Art With Fabric Blog Hop - My Day!

This piece is being made for the annual art quilt challenge that I've been taking part in for over 15 years.   This is the 20th year of the challenge, but there were a few of those years when I wasn't able to get a quilt finished for the exhibition.    This years theme was "20".  I struggled to figure out what to do for my piece because the theme is soooooooo wide open.   Along with the theme we are also encouraged to try a new technique when creating our pieces.

I ended up deciding to do a piece based on fractals with my inspiration drawn from art (computer-generated) and the world of nature.

A fractal is defined as a structure in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales.

There are many examples of fractals found in nature, some of which can be seen here on the Mother Nature Network.  I particularly like the example of the cross-section of the Chambered Nautilus shell seen here.

And an interesting one from art here, found on the designyourway.net website.

















I used these as inspiration for my quilt, but choosing to go with circles as the element that would be repeated and scaled through out the piece.

Quilt as it is laid out before fusing with all circles pinned in position on the background fabric.  I've tweaked placement of several circles to make the line of the spiral smoother.  As soon as my new iron arrives I'll iron them in place on the background.

The circles have been stitched down with raw edge stitching.   the background here actually shows up much lighter than the golden cream that it is.   I'm thinking I might quilt it in a variegated cream if I can find that kind of color.

Next step in the process of making this quilt has been the decision on how to quilt it.  At this first I had thought about some sort of straight line quilting - either following the contours of the circles or echoing the spiral they are arranged in.

But the quilting design that the quilt really cried out for was the bubbles shown here on the left.     So my plan is to do that, but first i need to practice because I've never done it before on a quilt, altho I can do it on paper when practicing.

I'm glad that this quilt isn't due until around February of next year because it's gonna take me a while to finish it with everything else going on.



The schedule for the complete hop:

Monday, November 5th, 2018

• Heather: http://www.heatherquilts.blogspot.com/
  
• Tami: https://thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com/
  
• Moira: https://quiltedsnail.blogspot.com/
  
• Marian: http://www.seamstobesew.com 

Tuesday, November 6th, 2018

• Susan: https://desertskyquilts.wordpress.com/
  
• Terry: http://www.terryaskeartquilts.com/
  
• Janeen: http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com/
  
• Lee Anna: http://lapaylor.blogspot.com/ 

Wednesday, November 7th, 2018

• Bea: http://www.beaquilter.com/
  
• Carol: http://www.quiltedfabricart.com
  
• Andrée: http://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.com

 

Thursday, November 8th, 2018 

• Irene: http://Irene.grimes.wordpress.com
  
• Wendy: http://www.piecefulthoughts.com/
  
• Judith: http://www.frimart.ch/

Friday, November 9th, 2018 

• Melva: https://melvalovesscraps.blogspot.com/
  
• Barb: http://www.bejeweledquilts.blogspot.com
  
• Anita: http://quiltlovefordomesticfelicity.blogspot.com
  
• Alida: http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/ 

Gratitudes:

1. For the knowledge that even when I fret and worry, my anchor holds secure to the Rock that will never be moved.

2. For the knowledge that even tho I've never have a life partner in any way, there are still many friends and family members in my life who are there for me when I've needed a shoulder to lean on for a bit.