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Leaves are popping everywhere in early May, and so the inspiration for this month's QuiltPage. The word leaf is used in many ways in our language – gold leaf, a tree leaf, a printed page from a book. An experiment with foiling produced the gold leaf on the background, accompanied by stamped leaf images. The book leaf is actually from the Book of Exeter, an ancient manuscript. I wanted to create a transparent image, and had several failed attempts before deciding to use Bubble Jet Set and white silk organza. This allowed the hand-painted background to peek through the image. The large green leaves are free-motion embroidered on silk organza, again allowing for transparency. This is a new technique learned in the Machine Embellished Surfaces class taught by Susan Brittingham at Quilt University. The gold leaf was discovered in a 'goodie bag' sent by a friend.

Materials: Skydyes cotton, silk organza, Mediera PolyNeon for freemotion quilting, Sulky rayon for freemotion embroidered leaves, assorted glass and metallic beads.

Techniques: ink jet print on fabric, rubber stamping, foiling, beading, freemotion embroidery and quilting.