Spiralling Circles

Here's my latest creation aging in my art room.  I have had this piece of quilted, painted fabric hanging around since October.  I had all kinds of ideas percolating before the Christmas art show, commission, book excitement began.  Finally, my urgent to do list is taken care of and I have a little time to work on all those ideas. 

I quilted the fabric in one big spiral.  It created a bit of a puff in the center, but it seemed to flatten a little with painting. Then, I sewed down all the circles and it reappeared.  Luckily, I think I can flatten it by fusing on an additional backing fabric when I am done, but that will come later. 

I'm currently at the embellishment experimentation stage.  I find it useful to lay things out and leave them for a while to make sure I still like the idea.  Since I don't have a lot of room and I can't hang them on the wall with the embellishments just sitting there, I lay them on large canvases and stack them up.  I find the method works pretty good as long as the pieces are smaller than 24"x24".  The stretcher bars of the canvas create an air space so the layers aren't actually touching.  Usually the stack ends up on the ironing board, but I can easily move it if another project need the iron, or the rare occasion when the wrinkles in his shirt are too much for my husband (Don't worry, he knows how to move things too).  For this piece, I'm playing with flat, circular shell beads in various sizes and colors.  The spiral reminds me of a snail, so I thought the shell was appropriate.  The pastel colors remind me a bit of Easter eggs.  Maybe he will be my Easter Snail.