Monday, January 21, 2013

Museum Quilt Guild Literature Challenge - My Big Reveal

So, our guild meeting has come and gone, all the challenge quilts have been turned in and I can now reveal mine. 
 
Butterflies and Bottle Caps

from the book by the same name!

Our challenge was to pick something from literature - it could be a book title, a scene from a book, a picture, an idea.........anything.   On the very night our challenge was announced, a friend of mine on Facebook posted about this book.   Since I love anything "butterfly" - an idea immediately took hold.  The premise of the book is that the main character has "butterflies for hair".   She feels she is different and strange and wishes she were like everyone else.  

Her mother is constantly reassuring her that she is beautiful and someday she will know it!!!

She tells her that "One day you will see how beautiful you are - one day everything about you will be free to dazzle".

Then she meets a girl who has "bottlecaps for hair".  
That girl wishes she had butterflies instead and the girl with butterflies likes the sound of bottlecaps - the sound they make in the wind.   They become instant friends and realize they are beautiful in their own way.

Some other detail shots -
The hair is all butterflies, individually cut from fabric, fused down, stitched with metallic thread - and some metallic butterfly beads are hiding there also.


 This is a butterfly button (actually 2 buttons) I made from clay, formed in a mold and baked.
 There are several dimensional butterflies on the quilt - this one flew out into the border.
 A butterfly bead landed on a bottlecap.

The bottlecaps were a long process of finding the right kind of cap - available only on beer bottles now apparently.   My husband was my very willing supporter in that venture!!!!   :)    Then they were painted, holes drilled, attached with perle cotton, anchored top and bottom with beads.   Some bottlecaps do dangle while others are more secure.   The circles for her hair are cut from silk fabric and fused, some are inked around the edge.

These quilts will hang in the local Richmond Library in the month of February.   Once they are all up and hanging I will get pictures of the rest and have them here to share!!!!  

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