Cheryl... this is a delightful piece and obviously very meaningful for you.

I will comment on the border... it works.... nearly..... have you thought of removing the grey

corners and replaceing them with black? Or maybe the cream? Then add maybe a V shape of the opposing

color, ie: black on cream or cream on black.

I like that your phot os off-center.

I will let someone else comment on the quilting...

I agree with Carol. From far it looks as if there are no corners only in the closer picture you can see there is fabric there.

I love it! I have a pelican quilt waiting in the 'not yet started' stack. They are wonderful creatures.

I agree with the other ladies - there is something about the corners - the rest of the border is so bold and the grey kind of 'disappears'.

I made a similar quilt once with a picture offset and framed, with an abstract background - I experiemented with 'continuing' the image inside the picture, through the border of the image and out into the wider quilt using quilting. I won't say my quilt was very good (it wa my first art quilt) but I was impressed by the effectiveness. It seemed to tie everything back to the image.

I'd love to see this when it is done

You have inspired me to get my pelicans back out - thanks Cheryl

Felicity

I find the pieced border especially the white squares, pulls my eye away from the pelican and makes it difficult to "relax" and enjoy the photo itself.   The border becomes the focus of my eye and not the photo.  The blue and brown background fabric is fabulous as is the photo.    The dark fabric in the border as a plain narrow border might frame it better.      Wendelle

Have to agree with the comments on the border being distracting.  The photo is FABULOUS but completely overwhelmed.  The contrast in the border is much higher than in the body of your quilt.  Combine that with the 'missing' corners and your border gets all the attention.  

It looks like he is walking on cobblestones or some sort of stone pavement.  My first thought for quilting was to extend that texture out into the body of the quilt so he could keep marching forward.  Unfortunately, I can't enlarge the picture to see if the texture of the ground would lend itself to quilting.

I'd like to thank all who commented on my pelican.  I agree with all the comments; I had hesitated finishing because of those issues.  Now I am able to get back to work on it.

The corners of the border are not gray; they are a taupe color that I picked out of the photo, and one of the inner borders is this same fabric.  But I see where it fades.  Isn't it funny how you can't see some things by yourself?

I have thought the pieced border was distracting, though.  The fabric in the centers is "feather-like" and pelican-colored; too bad it doesn't work in this manner.  The triangles around  are actually not black at all, but a dark version of the batik in the large area in the center.  Funny how colors appear on the internet.

Once again, thank you!

Cheryl

A very nice piece.  The border is a bit distracting, I believe it's the size of the squares.  Made smaller, but in the same fabrics wouldn't detract from the image as much.

This is a lovely piece -- and I agree with others that the border is distracting. I do think continuing the pieced border colors around the corners would help. Then, I would add another border covering the outer half of your existing border with a single color (perhaps the blue from the feather print. This would scale the pieced border down and encapsulate the whole.

I love the photo and the way the framed photo floats.

I love it. good job.