Tattoos - Laurie Ceesay Landree - "Hula Girl"

Today is reveal day for the next challenge due September 30, 2019. 
I got to select this challenge because I am fascinated with tattoos even though I have none of them. I consider tats an art form.

I love the look of vintage tattoos and I chose a hula girl with a grass skirt, Hawaiian lei necklace and wrist bracelets and a flower in her hair. Since the size of these challenges are so small it was hard to get everything detailed from the raw edged fused applique. I also love the font I used because it was something I kept seeing in many Pinterest tattoo images. It's an actual font. It was very detailed and difficult to cut out. My goal was to cut out the dark navy batik applique in one piece and I accomplished it except for the eyes and mouth. I chose dark blue to match the faded "old school" look of vintage tattoos instead of black.

I chose tan background to resemble a tan Hawaiian skin tone. As I was quilting the hula girl I kept thinking this is sort of boring. I needed to address the background and machine stitched in sand, water, clouds and sunrays with coordinating thread. This helped some but when the quilt was bound and finished I used Inktense pencils and drew on the tan fabric to add more color to the project. I was satisfied because I could see the background but it still had the vintage feel to it!

I needed to embellish the face with fabric paint, fabric markers and glitter to define it since the applique pieces were so small. The yellow flower got a black rhinestone for the center of the flower. The bandeau swim top seemed bland so I added polka dot loose glitter in the same turquoise color for bling! The red Hawaiian lei was also boring so I went to my bead stash and found two sizes of small red flower shaped beads. Some I hand sewed on with a red center bead and some I glued on. I am happy with the end result. She reminds me on my dorky little Dollar Tree hula girl solar figurine I put in my kitchen window in the summer!!