Silk Fusion Wall Hanging - Whispers From the Deep

I started this silk fusion piece in July so that I would have a "work in progress" to work on while I was volunteering at the Festival of the Arts . . . and I immediately realized that it was going to be one of my favourites! It has been on my design wall and I have worked on it occasionally in between other projects and I have thoroughly enjoyed every stitch that has gone into it.  Let me tell you a bit about it . . .

I created the silk fusion using silk hankies and throwsters silk in shades of smokey blue and lavender through magenta.  The piece was formed into a softly curved crescent with lots of feathery edges as well as added texture in the interior of the piece.

After it was dry, the silk fusion was then free motion stitched to a background of royal purple dupioni silk and the background was further enhanced with free motion quilting. I left two areas without the dense machine quilting and later added seed stitches by hand, stitching only into the batting and not all the way through to the backing, so those areas are a bit puffy. I added layered hand embroidery on top of the silk fusion before stitching the gorgeous silk carrier rod in place and then funneling beads into the top and out of the bottom end of the rod.

This is a wall hanging that measures 9.5" x 24.5" (24 x 62 cm) and can be hung by a concealed dowel through the sleeve on the back. The backing is a beautiful batik that has the same colours as the top. It will eventually be for sale through my Etsy shop, but for now I would like to hang onto it and enter it in a couple of shows.


The dyed silk that I used in this silk fusion is some that I purchased through the Etsy seller, Nunoco, in England. The silk carrier rod that is stitched to the surface was the inspiration for the piece.

Fluttering By

 My butterflies art quilt had its first showing at the Salmon Arm Quilt Show earlier this month and it received lots of oohs and aaahs when visitors took the time for a close look at it.  It measures approximately 20" x 34" and I blogged the process in March if you would like to scroll down to find that post. I am pleased with the way that it has turned out and I'm sure that I will enjoy continuing the butterfly theme into future work.

Here is a detail shot of one of the butterflies. I created the butterflies separately and then machine appliqued them to the quilt before adding hand stitches. The bodies of the butterflies are wet-felted wool. If you click on the photos you can zoom in for a closer look.

This art quilt has been entered in the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts show in July.
UPDATE: This piece was awarded "Jurors' Choice Award" at the SLFA July 2013.