Butterfly trio

I tried a couple of things before finally settling on this little trio.  I was inspired by the article on the presence of butterflies  in the belief system of  Pre-Columbian Central Americans.  I was also taken by the description of the use of stamps to embed butterfly images in pottery.  I created a stamp using Craftfoam and matt board.  The image was taken from the breast plate shown on a statue.  First I stamped the black out line and then painted in the coloured areas.  The entire piece was free-motion echo quilted ( Boy, does my FMQ'g ever need practice!) I felt that the binding needed to be black to frame the images.  Despite a couple of paint blobs and smears, I have become quite attached to these little critters,and hope to use the motif in other work in the future.  Any comments would be welcome.

Pat F in Winnipeg
www.mousefactorydesigns.blogspot.com

Just When The Caterpillar Thought The World Was Over...

 

The quilt is my fable of the butterfly's life cycle with a moral. The leaf, leaf with eggs, the eaten leaf that feeds the caterpillar, Chrysallis and emerging butterfly. The circle represents the world and the bar code is to count blessings!

It was designed in Make the Cut software. A circle and bar code were Boolean joined. Node editing from lines into curves provides a path for caterpillar to transform into a butterfly. It was cut with my electronic cutter and free motion quilted.

WHO are you?

When I started doing research on Monarch butterflies,  I became fascinated by the Monarch caterpillars, with their striking yellow, black and white stripes to warn predators away, and the fact  that they tasted terrible, due to their diet of milkweed. 

But, I could find no myths about the caterpillars! So I resorted to the Alice in Wonderland fable that featured an arrogant pompous caterpillar. I changed him to a Monarch caterpillar, and it was all fun from there!

I have enjoyed seeing the Monarchs by the thousands, migrating in Florida, and I love watching them on the butterfly bush by the window in my sewing room. But  now, I will also watch for the brightly colored caterpillars.

Challenge 87: Butterflies Are Free

Challenge Hostess: Marilyn Wall

Title:  Butterflies Are Free

Theme:  Butterflies and Myth

Due date:  Nov. 30, 2013

Butterflies have inspired mankind for ages, not just for their beauty but also as spiritual beings, symbolic of metamorphosis, rebirth, love, hope, and freedom. 

I have had a love affair with butterflies that covers the last fifty years of my life. I began planting a butterfly garden and following their grown with photography.  I have art work of butterflies and often produce art work of my own with butterflies as my theme.

My challenge for this month is to read about the myths that span centuries. These myths are prevalent in almost every society in the world. Each culture has their own adaptation; in some the meanings are the same, some are totally different. This challenge can be represented in a realistic or abstract manner. Please post your myth along with the fiber piece.  Don’t forget, it doesn’t have to be two dimensional.  How about a doll or a piece of jewelry?

Mary Alice Monroe’s book Butterflies’ Daughter was the catalyst for my interest in butterfly mythology. I had heard about many of the butterfly myths but never explored their meanings. Her blog post below gives you one idea of these myths and the special meaning to her.

http://maryalicemonroe.blogspot.com/2010/10/myths-of-monarchs.html

Return of the Monarchs, Marilyn Wall,   30” x 40”

The local people of Angangueo, Mexico have long believed that monarchs are the returning spirits of their deceased relatives, mysteriously arriving at the same time each year, coinciding with the Day of the Dead.   Aztec tradition holds that the souls of the departed will return as hummingbirds and butterflies, this link between myth and the monarchs’ annual return spans centuries.

Resources:

Myth and Mystery in Mexico’s Monarch Kingdom:

http://goodnature.nathab.com/myth-and-mystery-in-mexicos-monarch-kingdom/

Delaware / Lenape - How the Butterfly Came to Be:

http://www.ucan-online.org/legend.asp?legend=4473&category=7

Psyche is used also as the word for “butterfly” in Greek:

http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Psykhe.html

On Wikipedia:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_symbolic_meaning_of_a_butterfly

Maraleen Manos-Jones has a book entitled “ The Spirit of Butterflies: Myth, Magic, and Art”

http://spiritofbutterflies.com/

Butterfly and Moth Symbolism List

http://www.insects.org/ced4/symbol_list1.html

Some interesting images:  http://www.theenchantedgallery.com/molds.html

Goddesses Fly Again: Butterfly Images in Mexican Myth and Textiles:

http://www.naba.org/pubs/ab97d/p14.html 

And one more thing – have fun with this!

Flowers in the Window

20" x 25½"

Maybe it's a bit lame to be posting this piece from the last challenge right before I put up the next challenge, but anyway, here it is!

I can't even claim that it is all that cubist, but I went rather freer in my cutting than I usually do, instead of following shapes in the fabric. I added the dark fabric behind each of the planters to give them greater definition.

The flowers, especially side ones, seemed not to stand out from the sky that well, so I used a bit of foiling around the edges.

I like it as a piece in itself, but not necessarily as really fulfilling the challenge.  Your comments are welcome.

Sunset Swirls

I belong to a small Art Quilt group that gets together once a month. Our hostess last month provided us with oil paint sticks and textured plates to make fabric rubbings. I made this rubbing on white cloth. She challenged us to make the rubbing into an art quilt. I took mine home and colored between the swirls with colored pencils to look like a sunset, so I created my background in this way. I then traced these plants from a sketch done by Pam Holland. I used permanent fine point pen. I then quilted with black thread on the lines of the plants. I made French knots to emphasize the little berries.