Quilting this week

This week I have been working on a small art quilt.  I have based this quilt on the mussel shells which are common on New Zealand beaches.  It has been fun to interpret sketches I have drawn on location in my sketchbook.  I want to show you today they way I work on a new piece of work.

I first sketch on location taking down the subject and any ideas I have surrounding the subject.  In this case I sketched my own interpretation of seaweed,  mussel shells and grass.  I combined some of these elements into a cool bag design.

Then from this I made more sketches,  I chose this one to make into a small wall quilt.

I then sketched it up in my sketchbook and did a few colour ways.  This was the one I liked the best.

I collected some photos as reference for colour and for my palette choice.  i used these as a guide for my paint selection.

This is the finished top of my quilt.  When I get to this point I spend a few days looking at the quilt top deciding on quilting designs. 

The whole design board area.

 Hopefully this week I can get it quilted!