A small number of the art group ladies decided they wanted to attempt to paint a quilt on silk. I’m not a painter, and I prefer working with commercial fabrics, but I wanted to experiment with painting on silk which I’d never done. So, I joined in with the other two ladies. I love to photograph nature, especially dragonflies, and I’d been wanting to do a dragonfly quilt. So, I chose a photograph that I had taken of a Blue Dasher dragonfly to see if I could capture the colors of the dragonfly, and trying to paint translucent wings.

We placed the charmeuse silk shiny up on the wax side of a blank sheet of freezer paper, the size of the quilt, to hold the silk in place. We used extender mix and a foam brush to cover the top of the silk. We saturated the silk but avoided any puddles. The extender mix was 1//4 cup Transparent Extender from Pro Chemical and Dye, 1 ½ to 2 tablespoons of Liquitex Matte Medium with ¾ cup of warm water. Then we let it dry overnight.

Next, the pattern was drawn in heavy black lines on the paper side of another sheet of freezer paper in REVERSE order. We placed the dry silk on top of the freezer paper pattern, wax side up, your drawing side down. We taped it down to avoid slippage. This allowed us to see through the silk where to paint. (This means that the image will be reversed, so initially, make your pattern REVERSE of the way you want it to look) I coated a smaller piece of the silk to use as a test piece to see how the paint looked. The practice piece above the silk is in the SAME direction as the initial pattern drawn on the freezer paper. Flipping it paper side down, reversed it.

Once we started painting, I traced the lines onto the silk, using a very thin paint brush. Using the actual photo, I mixed paint to get the color and value I wanted for the dragonfly, tried it on the practice piece, and then proceeded to paint. We painted from the lightest to the darkest color of paint. We mixed the paint with extender mix to get the thickness we wanted the paint to be. We wanted thin, light areas of paint, so we could add layers to darken shadow areas. We used Pro Fab opaque white as a resist prior to painting other colors. In moving the piece from day to day, if needed, we were careful NOT to bend the freezer paper so it would not cause the paint to puddle in that area. The freezer paper remains attached to the back of the silk throughout the painting.

I wanted to include a lily, so I sketched, and raw edge appliquéd a silk painted water lily on top. Once painted, there wasn’t much to do but quilt and add a border. I auditioned lots of fabrics for the border, and ended up using a silk fabric that I dyed YEARS before.

I worked on it over 7 months. I went through and chose the photo I wanted to use, prepped the fabric, and sketched the design. I then spent considerable time doing the painting, repainting, designing, painting the lily, and free-motioning. I decided to use the change in the colors of the painted cloud areas to quilt cloud-like designs.

I wanted to quilt dragonflies as motifs in the border, so I sketched a dragonfly on freezer paper. I cut the pieces apart to allow me to sew between the body and wings, and ironed the freezer paper to the border. I then quilted around the paper to get a dragonfly with proportionate wings. I believe there are three of them quilted into the border.

The other two ladies are painters. I have been given and have purchased some of their work. They are two of my three best friends. That’s one reason I joined in on this adventure. I enjoyed the process and loved the adventure, but I prefer fabrics.

I made two quilts this year that were of a size that could be entered into international shows. In the AQS shows you have only one year from the date you first enter a quilt to enter it in other AQS shows. Also, you can not enter two quilts into the same category. The Branson and Grand Rapids show have fewer categories and they did not have two categories that I could enter. So, since I have no experience with painting, and it is not my favorite technique, I chose to enter the “Preening On A Beautiful Day” rather than the dragonfly quilt. The blue dasher dragonfly was not rejected in those two shows, but just not entered.

Shows

“It’s Breaktime For the Blue Dasher” juried into Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza, Oaks, PA, Sept.11-14, 2025

“It’s Breaktime For the Blue Dasher," selected for the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival, Kansas City, MO, June 17-20, 2025

“It’s Breaktime For the Blue Dasher," juried into Mancuso Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, Hampton, VA, Feb.27-March 2, 2025

“It’s Breaktime For the Blue Dasher” juried into AQS, Lancaster, PN, Sept. 11-14, 2024.

“It’s Breaktime For the Blue Dasher” juried into AQS, Paducah, KY, Apr. 24-27, 2024.

“It’s Breaktime For the Blue Dasher” juried into AQS, Daytona Beach, FL, Feb. 21-24, 2024

"It's Breaktime For the Blue Dasher," Special Exhibition "Call for Nature's Art 2023," Mid-Missouri Art News/Runge Conservation-Nature Center, Jefferson City, MO Nov.7 – Dec. 31, 2023