Monday, February 1, 2016

A Closer Look into the Stem

Patchwork Breeze.....

My quilted wall hanging measures 20 inches square. 


I worked with a color pallete of various yellows for the sunflower.
The petals are raw edge applique sewn down with various rayon threads. 
The center is a microscopic view of a stem section on fabric, 
which I traced with thread so it popped. 

for more information about this project. 

Butterfly Scales

BUTTERFLY SCALES
BY
SIMONE BRADFORD



For this quilt I printed electron microscopic images of 
butterfly wings onto fabric and bound the mini
quilt in raw silk.  


Four-In-Art Q1: Color: Microscopic

 Its a new year for our Four-In-Art group for making art quilts.  We've changed up the group a bit and relaxed the size rules and this year the overall theme is Color.
 When I heard the first quarter's theme was microscopic I started searching on the internet. (what did we do without Google?)
And I came across these amazing images by Fabian Oefner.  You can find an interesting interview on *this website* and his own website is www.fabianoefner.com.  The technique he uses is watercolors and something called a ferrofluid.  I highly recommend you go read about it.  There are more images as well. And yes, I even got permission to use the images as inspiration.

And so I give you my inspiration quilt:

Microscopic Color

 This is essentially a whole cloth quilt: quilted then painted with Inktense Pencils.
 A few close up shots.

 It ended up about 13"x10".  The thread painting/drawing is all Black Aurifil Thread.  Two layers of Pellon Soft and Crafty cotton batting.  The fabric is Kona White. The binding is Kona Black.
 The very boring back - and yes, as I write this no label either.  Tomorrow, I promise.


Building Blocks


The overall theme for this year is 'Colour' and I was interested in beginning the year by looking at the possibilities of absence of colour.  I used the contrast of monochrome black and white to address the second theme, 'Microscopic',  by thinking about the parallel between patchwork pieces and cells.  You can read more about it on my blog here.

Four-in-Art Colour + Microsoopic

11" x 11"

My quilt for this challenge is inspired by and based very closely on a portion of an image from Bev Shots, a company who, in their own words, "create unique pieces of modern art by photographing microscopic patterns formed from crystallization of alcoholic beverages".  The title in beads - Na Zdrowie - means 'cheers' in Polish and is meant to provide a little clue. You can read more about it on my blog - Rainbow Hare

Diatoms


For this year's colour theme and sub theme, Microscopic I decided to represent these unicellular organisms which are so important and colourful. You can read more about this over here.

Friend and Foe: Microscope Challenge for January 2016




The molecule I chose to illustrate this quarter's challenge was Taxol (paclitaxel), as the round shapes, the daisy petals, and the association with treating aggressive cancers all resonated with me.  Please visit my blog, OPQuilt.com, where I wrote about this, and deconstructed the assembly process.

Volvox


is a freshwater green algae...

and this is my interpretation of it.



I had lots of fun photographing it too!




Susan
PatchworknPlay


Pretty But Potentially Deadly • February 2016

Pretty But Potentially Deadly:  February 2016



E.coli, pretty but so bad


In our first Four-in-Art reveal for 2016, the theme for the year is Color and for this round the sub-theme is Microscopic, chosen by Simone.  It was the most difficult sub-theme to date, at least for me. I considered many subjects, but when I came across images of E.coli bacteria I knew the hunt was over - they spoke to me.




Up Close and Personal


This little thing almost took my mother's life AFTER she had survived a heart transplant.  Her transplant took place in November 1990 and sometime in 1992, after eating (we believe) a burger from her favorite "hamburger joint", she became ill enough to be hospitalized.  It was touch and go for some time and thankfully she recovered fully and lived another 10+ years with her new heart.  



In this 12" quilt, I chose 4 background fabrics which reflected things you might see under a microscope.  The E. coli cells are teal and hand-appliqued while all other stitching is done in Sulky Metallic in raspberry.  Most of the actual quilting follows patterns in the background fabrics.



The Back


On the back I have used another piece which spoke "science" to me and included our great logo on the label (hard to believe this is our fourteenth reveal).   A few other pictures will be on my Flickr site (Salt Ayer or Betty Ayers).