January Journal Quilt - Summer Sun

I am taking part in a monthly Journal Quilt and the theme for January is 'Seasons'. Even though we have had a bit of rain lately, Australia is still in the grip of a very long drought and, with summer in full swing, days of sunshine aren't exactly what we need right now. So I've decided to try to capture the heat and the intensity of the Australian sun.

Here are the materials I started out with. I ended up using the silk tops (rovings), the four at the bottom, but not the wool tops (roving), the two at the top. The quilt sandwich is two pieces of my favourite hand dyed orange from Dyed and Gone to Heaven with a double layer of black felt in between.

I used the threads but the yarns I ended up untwisting and just using the eyelash strands for texture and not colour.

So, I started with the lightest of the silk tops and worked out to the yellow silk top.

Then added the threads and yarns.

And the DMC stranded metalics were added for sparkle but not colour.

Once I laid out all the fibres, I pinned Solvy on top to hold them in place during machine quilting. For a piece this size, it takes just over two bobbins to quilt. I used a silver metalic thread in the centre and a yellow/orange variagated thread for the rest.

I dunked it in cold water to dissolve the Solvy, and here is what I ended up with.

It is a bit bigger than A4 size, so the next step will be to trim it back. I was thinking about putting a binding on it but maybe I'll machine finish the edges instead.

And, to me, it does look like a hot, baking sun. Does need some beads though.