From Sketch to Art Quilt. How it all begins

So I'm going to try and document these from start to finish. Hopefully I can stick with one project so that this doesn't take forever.  I like to have quite a few on the go. I find that way I can move where inspiration hits. Never seems to work if I try to force it

This is the design that I chose.  It's pretty detailed, maybe too much for a quilt, but I decided it would be fun to give it a whirl.

It will probably evolve into something different. But that is the fun of it, so lets see where it goes.

I start by taking the design back to a basic form I can piece together for my base. Something simple that gives me lots of space to work with.  

After playing with some colour ideas, I have gone with deep jewel tones.  This is my base, hand pieced and ready to play with.  At this stage it is 16" in diameter.  I aim for a 20" x 20" finished size once its on a background and stretched on a square frame.

I'm now on the hunt for my background fabric.  Then I will start adding applique and stitching.  It doesn't look like much yet, but thats the fun of it.  It will look very different when its done.

I think this will be a fun experiment for me because I haven't documented all the stages before. I tend to forget what the project looked like before I added the detail.

See you all soon ( hopefully!!) :)