Saturday, September 12, 2009

Mexican Sunflower in Batik

Finished! This is the first quilt in my Sunflower Series. The pattern was made from a photograph I took of one of the Mexican Sunflowers in my garden. I decided to create this quilt in batiks, the next one will be in hand painted fabrics. My goal with these two quilts is to show the difference between using the batik and hand painted fabrics and to use a new technique on each quilt.
The next two pictures show the detail of thread painting (my favorite way to quilt) in the leaves and petals. I used the thread to create the detail and movement of the leaves and petals. I really like to extend the movement outside the lines and into the background. Somehow it helps create the flow of the flower into the background.
I did minimal quilting in the background of the quilt. I wanted the sunflower to keep the focus, so I used the horizontal lines of the fabric and quilted with matching thread.
My new technique on this quilt was the use of hand painted cheesecloth in the center and then beading the seeds into and on the center of the quilt. This was a fun process. I hadn't used cheesecloth before. I first selected a brown batik looking fabric (my brown batiks are limited, so I had to punt). Next I hand painted some cheesecloth with different browns, bronze, and copper paints. While the cheesecloth was drying I created free motion embroidered circles on the center piece of fabric. I didn't put circles all over the fabric; I wanted to leave room for more circles after I laid the cheesecloth down. After the cheesecloth was dry I manipulated it by stretching and scrunching the cloth to make vacant and dense areas. Then it was time to free motion embroider around it and hand stitch the beads under the dense areas. Taking my time, I let my eye and follow the lights and dark areas of the fabric create the areas that were beaded.

5 comments:

suzanengler said...

The sunflower is magnificent! I clicked on an image and was able to see the detail of the fabrics and stitching up close. What size images do you upload to your blog? I love to be able to see the detail in your photographs!

Jules Rushing said...

Hi Suzan! Thank you! I really had fun creating this quilt. I chose the small setting for pictures on this upload. Sometimes I choose the medium setting. I really don't do much to the pictures after I upload them from my camera. I have found that have a good digital camera makes a difference, so my husband bought me a Nikon SLR last year. Thanks again and I hope we can get together next month at the quilt show!

QuiltingCyclist said...

Jules,
This is amazing and truly unique. Congratulations on your completion of this. The thread painting is just excellent - I love the little hairy pieces on the stem coming under the flower.
Keep on, mona

(Megan) said...

Every part of this quilt is luscious. I love clicking on the pictures and looking at all the details that make this an outstanding quilt. This is really something to be proud of. Can't wait to see what you do with the hand-dyed fabric.

Unknown said...

Very beautiful!