First Challenge Results

This week the challenge that I set for myself was to represent a fossil. After lots of thinking...the most time consuming part of the creative process...I decided to represent an ammonite. I like their spiral structure. They were once plentiful in the oceans and many fossils in various sizes have been found.

My first point of call was the internet to find a suitable photograph.




This one here is the one that I chose. I like the detail that it shows. I can follow the shape with my eyes. When I printed it out I forgot to change the orientation of the paper and only ended up with two-thirds of the image. I wasn't disappointed though, I found that I rather liked the partial image and decided to use that in my quilt.



Ammonite 11inches by 16 inches Ammonite - detail

I selected some beautiful hand-dyed fabric for my quilt. I bought it earlier in the year, but it is inspiring me to consider dying my own fabrics. I free hand cut a curved shape into both fabrics and then pieced them together. The quilting lines were used to 'draw' the ammonite shape in a brown thread. These were done free hand, without marking the fabric first, but using the picture as inspiration. The lines quilted into the brown background represent the cuts and gouges made by the paleontologist as they work to release the fossil from the rock.

Overall I am pretty happy with this quilt. I don't think that I am finsihed with ammonites just yet though. I would like to represent an ammonite in a more abstract way using applique. Maybe that should be my next challenge!