Shirlee's Asian Lady

As promised, I will be featuring someone else's work here when they are willing to share. My friend, Shirlee Fassell, has done a few of these pictures and has offered to share this one with you. Maybe I can talk her into sharing the others as time goes on. Her workmanship is flawless and you have to look deep to actually see all of the effort she has put into her projects. Everything always seems to flow so easily that you just assume that the basics were there to start with. On this picture all she had was a cotton panel which is usually sold by quilt shops to be worked into sane quilts. She adds dimension everywhere and below are some photos showing the detail she so skillfully delivers as well as a photo of the panel she started with.



This is a closeup of the hair ornament Shirlee made and consists of glass beads, flowers from Judith and Kathryn and lovely hair picks. Shirlee made the hair picks by gluing toothpicks together and then shaping and decorating them.


Another original creation were the beaded flowers which were created by actually shaping the beaded fabric so that there is a fold in the petals.


The studs and the gold rings that surround each one were individually hand applied. There are a few hundred of these on the front of her kimona.


The swirls on her kimona were hand embroidered and the birds were cut from fabric and hand applied with an embroidery stitch in gold all around. They were then covered with an organza overlay.


The clouds were also hand embroidered.


Here is a closeup of her arm which is cardboard covered with a flesh colored fabric. Her face was done the same way, but was covered with white fabric. You can also see more hand embroidery around her cuff.


In the previous picture and in the following you can see where Shirlee wove 1/8" silk ribbon into a design which is inside her cuffs. It is covered with organza. Shirlee used silk and Oriental fabric to cover other areas and there are couched threads around all divisions in the kimona.


For closer study, here are some additional photos.






Thank you, Shirlee, for allowing me to share this. I am in awe of your workmanship.