"My Madonna"....UFO finished

My good friends Barbara Curiel and Debra Spincic have been working on a joint project called "The Madonna Idea" for a few years now, each making their own quilts about the Madonna and collaborating on some too. They have a blog where you can see them here. They are wonderful.

When Debra and I first "met" online over four years ago, I emailed her my favorite image of the Madonna and she made a gel transfer print out of it for me. In February of 2006 I started working with it at the annual quilt retreat I attend at Point Bonita.

This is as far as I got, appliqueing all the elements by hand....

For some reason I was experimenting with laying out my quilt and embellishing it directly onto batting as my foundation. I can't remember why I thought that would be a good idea, but I do remember not liking it.
After I got home from PB, my Madonna waited almost four years for me to finish Her.

This is what I started with a few days ago.

And here it is, completed. She is 15" X 20 1/2".
I wanted the embellishments to be lavish but very understated. You have to come close to really see them...a metaphor, perhaps, for our inner approach to Her.

Here are a few detail pictures, though.

This is supposed to suggest a rose window in a church...at least, that is what it meant to me.

I enjoyed drawing from my collection of lace motifs and doilies, sometimes layering one over part of another.

I'm so glad this is finished...it's going to hang in my room at last.