Animal Kingdom Challenge

Phylum: Arthropoda, Order: Lepidoptera

My quilt created for the Art Quilts Around the World "Animal Kingdom" challenge.

When I was a child my father gave me a butterfly net.  I caught butterflies, euthanized them and mounted the butterfly specimens.  I learned a lot about butterflies from those experiences.  Looking back on those days I have very mixed feelings.

As an adult I prefer to observe live specimens.  Our farm is the perfect habitat for many species of butterflies especially Eastern Swallowtails, Giant Swallowtails and Monarchs.  Each summer I look forward to the time when butterflies return to feed on the nectar of our lilacs and hydrangea bushes.

This quilt was made using a combination of hand dyed silks, silk ribbons and cottons.  I made the 3D butterfly using a free motion embroidery technique learned in a class taught by Nancy Prince.  I sandwiched a poly stabilizer between 2 layers of hand dyed silk and added another layer of wash away stabilizer with my design traced on it.  Once the embroidery was finished I stitched floral wire around the edges to give the wings shape.

No butterflies were harmed in the making of this quilt.

See more quilts from the Animal Kingdom challenge here 

Pardon my lack of blogging.  This is the first night in weeks that I have spent sitting on the couch.  Boy does it feel good!  This weekend I will be teaching an Intro to Paintsticks class at Cozy Quilts in Richland Center.  After that I have two months off until my next quilt show.  I dyed so much fabric before the last show that I may be able to take most of the summer off.  I will be adding many of these fabrics to my Dye Candy shop in the coming weeks.  

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!  Chris