Tropical Wall Hanging - Part 1

Hello,
I hope you are all having a good week.  I am officially on holiday for the next fortnight - which means lots of quilting.  My favourite time of year :)
I started my first raw edge applique project.  It is so tempting to cover up those raw edges with a machine satin stitch or hand embroidery but I wanted to see what it would turn out like - so I resisted temptation!

Here I am playing with the design.  I used bondaweb to fuse my pieces to the background.

I stitched the pieces in place with a straight stitch, then free motion quilted over the top.

Wasn't sure I liked it at first, seems a bit raggy and messy but that kinda suits the palm leaves.

I love geckos - decided to give this one stripes.

I used a black Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 wadding to avoid bearding.  Been there, done that in the past and won't get caught again!
Here I am working some pebbles inter-mingled with some little leaves.

Took me 2 solid days to quilt this and I managed to sneak in some feathers!

This is the (messy) back.

It's not quite finished yet - a few embellishments to be added, which I hope to do today.

I'm not the only one inspired by lizards and geckos.  I'll leave you with a peek at a pencil drawing my daughter Natalya (15) is working on.  I thnk it's great - wonder if she'll let me 'borrow' the design?

Have a good weekend.  Back soon with more quilty stuff.
Rhianon.