"High Summer"..Ready for Seam Embroidery

Oh, this has been fun!!!!
I finished the stitching on the central landscape image and then I got to piece and assemble the borders that go around it.
You all know how much I love crazy piecing...

Here's the work area when there was one more border strip to go.

If you could see the rest of the sewing room--and the whole house, for that matter--it looks like a bomb went off. Tomorrow I will clean it all up.
The stitched scene has been stretched and fused over Fast 2 Fuse craft batting. I've never done this before but it worked great: keeps the fabric flat, gives a nice edge, and you can still add more stitching by sewing right through it if you have to after it is mounted (which I did.)

The scene needed a few more flowers added so that it could hold its own better up against the borders.

It was great to use some thicker threads and warm colors at last.

To see how much importance the photo behind the stitching truly has, have a couple close-up looks...

It's amazing how the eye blends everything together.

It was a little tricky deciding what to stitch and what to leave as bare photo. But everything was aimed at maintaining a believable perspective of depth.

Because this central scene really needs to dominate the quilt, the borders had to be kept tightly under control. No warm colors, an all white inner border to really offset the center, and values carefully managed as well.
But I did have all the leeway in the world when it came to the weaves, textures, and fiber content in the border fabrics. This is one place crazy quilting comes into its own, I believe. Heavily quilted quilts just can't showcase this essential element of great fabric, IMHO.

Above is an example.
The borders have everything from burlap to felted wool to embroidered cotton batiste in them, as well as heavily woven silk jaquards, hand dyed cotton and silk, velvet, and even some hand crocheted lace....

It also took some extra work to make everything as square and straight as possible (my weak link)...but this isn't too bad.

Now to embroider all those seams in the borders.
My touch must be very light....again, nothing must distract from the central image. But this is a crazy quilt, after all, and those seams must be covered! I'm looking forward to it...

As a reminder, this quilt, which is 18" X 20", will be auctioned off at Quilt Festival in Houston this November. It is part of the Celebrity Mini Quilt Silent Auction with proceeds to benefit the International Quilt Association's fine work in promoting excellence and education in quilting. So if you'll be at Quilt Market or Quilt Festival, stop by and say hi to "High Summer"....and if you are so inclined, put in a bid!