I have been busy painting dragonflies on my hand-painted backgrounds. The process is really fun! I have also been researching dragonflies. They are amazing animals.
Did you know that some dragonflies can live for six years? That is pretty good for an insect. Granted, up to four years are spent as naiads, in water. They look kind of like shrimp. Adult dragonflies have six legs, yet they cannot walk. They use their legs to snatch prey in flight, which they then tear apart and eat while still flying. If you were the size of a fly, you would find dragonflies terrifying.
So far, five of my panels have dragonflies on them.
In addition to Jacquard textile paint, I am using watercolor pencils and Micron pens. The paint is thinned with FolkArt floating medium, which permits better blending and lengthens the drying time.
Here is a mock-up of the quilt layout I’m considering.
If I go with this layout, the finished piece will be 28 x 36 inches.
Two more panels need dragonflies, and then I will consider painting some details on some of the backgrounds.
Daily Fiber 
💜
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This is so amazing – looking forward to seeing the final result. Do you stretch your fabric on a hoop or something to make the surface smoother?
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I tape it down to a whiteboard for the painting process. For my purposes, that technique works just fine.
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Thanks. I was curious. The dragonflies are really great.
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I am glad you mentioned the FolkArt floating medium — I heard “floating medium” mentioned once in a clip from an instruction video, but the brand name wasn’t given, and I could never find it on a store shelf. I thought I had mis-heard and I bought flow medium (which I have not tried yet). Now I know better what to look for!
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Your flow medium may work just fine. Give it a try and let me know.
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So pretty yet so deadly! From a fly’s perspective, anyway. This is looking beautiful.
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Thanks. It is a fun project. I keep getting more and more ideas about what to add next.
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That’s such a nice feeling 😊
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Very interesting piece! Look forward to watching it come together.
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Lovely so far! I like your quilt composition 🙂
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Thanks. It’s still evolving, but it will essentially look like the shape in this post.
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Wow, that’s lovely.
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Thank you. It has been a satisfying project so far.
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