#24 Venus Voila!

#24: Venus Voila!
Finished: 6/16/12
Techniques: Around the World design, appliqué, Grass stitch
Size: 20" x 20"

Description: Well, this mini-quilt went on quite a journey! Just like Venus, I suppose. It was mid-week and I hadn't had an inspiration for a new mini-quilt, so I was going to fall back on doing a color collage in orange (similar to the color collage in green - see #15 "Spring Has Sprung" from April). I started by pulling all my oranges from my stash and wanted to experiment with creating an illusion of a spherical shape. I started with a light orange center and, using the "Around the World" design, put in progressively darker oranges for each round. Unlike the "Around the World" design however, I made the widths of the pieces incrementally smaller with each round. I was hoping to create a spherical illusion, but it didn't work. However, it struck me that the piece I  had cut into a circle did somewhat look like the sun, and I was still remembering watching the recent transit of Venus on June 5th. Then the inspiration hit me to appliqué the piece onto some outer space fabric I had, and add a black button to represent Venus! Voila!

Watching the transit was fascinating!  I especially liked seeing it through the telescope with the hydrogen filter which made the sun look red and you could see the "solar hairs"  - that's what the astronomy students were calling the active solar surface. The grass stitch I used to appliqué the piece onto the background is an uneven satin stitch which I really like, and it simulated the solar hairs.

The picture above is a closer shot of the mini-quilt that better shows the details of the grass stitch and quilting, as well as the variety of orange fabrics. The picture underneath shows the mini-quilt in its entirety, but once again the camera had difficulty with the brightness of the oranges. Another serendipitous discovery is that the picture above is actually a more interesting composition that the full sun picture below.  Hmmm. Something to think about for future artwork.

#23 Origami

#23: Origami
Finished: 6/10/12
Techniques: Folded fabric, machine stitches, pieced binding
Size: 13 x 14"

Description: I was inspired to create this mini-quilt by my friend Sarah Withee and her origami projects. I had seen folded fabric and origami quilting books before and so now was the time to try it. I used Fantastic Fabric Folding by Rebecca Wat for instructions, but I found it rather difficult to do the origami itself. It took time to figure out the instructions, reading it several times and trying to gain insight from the photographs. Once I did though, it went much easier and faster.

I used batiks and mottled fabrics that read as solids for the origami portions, as well as the pieced binding. I used various machine stitches to add a bit more color to the black background. A few buttons were added for flair.

Here are some close-ups of the individual origami features, except for the orange one. For some reason, neither my phone nor camera did well in capturing the orange. It was too bright or something. I tried different settings to no avail. Oh well.

#22 Atrium

Mini-quilt

Atrium Skylight

#22: Atrium
Finished: 5/31/12
Techniques: Satin stitching, appliqué
Size: 15 1/2" x 15 1/2"

Description: I've often looked at the skylight in Tutt Library's atrium and thought it would make a nice quilt block. Now that I'm quilting, I tend to see patterns everywhere. But I never got around to actually making a quilt block with this design until now - and I had a very special reason for doing it. Our library director, Carol Dickerson, is retiring this year and I made this as a gift for her. I had library staff members sign the back as a remembrance. Carol has been a wonderful boss, and I've learned a great deal from her. Here's looking forward to a continuing friendship as she embarks on the new adventure of retirement!

The mini-quilt is basically a 25 patch piece, with some squares, some half triangle squares, and a central quarter triangle square. I used muted colors and prints to best simulate the opaqueness of the window panes. The white open square for the light was pieced and overlaid as an appliqué. Satin stitching was used to simulate to structural portions of the skylight.

A simple quilt to put together, but one with great sentimental value for me. I hope Carol will look upon it with fondness.