Quilting the Lotus

 

An interesting day. I am quilting and embroidering lotus flowers on my quilt. Meanwhile my cousin, Dianne, is posting a gorgeous picture of lotus flowers online, wondering where the photo had been taken. Obviously, we are both in need of a beautiful and tranquil retreat.

This is a lotus that I have just completed on my “Peace, Love, & Haight Ashbury” quilt. I included the motif because it is a symbol of the Eastern philosophies that were strongly infusing American culture at the time..

This is a close-up that shows how I have embroidered in a chain stitch alongside my quilting lines to give the flower more definition.

I am getting ready to make one and one half more lotus flowers on the other side of the quilt. First I found two round objects—a saucer and a CD—to trace around with chalk.

This view shows the half lotus off to the right side. I am trying to keep the quilt abstract.

Next I sketched in the initial row of eight petals with a combination of chalk and disappearing marker, depending on whether I was drawing on light or dark fabric. Then I added the smaller second row of petals behind it, keeping within the frame of the larger circle.

I will first quilt along these lines with a walking foot, then add the embroidery afterwards. In the best of all worlds, it is definitely best to do all of the quilting first, and then the embroidery. But as I said before, this little quilt seems to be morphing as it goes along.