#12 Aquarium

#12: Aquarium
Finished: 3/25/12
Techniques: Raw-edge appliqué, machine stitches.
Size: 23" x 18"

backing

Description: This is late in posting, but I did actually finish this mini-quilt last week. I used a variety of machine stitches to apply narrow strips of blues, purples, and blue-green strips from my stash to create the water. In retrospect, the variety of machine stitches detracts from the scene, and were I to do this again, I would stick with one simple stitch to attach them. I used green strips for the seaweed, and attached them using an open flower stitch. I also used the open flower stitch by itself where extra quilting was needed. The fish were starched and cut from fish fabric I once used as curtains in my bathroom, then stitched into place using invisible thread. I also used the fish fabric for the backing, shown at right.

I also added a couple of turtles from a batik, and if you'll notice some of the blue strips of water are batiks with dolphins on them. None of the strips were large enough to contain whole dolphins, so I used them as background.

I wasn't sure if the blues in the water would be too dark or distracting for the design, but the brightness of the fish seem to compensate and they stand out ok. The turtles are more subtle and I like that contrast.

#11 Butterflies in the Garden

#11: Butterflies in the Garden
Finished: 3/18/12
Techniques: Landscape quilt, raw-edge appliqué, ombre fabric, free-motion quilting, pieced binding.
Size: 15 3/4 x 19"

Description: I've always been fascinated by landscape quilts and thought I would try one as a mini-quilt.  I started with an ombre fabric which did very well for the background. The colors shifted from blue and white to green, yellow and orange. The blue and white did well for the sky and although most of the other colors were covered by the appliqué, some of them peek through as ground cover. I had one 3" wide strip of tomato fabric which I cut and used in the foreground, hoping to give a feeling of depth. The butterflies were cut from fabric and I included about a 1/16" of surrounding beige fabric. It works well because it helps each butterfly stand out but still appears to be a part of the butterfly itself.

I used invisible thread for the free-motion quilting and I'm particularly happy with the quilting in the sky, which is done in a loopy meandering style to represent the flight of the butterflies.

I also pieced the binding so it wouldn't detract from the landscape. At first I was going to use the sunflower fabric in the lower half, but the dark green separating the sunflowers proved much too dark. I found a batik with green, blue, red and purple colors that was much more subtle and seemed to do the trick because of the way it simulated flowers and grass. The backing was more of the sunflower fabric.

#10 Wanting for Spring

#10: Wanting for Spring
Finished: 3/11/12
Techniques: Pieced background, Raw-edge appliqué, mitered borders, free-motion quilting
Size: 18 x 19 1/4"

Description: I am really ready for spring! If only the weather would cooperate. So I created a cheery little scene to help me through this last part of winter.  I pieced the background with various scraps of yellow. I didn't do any planning for this. I simply started pieced little pieces together and sewed those to bigger pieces, etc, until I had a large enough canvas to work with. Then I appliquéd flowers from a large print fabric on top and stitched them down.

Framing the scene is a wood-grain fabric left over from a bookshelf quilt I made years ago for some friends of mine. I mitered the corners - a new technique for me. In the past, I've always done squared off corners. It wasn't as difficult as I'd imagined and it came out very well, I think. The effect is a wooden picture frame, or perhaps a window frame.

The central scene was quilted on the diagonal, but the frame, or border was quilted with a free-motion technique following the wood-grain of the fabric. I don't particularly enjoy free-motion quilting, but maybe I just need more practice.

#9 Golden Mean

#9: Golden Mean
Finished: 3/4/12
Techniques: Math Concepts of Golden Mean, Fibonacci numbers, and a logarithmic spiral
Size: 21 1/4" x 13 1/4"

Description: Quilting involves a lot of math, and this is my first quilt devoted to a mathematical concept. From measuring and cutting to matching and piecing smaller units to form larger blocks, the math is sometimes intuitive, but still there.

The Golden Mean is a ratio approaching 1:1.1618. (Or more accurately, 1: (1+√5)/2)).  If you think of a rectangle where one side measures 1 and the other measures 1.1618, you would have a golden rectangle.

To represent this concept of Golden Mean, I chose 7 golden-colored fabrics and then cut and pieced them according to the start of the Fibonacci sequence of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. (Take any two of these consecutive numbers and their sum will be the next number in the sequence.) Though not strictly a golden rectangle (this is after all just a mini-quilt) the ratios of the sides, were I to continue expanding the sequence, would approach the Golden Mean.

There’s a fascinating relationship of these math concepts to nature, too. The logarithmic spiral portrayed in white satin stitch resembles the way a nautilus shell grows, or the growth pattern of a big horn sheep’s horn. Or the arms of a spiral galaxy. Or the growth patterns of certain plants.

Speaking of plant growth, the quilting on the mini-quilt was done to represent a sunflower, which incidentally in nature, tends to form crisscrossing spirals of successive Fibonacci numbers, typically 34 spirals going one way and 55 spirals going the other.

The Golden Mean is considered an aesthetically pleasing ratio and is used in art and architecture as well. The Pyramids of Egypt and the Parthenon were built on its premise, and paintings by Leonardo da Vinci and Seurat made good use of the Golden Mean.


Did you notice the size of the quilt? It's a little off due to the binding, but 13 and 21 are consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. The backing fabric continues the Golden theme with "golden fries" fabric I probably picked up in a box of fabric I bought at a garage sale at some point.