Another Piece Finished--FINALLY!

I have been working, for a long time, on a piece in my bias strip series (Caged Series). It has taken a long time, because there is a lot of piecing and hand work involved. This is one of the bigger pieces I have done in awhile. It measures 22" X 36.5". There are lots of skinny lines pieced into this work. I learned how to piece those skinny lines from Kathy Loomis. If you are interested in that technique, it was featured on "And Then We Set It On Fire" when Kathy was a guest artist on the blog. You can find that post here. You can see how this piece developed over at the "Fire" blog too. If you are interested in seeing it take shape, here are the posts for that--Post 1, Post 2. I call this one Alien Happy Dance! It makes me smile.

I'm happy with the play of the diagonal lines in the background against the more uniform "grid" of the "caged" fabric. I also think that the dense piecing of the blue fabric against the less dense piecing of the orange background fabric adds interest to the design. All of the tangerine colored fabric in this piece is hand quilted. It is VERY densely hand quilted with (what I call) free-form quilting. The blue fabric in the "cages" is machine quilted. I think you can click on this picture to get a closer look. It is easier to see the quilting in the detail picture posted below.

Again, I think if you click on it, you can see more of the detail.

I have to say...I LOVE hand quilting. I LOVE how it looks, I LOVE how it feels, and I LOVE to do it. When I add hand quilting to my work, I feel like it makes the piece truly unique. Because of the time and handling involved in hand piecing, I feel "closer" to the work--a piece of me is in it. I just wish it didn't take SO long to do.