Stitched - Hand Quilted Seashell

It's been a while since I posted any textile work for my C&G course, but now I have a couple of new hand stitched pieces ready! I have been using coastline/sea life imagery as a source of inspiration, and as you can see above, my first piece is a hand quilted shell. I used a silvery sand coloured dupioni silk fabric (which I have lots of!) as the top fabric, the wadding is Quilter's Dream Green (a great pale green wadding made from recycled plastic bottles), and the backing is a piece of an old white cotton sheet. I drew the basic shape lightly onto the silk with soft graphite, and then I sort of felt my way as I went along, quilting with dark gold rayon thread. The thread is from a set of rayon machine embroidery threads and this is the first time I've used it. It's quite slippery, but strong, and I love both the colour and sheen!

And here are my sources of inspiration - my humble shell collection and a hefty tome called 'The Book of Shells', which I found in my local library. My other piece inspired by sea life is using Suffolk puffs, and I will be posting it here soon.