Auturm Fairy - Large Panel

I also had a large fairy panel ( see previous post for smaller fairy panels). I liked the idea of these but was not sure about them when they arrived (I have to use mail order).

Firstly the color in the image was greatly improved by the right borders - they looked flat before adding  the matched  borders - to the colors lifted the fairy out of the image. At first I was going to applique a few small fairies in the larger red border but they seemed to detract from the centre in reality.

Therefore I tried to quilt the shapes of the hawthorn (also known as mayflower) from the image to the borders. I deliberately varied the width of the echo quilting around the leaves I find this gives the feeling of movement. I quilted the fairy along the lines with in the picture. On the face I just quilted around the eyes and mouth. This is the first quilt where I have tried using rayon embroidery thread as well as cotton.   I am really pleased with the result.