The large butterfly is a leftover from a mandala quilt I am working on. It didn’t turn out perfect for that quilt, but it works fine for this one. The way I made it was to use freezer paper for my template and cut out the sections of the butterfly. I thought about putting silk, satin, or lace under the cutouts, but I looked up from where I was sitting and saw a bag of Angelina fibers. I played with laying out the different colors on top of each other so that there are gold fibers, holographic ones, and some darker ones to give it interest. Once I had the fibers laid out I fused them together into a large sheet. From there I chose where I would get the prettiest look on the butterfly and cut that out to fuse onto the back of the butterfly.
I had another piece of fabric that had the other butterflies on them which made it easy to fuse and cut them out.
The flowers were hours of struggle. I took down my box of fused fabric and just started cutting up slivers of fabric. Boy, was that ugly! Then I went back to my fun petal shapes and the flowers were more like the summer time flowers I grew up with. I tried different colored fabrics and on this small piece it was too much, so I used the same fabric on all three flowers. I truly only had a small piece of it that fabric and it has been a favorite for many years. Now that fabric is all gone, but it is in some of my favorite quilts.
The grass blades are slivers from a hand dyed piece I made many years ago. The background is an ombre fabric made by Caryl Bryer Fallert called “Essentials” for Benartex.
I read this quote and thought it was a good reminder for us during this pandemic. We are definitely going through a change that we didn't choose. "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." ---Maya Angelou
Hi Judy ! Your quilt is extraordinary, and worth waiting for ! ! ! Thanks for all the really creative info you provided, and in your own way, for teaching all of us how to deal with scraps, fusibles, all those little pieces/parts of our leftover fabrics, and/or quilts that are still waiting to be finished !
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely LOVE this Quilt !
Stunning Judy! Love how you have so successfully integrated your Angelina fibers into the wings of your butterfly, as they add such a beautiful shimmer. What a perfect way to remember the day you and your grandson shared the wonder of seeing the butterfly in your yard.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful quilt Judy!!! Love how you constructed the large butterfly and made it shimmer with the Angelina fibers!! My fav of yours to date!!!
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