Creepy Crawlies

I have decided to make a creepy crawly quilt for my youngest man, who is really in to bugs at the moment.

Using Jacquard Tee Juice Fabric pens, and Shiva paint sticks, I will attempt to create about 40 pictures of bugs and other creepy crawlies, and then make a Snowball quilt with them. So I am on the lookout for bug fabric at the moment. I have found some green/orange butterflies that he loves, and some blue/purple butterflies as well.

The creatures, or mini beasts are not just insects, but Snails fall into the invertebrates family, and Spiders do fit under arthropods, part of the arachnid family.
I have managed to draw 4 ants, 2 facing left and 2 facing right.

Ants are a symbol of patience,persistence, endurance, self-discipline, teamwork, strength, and stamina . All great things a boy needs to learn about in his process of becoming a man.
Ant teaches a sense of community, social structures, industriousness and sense of provision. Ant shows how to create by planning and discipline and patience with endurance. Ant also shows a promise of success through efforts and hard work and diligence.

Adinkra Cloth

In the last Quilting Arts magazine, there was an Article on Adinkra – West African Symbolism printed onto cloth. I don’t want to make the stamps, but I am fascinated with the symbolism. I will print the symbols onto fabric using a bubble jet printer.

Using a freezer paper pattern and Shiva paint stiks a I made a dragonfly in the middle of an A4 sized cotton cloth. When dry, I removed the freezer paper.
Considering the words I used in the previous collage, I looked for symbols that reflected the dragonfly.
Using “Publisher” I made several Adinkra symbols ready for printing in a grid pattern. Symbols are from www.welltempered.net/adinkra.. Traditional Adinkra cloth usually has one symbol per grid with very close spacing.
BESE SAKA “Sack of cola nuts” (affluence, abundance, prosperity)
DWENNIMMEN “Rams horns” (humility, strength)
MMERE DANE “time changes” (change, life’s dynamics)
OSRAM NE NSOROMMA “the moon and the star” (love, faithfulness, harmony)
SESA WORMUBAN “I change or transform my life” (Transformation)
BI NKA BI “no one should bite the other” (peace, harmony) I really like this, it reminds me of Ying/Yang)

I also found a Southern Pueblo Indian symbol of the dragonfly, connected with water (purity), and renewal (transformation, change).


Had problems with the network, so had to physically put the file on the bubble jet’s home computer. Didn’t have Publisher, but Corel Photo House, so I had to convert the file, and reformat, as the margins were different to my laser printer set up. Grrrr.

Changed the printers properties to “Transparency”, and “Best”. The freezer paper backed fabric printed okay, but the ink didn’t like printing over the Shiva painted dragonfly. I left it overnight, and heat set it in the morning. Because of the printer set up, I will have to stitch extra “grid” rows on the outside, but it should be okay. I Sewed around the quilt “grid” but didn’t like it, so unpicked it.

Decided to echo quilt instead, starting around the dragonfly in orange thread. Much better result. Had to add a small border of orange fabric to bring it up to A4 size. Zigzagged around the outside with orange thread. The creative imaginings has been used as a force within me.

Abstract Dragonfly

Using Photoshop, I enlarged a photograph of a dragonfly taken while camping in Pukeroa forest last year. I then cropped the picture just leaving the tail rudder.
After enlarging this to A4 size, printed and transferred the design to freezer paper.
Shiva paint stiks – green, blue, turquoise, copper, and white – coloured in the rudder onto yellow fabric. Once dried, free motion zigzag to fill in , and created a more rounded 3D effect. It looked like a green bunny!
Rummaged through my scraps and found some ugly fabric that needed to be used up, and cut 3 more rudder shapes. Also over laid the checked fabric with a plastic film found at Ajays Emporium, it totally changes the fabric – wow.
Somehow I managed to run out of double sided vilene, so just glue sticked them down onto the yellow fabric. Once dry, echo sewed with contrasting orange and green threads, down the rudder shape. They all looked like bunnies, is that abstract enough?
I just left the edges unfinished, outside my comfort zone a little, I really wanted to buttonhole them down!
Using a variegated crochet thread and Lana needles, top stitched the rudder shape diagonally across all 4 rudders, and then quilted the whole thing down with orange thread, echo quilting the diagonal and the other edge. After quilting, the raw edges lift, and add shadows unexpectedly to the quilt.
Decide not to center the piece but to cut it to size with more yellow back ground on the left, to bring out the yellow showing through on the painted rudder.
They still look like bunnies though! Albeit, upside down ones.