Embroidery Enhances Page 2, New Pictures

Here are some more close-up views of elements from the deMorgan inspired quilt.

When I was choosing what flowers to put on the quilt and what colors to make those flowers I used the White Flower Farms catalog since it has such lovely photographs of various flowers. In this yellow lily I highlighted the outline with a contrasting stem stitch and quilted some details with bright orange quilting thread. The pistil and stamen parts were done in stem stitch and bullion stitch with two different colors of floss. A very wild batik forms the upright petal at the back with mottled batiks making the other petals and details.

The large red lily also uses batiks including one that has metallic gold as part of its design. Outline stitching in blue makes many of the petals stand out giving a more painterly effect to the entire quilt.

 I have a small collection of blue and white Chinese porcelain hence my choice of these colors for the vase. The original tile set was entirely in various shades of blue, probably intended to be a fireplace surround but in choosing any quilt designs or fabrics I invariably look to what I like in my own decor. The snake fabric worked out very well. Not only is it appropriate for the snake, whose head and tail both appear here, but with the other dotted batiks as plant stems the snake is even more hidden among the greenery. There is some outline stitching on the mouth and a very cheesy "ruby" eye. As cheesy as it is, I like it. The combination of batik and floral fabrics works well here and the outline stitching on the vase gives definition to the shape.

This is a detail of the lower right flower showing the straight stitch detailing and the plain and batik fabrics. The leaf fabrics also appear along with the outline quilting that is done all over the quilt.