Presenting: Picasso's Muse

While south over  the winter, I decided to finish a hand-stitched project that I had started last fall.  It's a sketch that Pablo Picasso did of his new young wife.

After tracing the design on the old looking fabric, I hand stitched her using brown Valdani cotton floss.  

I always wonder, is it ok to mix hand quilting and machine quilting on projects?   To finish this, I did free motion all around the hand stitching.  I like it.  It might not have gotten finished if I didn't machine quilt it.  So for me, it's a good mix.

For the background, I used a pumpkin seed free motion quilting design.  The thread was beautiful fine 100 wt thread and when you look at it from the front, you can hardly see the stitching let alone the thread.  So I take this photo from the side so you can see the design.

I loved seeing the pattern emerge as the light was streamed through the window over my sewing machine.

I just love her.  Her name was Francoise Gillot.