The Gecko

This art quilt was inspired by a photograph taken by Tim Kaufman. Tim took a recent trip to Hawaii and was able to capture the gecko on this flower. His photography is amazing and this is just one of many examples. (http://www.timkaufmanphoto.com/gallery_hawaii.html) I asked his permission to "quilt" this amazing photograph. It took countless hours as I have never done anything like this in the past. The gecko was certainly the most challenging. Originally I was going to bead the gecko. After thinking about it over a period of time, I decided to thread paint the gecko. (Thread painting is the machine stitching of thread with stitches very close together. This allows the piece to look painted. The trick is to use multiple colors of thread to add dimension just as you would shade with paint.) The quilt was made in two separate steps. The first step was the background. I used all sorts of fabrics including quilting cotton, velvet, upholstery, and silk. Some thread painting was done at this stage.   I then made the gecko on a black piece of quilters cotton. The entire gecko is made from thread. The process took a number of hours and countless layers of thread.  The gecko ended up being 1/8" thick. I then trimmed the gecko and stitched him onto the background. The eye is actually hand painted with a brush that has exactly 10 bristles. Yes, I counted. Over 36 different colors of thread were used in this quilt. Beads were added to the plant for dimension. Finally, I quilted the entire piece and placed a border. I started this quilt in March and finished this in mid-August. There were many interruptions with other contests, gifts, auctions, and donations. I am so glad I finished this quilt and plan to give it to Tim as a gift of his generosity in allowing me to utilize his talents to complete my own projects. Tim you are amazing, thank you so much.