"It’s Time to Fly” Art Quilt

by Judy Gula

"It’s Time to Fly” Art Quilt

by Judy Gula
Butterfly stitch meditation art quilt by Judy Gula of Artistic Artifacts

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope that 2018 is a creative year for you!

Detail, Butterfly stitch meditation art quilt by Judy Gula of Artistic Artifacts

I try to fit in little creative time every week. Sometimes it’s just moments. If I get lucky, it’s part of a day. And then there are times when I just sort and refold some of my fabric, or even simply admire and pet it — that counts too!

When I have moments of time, I work on my version of Liz Kettle’s stitch meditations, detailed in a previous blog post. The art quilt I’m featuring here began with one of my larger stitch meditations.

I had found a vintage tablecloth that featured cutwork embroidered butterflies, which I Indigo dyed. Cutting out the butterfly to use for a stitch meditation, I simply echoed its wings and antennae using Sue Spargo Eleganza #5, solid perle cotton in Orange Crush and a running stitch.

I stitched the butterfly to a square of the “fly” printed cotton. (Notice that I included the printed selvedge in the quilt!) While this particular fabric is currently sold out, you might like Flutter by Jennifer Sampou from the same line.

Detail, Butterfly stitch meditation art quilt by Judy Gula of Artistic Artifacts

Interest was added with the little squares of orange hand-dyed cottons topped with irregular triangles of a printed Italian silk Jacquard. These accents were stitched ‘in flight’ with the butterfly.

I decided to finish it with a 2-inch wide border of Folklife-Parang, Rainbow from the Batik Tambal Exclusive Batik line, and then bound it with a circle patterned Kaffe Fassett fabric I found in my stash (also the backing fabric).

If you are local, you can join me at Artistic Artifacts on January 18 as Artistic Artifacts hosts another opportunity to create Stitch Meditations, this time as the inaugural class in our new Hand Stitch Third Thursday series. Hope to see you!


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