First Quilt of the Year

"Brilliance of the Night Sky"
Hand-beaded Art Quilt
8" x 10" framed
Sheila Mahanke Barnes 2012

Fever be damned, I was determined to finish beading this little quilt with the found pin yesterday. I ended up putting more on than originally planned but I am pleased with the results. Feeling better this afternoon and I couldn't resist getting it stretched over canvas and mounted in the floater frame. I guess running across blog after blog showing "my first finished quilt of the year" has had a motivational effect on me. It feels good to have another quilt from my list for exhibits done, and it amuses me that completing it was not one of my January goals. It apparently took the place of the discharge quilt, still waiting for its final touches.

This is hard to get a good picture of - don't know if you can tell I used two different bugle beads, the bright silver-lined kind and a gunmetal grey twisted one (click on the picture for a larger view). Each arc has a different configuration of beads. I like the center one the best - it looks the most art deco to me. I'm not sure I'm not sure I like the silver-faced floater frame as much as I'd anticipated, but it may grow on me. I think part of my problem is that it needs something other than a white wall behind it to be effective. The dark around the outside of the picture is not part of the frame, although I wish it was. I should have taken an angled shot so you could get a better idea - it's a deeper gallery frame than I've used before. It almost works like a shadow box since the canvas the quilt is mounted on is 3/4" and the frame is 1-1/2" deep - perfect since the pin and beads raise off the surface.

These frames come in a gold facing too but I don't think I'd buy them again. I only tried them because they were the only floater frames on deep discount. I think I paid less for these than the narrower plain black ones so it was a reasonable risk to take. But in the future, I think I'll stick to plain black.