"Dogwood & Ivy"

"Dogwood & Ivy"
by
Thom Atkins

This quilt was one of results from an American/Australian Quilt Challenge. Groups from California and Australia each choose four fabrics and we had to use six out of the eight. These could be used any way we wanted, wrong side, over-dyed, etc. but must comprise 25% of the quilt face.

The koala bears are all I used of the sixth fabric but they established a landscape and demanded gum trees to inhabit. For the rest, I appliquéd, dyed, and hand colored with permanent magic markers various cottons till I had the landscape I wanted. I then used vintage abalone buttons, some in beaded bezels, and thousands of glass beads to texture the piece.

The Crocodiles in the borders were based on Aboriginal drawings. Their backbones are vintage jet beads The whole collection has been in several shows both here and in Australia including the Pacific International Quilt Show, and the amazing thing is the incredible diversity in subject material and fabrics in these wonderful pieces.

*Note: A full size Glicee is available of this quilt. Each will be a signed print, Editons of 50. See Contact Info page for pricel

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