Space Jellyfish Fractal Triangle Quilt

Yes, you read right. Reynardin seems to have given me the plague her cold, but I have managed to sew with a fever this week. See, I had some completely awesome (if I do say so myself) space fabric printed with imagery I downloaded from NASA (credit: NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org). They kindly keep the vast majority of their photography open source and you can use it, though they appreciate a credit. See? I did too need more fabric.



So, I planned this quilt as a giant fractal Sierpiński Triangle, with nested lino block printed fractal Sierpiński Triangles). Also, some of the downward pointing triangles which by default are space imagery are replaced by my block printed jellyfish on dark blue fabric). I carefully arranged the triangles so that areas with nebulae were nearby one another (nebulous areas? nebularful? nebulicious?) and the starry, mostly dust-free regions were near one another. So it's space, jellyfish, fractal triangle FTW. This is just the quilt top, so this is still a work in progress. I bought some glow-in-the-dark thread for the actual quilting, bwhahaha!






I'll get some proper photos of it when it's complete.

Scrappy Strip Quilt - and butterflies, dinosaurs, fractals and more

I finished my quilt. I was torn on whether I wanted to block print the fabric or not... but I'm glad I did. Here's the reverse:



I made this quilt with stripes of fabric scraps from my stash, including vintage thrifted fabrics and contemporary prints. I block printed the sashing with my own carved monarch butterfly lino block. The reverse is a patchwork with the green sashing fabric, rectangles of the fabrics used on the front and a series of my block prints on fabric including a dinosaur, jellyfish, bees, butterflies, Russian nesting dolls, a fractal triangle, a quail, a rhino, and a blue whale. The quilting is done in a couple of variegated threads, by machine. The quilt is 39 inches by 57 inches (1 m by 146 cm), maybe the size of a child's bed.



Pretty nifty what one can do with scraps, imagination and patience, no?

fractal geometry

You were dying to know why I've been hunting ferns, right?

For the month of September, 2009, the MSOE challenge is 'Fractal Geometry'. Fractals are self-similar: their parts mimic (more-or-less) the whole. Some of the exotic species within this mathematical family have precise familiar shapes, like the simplest rectilinear object you could imagine, the triangle. Others have organic lines like coast lines or plants. The fern is a stereotypical example; oblong leaves with branch off of veins which in turn branch off of other veins, in a self-similar manner.

In this mono print, I am comparing and contrasting the aspect of self-similarity, by combining a block printed Sierpiński Triangle (the holes in which could in theory continue ad infinitum, but being human, there is a practical limit to what can be carved) and a printed fern leaf.



Then, I did it again: