I've been traveling and teaching lately.... not as much new stuff as I'd like.... but thought I might respond here to a student question about how I quilted the wings of a dragonfly (one of my class drawing options). First.... I googled ( maybe yahoo'd...) dragonfly images til I found a good image of a dragonfly that had clear wings so I could really see the vein pattern in at least one type of dragonfly.
Then I used a light marking pencil to mark off major sections on a wing. Click on photo/s for detail view.
Next step... I SLOWLY stitched the major section parameters.
Still slowly continued stitching.. some areas were parallel echoed rows with careful opposite direction stitching to create a cellular structure. This called for small areas of stitching atop previously done parallel rows allowing cells to be varied. The remaining area was mostly triangular stitch meandering. When the entire wing was done you'll notice the lime green stitching right next to the body was pretty bright and distracting.
This is when ink comes back into play where the thread directly adjacent to the main body was stained darker with ink so the wings sunk back into the body. I often ink atop areas of thread already stitched.
Hope this is helpful... :-)
