Sewing an Art Quilt with Hand Dyed Batting and Hand Quilting
I love this quilt. The idea for it came when I was researching different kinds of batting for hand quilting and different kinds of wool for needle felting. I thought, what if I used a beautiful wool and silk blend fiber for the batting? It’s called a ‘batt’ anyway. Isn’t this what they used before technology gave us modern batting?
The top layer of the quilt (except for the butterfly applique) is very thin and sheer so you can see the curly hand-dyed fibers. It’s so primitive, don’t you think?
The butterfly applique is cut from fabric pieced in a crazy-quilt style using lots of fabric scraps.
Anyway, I submitted this quilt to an art quilt show and it was not accepted. I’m kind of sad and mad. Mad at myself because I must not have given a good enough description and they might have thought the top layer was wholecloth, not the fibers showing through. And sad because maybe they did understand my technique and they still didn’t feel that my quilt was good enough. I’ll hang it in my bedroom (because I do love it) and perhaps I’ll submit it to another show if one comes up.
See more of my hand quilted quilts:
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Love the hand quilting, Caroline. There is a vintage romance look to this piece. I would agree. You should enter it into another show!
Thank you Lorna… your quilts are beautiful so that means a lot!
I love the butterfly quilt! 🙂
Thank you Marjorie!
This is gorgeous!! Dumb show missed an opportunity to inspire others!
Thank you Shelley! Let’s just say they didn’t look close enough, right?
I absolutely love everything about your butterfly! Looks like it was a lot of fun too!
Thank you Valerie. Yes, I really enjoyed making it!
Caroline – I love your butterfly quilt and all your hand stitching. Wonderful!
Your butterfly quilt is beautiful! Hang it proudly where others will see it – not just in your bedroom! I
I’ve learned, if something I make , makes me happy- it really doesn’t matter if it’s accepted or valued by others. (Well, maybe just a bit…) But every now & then- we must create FOR US!
I think it is gorgeous! Very creative too, dyeing the batting!