Asian Gothic Arch

Our theme this week for the Gothic Arches Challenge is Asian. After teaching my fabric ATC class yesterday I was really in the mood to work on some fabric myself so this arch is entirely made using my most favourite art material!

The background is a black/gold fabric which I ironed onto Fast2Fuse (following the manufacturers' instructions). I machine quilted this with gold thread and then selected 2 other Japanese themed fabrics. Using Bondaweb (Wonderunder in US) I selected 3 female images from one fabric and a large flower image + 2 flower buds from another one and ironed on the Bondaweb. I cut out the images and ironed them on to the background and also stitched around their edges with gold thread. I added beads on one of the ladies and also in the centre of the large flower. I found some Chinese lettering and cut out one and added that at the top. No idea what it actually says but hopefully it's something lovely! I added red German Scrap at the bottom edge and ironed another Oriental fabric onto the other side of the Fast2Fuse to form the backing. Finally I finished the remaining edges with gold satin stitching.