Falling a work in progress...

Falling
a work in progress...
This quilt started as an experiment with surface design.  I had an idea.  Paint some thin batik lines on white fabric, making sure they are widely spaced, and dye different colors on each stripe.  Then capture those colors by stamping a big circle and fill in the circle with wax.  Done!   Then bleach discharge the fabric, and overdye a different color.  Repeat with various combinations of colors.  I then cut the fabric into squares and arranged the blocks...

And I do kind of like the abstract quality of the circles and squares and random arrangement.  But apparently, not enough to actually sew them together, because they sat around my studio for a long time.  Meanwhile, many other projects were started and completed, and this one just sat, waiting for it's turn. 
Eventually, I pulled the blocks down, and put them on a shelf.  This winter, I got a new idea for the blocks.  Cut the squares into circles!! Yes!! Let's try it. 

And use some curves, and surround them with tons of white empty space.  They became strings of beads, on a BIG scale.  I think the quilt is about 60" square, maybe larger?  Each "bead" is about 4 inches across (aka, diameter!).  I like it, I like it a lot!
Now, all that's left is the quilting.  I wasn't sure about the first idea I had, so I made a small sample:

Oh yes!  I like this too!  Good idea.  Now, I only have to DO it.  It is hard to free motion a big quilt, and hard to do close echo quilting from multiple starting points (each line of beads), and not run into pleats on the backs.  This will be challenging to do it right.  I can tell you that by the time I get to the hand quilting with black thread, I will be choosing Aurofil's new floss, and having a good time.  However, I am not there yet.  Hey and if you are wondering how those circles are attached, think no further than the magic of Mistyfuse.