Project Quilting Challenge #2

This is the coloring page that I found out there online and used it as a model for Project Quilting's Season 3, Challenge #2 (here).  The theme was making music.  Since we've just come from enjoying The Christmas Season, I thought it would be nice to take on the challenge of interpreting a song title into a quilted piece, which is what PQ is all about (named so after years of watching Project Runway and enjoying it). 




Here is what the process looked like halfway through.  I did not want to reverse the image so using fusibles was not going to work, plus our scanner was not cooperating so mirror imaging wasn't available to me.  So I numbered all the pieces like the straw that the Baby is lying upon and cut them accordingly from different straw colored fabrics, likewise doing the same thing with the remainder of the characters and images.  I laid them all out, one of top of another and began to spot glue them in order to hold the applique together. 

I found the perfect batik background and placed them upon it.  While thinking that the applique would be the finished product, it was our daughter, Katy who suggested that I use jewel-toned batiks for the outside pieces of stained glass.  I was just going to bind the inside of the piece as is, but the point at the top makes it hard to hang, so her suggested was a very good one.  I began to loosly follow the outside stained glass from the coloring page and cut various colors of fabric and laid them around the inset, halo fashion.  I then glued them to each other and, after pinning well in each section, satin-stitched around each one with a wide black stitch, mimicking the leading that finishes each stained glass piece.

Here is my resulting piece.  I am very pleased with the way it turned out and while I did not win a prize in the drawing at the end, I will enjoy this piece in our home during Christmas 2012, and then perhaps offer it for sale at our charity boutique the following year.

Here is a closeup of the image center.  I probably used a mile of black thread on this one!  Four bobbins full were used and quite a bit of starting and stopping!

It is a14 x 16" rectangle without having to spend any money making it at all!  These are all pieces from my stash and a wonderful way to use them up!