Charms, Feathers and Mardi Gras

Lisa, my friend over at Tangled Textiles, mailed us an envelope that had hand dyed fabric, charms and fiber and challenged us to create something.  Her words were " use some (or all, if you choose) of the fabric, and at least one of the charms.  If you find some fibers in your packet, please use it/them in some way..."  Okay this was somewhat daunting for me.  I've been accustomed to working from a "theme" as in "music", "architecture".  Get the picture?  I had to really think about what to do with these materials.

 Here is a close up of the charms,

and the fibers.

I thought about what to do, sketched ideas, thought some more, and came up empty.  As months went by I was running out of time.  I pinned the items to the design wall and about three weeks ago, it came to me. The colours were bright, joyful, and vibrant.  Ahhh!  An epiphany!!  These materials conjured up an image of Mardi Gras for me.  I had to get that image down on paper before it disappeared.  Now to get the piece done in time.

I needed to find some background fabric to act as a canvas for my idea.  I chose a neutral piece that would allow me to add some stenciling.  I had the perfect stencil to use and chose to use blue and green Shiva paint sticks.

You can see the stencil in the backgound, or here or on the Tangled Textiles site.  Next I pressed the fabric to Misty Fuse and after some fussy cutting and a template I had this.

I slashed the blue and green portions of the fabric to give me strips.  It ended up looking like this.

It was time to layer the pieces together on the background and do some free motion stitching to hold things in place.

But before I could completely fuse everything embellishing was the next order of business.  I added some feathers and then fused the remaining piece in place.

Additional feathers were added and then the charms and fibers.  Some hand embroidery and machine stitchery completed the picture. There was sufficient fabric left over to create the binding.  

Voila! The final result!

As for what was left, here is a picture of the remnants.