Two Deer (or Too Dear!)

Two Deer (or Too Dear!)
54" x 65"

....are going to HOUSTON!!!  I am delighted to share with you the news that the jurists have selected my quilt to be in the World of Beauty at the Houston Quilt Show this fall!

I am inspired by all the deer in my neighborhood, but especially in the spring when the fawns are born.  I enjoyed building on the theme of "you are what you eat", from my first deer quilt, Urban Deer.  The mother deer eats flowers, so her body is made from flowers.  The baby deer first nurses, so her body is made of white circles (milk), and symbolically, the multicolored flower centers from her mother.

This quilt was made from some flowers I made in my garage studio with batik.  They were fused with Mistyfuse, then individually hand cut, and fused together to make the main body of the doe.

The giant flowers in the background were made in a similar way, first drawn with batik wax, then discharged to remove color, and then overdyed a different color.

The baby fawn was made by drawing the the circles with wax on a white background, then the circles were dye painted different colors.

 I then overpainted with wax to protect the circle centers and dyed the overall body of the fawn with turquoise.  Both deer were fused onto the white background.

I machine quilted the two deers and giant flowers with my favorite MasterPiece thread from Superior Threads, and then spent an entire summer hand quilting the white background.  I love the texture of this quilt so much.  The hand quilting added a very nice softness for the background.

Cheers and happy quilting!