the gift keeps giving

some of Sue's silk was made into 2 scarlet ibises.  Originally intended to be put in the same piece, they ended up featured separately.
The first was Limpopo (after the great green greasy Limpopo River in Kipling)

It ended up on the cover of Machine Quilting Unlimited, and was purchased by a family that actually lives near an ibis sanctuary in Trinidad (!)
I began the next project with the other ibis, a big piece of silk dupioni over painted with iridescent ink and Dye-Na-Flow, and a paper cut out the same size as the leaves I wanted to use.  I pinned them to the wall, and printed out a photo of it on plain paper.  Then I made a rough sketch right on the photo of the rest of the design with colored pencils.  I like this planning technique because the basic elements are there, to scale, and I can get an idea of how many new elements I need to make to complete the piece.

Welcome to the Jungle was the result.  It's won several awards, including Best Wall Quilt at AQS Knoxville, and Best of United States at the International Quilt Expo in Manchester NH.

So far, Sue's silk has inspired 5 very different works-and-maybe more to come- but the best gift of all is her friendship!