Horse Chestnut Leaf Art Quilt

This art quilt is made with hand painted fabric that I sun-printed with leaves and blossoms from my garden. I later used that fabric to produce a rubbing of a horse chestnut leaf from the beautiful tree outside my studio. If you are not familiar with horse chestnut trees, perhaps I should explain that their leaves are HUGE and the chestnuts that are produced must number in the tens of thousands on this one tree. So, you see, I have lots of reason to love and loathe the horse chestnuts :)

This art quilt showcases the rubbing of the horse chestnut leaf with machine quilting and hand stitching. The four small squares that hang below the leaf each have a chestnut stitched to them . . . from the prickly, spiny horse chestnut that is just opening to the remnant of the outer shell and the shiny chestnut within . . . the chestnuts at the upper loops have been drilled in order to hang like beads.

The edges of the quilt are finished with a handmade cord that I created and then couched to the outer edges. The same cord suspends the quilt from the wooden hanger which was purchased from Ten Thousand Villages.

This photo isn't the greatest (what else is new) but if you click on it, you can see the details more clearly.

Thanks for checking in to see my latest work.