Three Maasai Men Getting Quilted

The latest paintings done in ink on fabric are from photographs we took in Africa. They are fairly large so I wanted to quilt the faces, but needed to have a great deal of control. 

I was afraid to start. Someone suggested that I print a copy on fabric on the printer. Then I could play on this copy rather than play on the good piece. So that is what I did!

These copies are lighter than the originals, so some of my thread colours may have to change, but it was great practice for the lines. I did the quilting on these using my domestic machine. I can quilt slower and with more precision on my Pfaff rather than the Gammill long arm. 

With a bit more confidence I began the quilting on two of the originals. I used darker colours as the ink was darker than the photocopied samples. I used Invisifil by Wonderful, which is a very fine thread, with a very fine microtex needle. I am pleased with the results so far.