Butterfly and Tiger Lilies

More than a few years ago I took a picture of some Turk's Cap Lilies while a butterfly was sitting on it. I always thought it might make a good quilt. In the photo below, you can see the original photo, a line drawing of the photo and the beginning of the quilt.

The techniques I am using to make this quilt are essentially the same ones I use to make most of my realistic pictorial quilts, whether they are floral, landscapes or architectural. I start with a photo. I make a detailed line drawing of the photo and use that line drawing to create my pattern. My construction method of choice is a particular applique technique that I call "Upside-Down Applique".

The process involves careful fabric selection to capture the values from the original photo. Often translating the image from photo to fabric results in a more dynamic finished image as I increase the value contrast and color saturation. In the picture above I have begun the applique, using a variety of mostly batik fabrics.

Value helps to define objects.Value contributes to the illusion of dimensionality.

I use mostly prints and batiks in my quilts. Prints and batiks have the benefit of visual texture. They contain value changes within the fabric that add life to the composition. In contrast, solid fabrics tend to look quite flat and lifeless.

Prints or batiks also help to visually blend edges. When working with applique, it can be very difficult to achieve what artists call a soft edge. It is the nature of fabric art to have hard edges where one fabric stops and another begins. In order to disguise the hard edges and make smoother transitions, use prints.

When adjacent fabrics share some hues and values, they create a smoother transition from one to the next. The seam or join is camouflaged by the common elements the two fabrics share.

I am just getting started with this quilt, but it is going well so far.