This 36″ x 36″ quilt is the third in what is becoming a series about the seven deadly sins. Our current state of capitalism is an economic system that depends on rampant consumerism and overconsumption of resources for its success, resulting in a world governed by greed. I was consciously and subconsciously inspired by the Beholder from the world of Dungeons & Dragons; Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors; Frank from Harley Quinn, the animated series; and Venus flytraps.
This is a whole-cloth quilt made with dupioni silk and polyester thread. I used the thread painting technique to create the eyeballs and flower petals, and free-motion quilting for the leaves, vines, and background quilting. This quilt was completed in July 2025.
I have become obsessed with dupioni silk over the last few years, and this latest quilt is my most ambitious application of this gorgeous fabric so far. I’ve always admired this nubby, raw-looking silk that shimmers in the light and, depending on how it’s woven, can even change colors when you look at it from different angles. But due to its price and my lack of experience, I shied away from using it in my quiltmaking process until I felt I had mastered enough techniques to not make a total mess of it.
Back in September of 2023, Shannon Reed and I made our annual trek to Oaks, PA for the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza to ogle the array of gorgeous quilts and, of course, to shop. Country Keepsakes was one of the vendors, and they had an incredible display of dupioni silks and I couldn’t stop thinking about them as we continued wandering through the show. Before we left, I bought two yards of fabric that I eventually turned into a whole-cloth quilt entitled: Behold My Beauty and Weep. (Click this link to read more details about the quilt pictured below.)
I absolutely loved working with this fabric, and I quickly decided I needed more. So when Shannon and I returned to the Extravaganza this past September, I had already planned to purchase another two yards of fabric for another whole-cloth quilt. And then, as luck would have it, I won a $50 gift certificate from the door raffle. Not only did I buy the two yards of silk I originally wanted, but I then added a bunch of fat quarters to my purchase, not sure what I would do with them but so excited to add them to my stash.
Also around this time, I realized I needed to think of an idea for the Brooklyn Quilters Guild biennial quilt show that would be happening at the end of April 2025. I decided pretty quickly that using my silks would be key in whatever design I came up with. After mulling it over for several days, I decided to try to up my transparency-and-curves-piecing game from when I took a Carolina Oneto workshop a few years prior.
Using Google Docs, I sketched out a few rough ideas of what I had in mind and finally landed on my final design.
Then I gathered all of my dupioni silks and started figuring out how they were going to work together. This is the point where someone who actually plans ahead would have exactly the right colors to make the transparency effect work perfectly, but I am generally not that person. I couldn’t really afford to buy more fabric, so I just worked with what I had. I imagine a color theorist will not approve of my final layout.
Because I was going to be piecing all of these silks together, I backed it all with a light-weight fusible webbing to prevent fraying. Dupioni silk frays like crazy, so this is a necessary step unless you want to pull all of your hair out during the cutting and sewing process. I then used the techniques I learned from Carolina Oneto’s workshop to recreate my digital sketch into a small quilt top.
Then it was time to figure out how I was going to quilt it. If you’ve read my previous posts, you know I love free-motion quilting, so that was a no-brainer. I am a big believer that the right quilting design enhances the quilt top, so I had to think about what would make the quilt top pop instead of distract from the beautiful silks. After staring and staring for days at my quilt top, I kept thinking about a dance hall with colored lights reflecting on the walls, which then made me think about a fancy New Year’s Eve party and the moment it strikes midnight and confetti and streamers begin falling from the ceiling.
Using shiny polyester thread, I quilted a sharp stipple pattern over the entire quilt top, interspersing confetti and streamer sections that puff up next to the densely quilted areas. I then quilted straight lines in the border to evoke a wooden frame effect surrounding the center design. And thus Colored Lights & Confetti was complete.
This will be on display at the Brooklyn Quilts! 2025 show on April 26 & 27, along with my what are you afrAId of? quilt which I posted about earlier this month. If you’re in the New York area the last weekend of April, you should come out and see the over 200 beautiful quilts that will be on display, along with raffles, vendors, workshops, and more. Feel free to reach out with any questions or comments, and keep making!
Boy Meets Quilt 