Pollinator quilts

I’m working on a quilt to be in an exhibit about pollinators. If it weren’t for the bees, butterflies, insects and others we wouldn’t have anything to eat. Then we die. I’d say that was important. With all the land being torn up, trees and vegetation chopped down for the never ending buildings that seem to have to be build for some reason unknown to me we should all value and grow plants around our homes. Less grass, more plants, flowers and yes weeds. Think twice before you pull up that milkweed next time. Monarch butterflies need them to live on. 

Ok, off my soapbox and on to the quilt.

I spent a lot of time experimenting with butterfly making. I learned to draw them

And tried a few making a few for a quilt

This guy came out kinda creepy and no way can I get him on a quilt but he’s kinda cool anyway. Maybe I’ll hang him up somewhere

In the end I ended up with this one for my quilt

His wings are done using heavyweight fusible on both the orange parts and the whole wing. I made another wing the same but in reverse and fused them together so it has both sides you can see. The orange fabric didn’t thrill me on its own so I dabbed on some yellow paint. That thrilled me 🥰

The white dots are also paint dabbed in with the wrong end of a paintbrush. The body was fused on the quilt first and then using black thread the legs and “hairy ness “ is free motion quilted while also sewing the wings on. Because the wings are reversible they are only sewn to the quilt near the body.

And here is the quilt! I used a half layer of wool batting and a layer of thin cotton and the quilting really shows up nicely. The idea of the quilting came from a quilt I saw on the quilt shows newsletter. It didn’t have the fillers but the idea of a sun like circle in the corner and then rays filtering down. Filing this idea for future quilts.

Signing off for now from ice covered frozen Vermont ! I can’t wait for spring