining, it seems like progress in the studio has slowed to a crawl. I did manage to finish the quilting on this piece - the second in my birds series.
I was problem solving with this piece - gearing up for a much larger one with three panels.

When I decided this piece needed a border, I found I didn't have anything I thought was suitable, so I took the leftover fabric from the center and painted over it with very diluted brown Setacolor paints. It had already been stamped, giving it a nice subtle texture. I magnified the branchlike appearance by crumpling the wet painted fabric and allowing it to dry in the crumpled state. This causes the paint to be drawn toward the folds as it dries, creating additional branchlike but very subtle texture.

My plan is to gallery wrap this piece, as I doubt I will enter it into any quilt shows. Instead, it is destined for a gallery, and I find things sell a bit better when wrapped on stretcher bars. The finished size will be a bit smaller after I wrap it.