This is my interpretation of the Twelve by Twelve purple/yellow color play theme. Last January, the Portland Art Museum had an exhibit of current trends in design and architecture in China. I saw this bird and a couple of other items that were made with organza pojagi.

I have tried to enlarge the bird from a low res photo. It was lit from the inside and had a lovely glow. I was very taken with it and filed the idea away for a future project. And so I attempted to do my version of this.

I first painted silk organza with purple and yellow Dynaflow paint.

I then cut strips of the painted fabric and stitched them together.

At this point, I experimented with how to finish the pockets. I cut the strips into 2 1/2 inch pieces. I tried doing French seams, but it was not working for me. Then, I thought about leaving frayed edges, but for this piece, that seemed wrong. I finally set my machine to stitch the tightest stitch possible and then trimmed the seam allowance close to the stitching.

I fell in love with each of these little pieces. Each side was a lovely little composition on its own.

I decided that I had to finish the backing completely before attaching the organza pieces.

I used the cotton fabric that was under the organza when I painted it so it worked seamlessly. I did the back in two pieces and hand stitched the closure.

The last photo shows the two pieces handstitched together. I really liked this method of doing a backing. The rod pocket will cover the seam.

My next task was to lay out the organza pieces in a pleasing way. I wanted to interpret one of those crazy gorgeous sunsets with purples and golds.

I then did the overlapping on the background fabric, pinning and then basting each row in place. I did a zigzag stitch across the row which is under the next row.

I was not thrilled with how unfinished the top looked and decided to add a row of beads. Now, I wonder if that was a mistake. Here it is without. What do you think?

I love working with organza. I have other ideas for this percolating in my brain. Stay tuned.