Four-in-Art 2016 February Project

The first 2016 "project reveal" for the Four-in-Art Group was yesterday. 
I hope you got to see all of the members' projects. 
What did you think of them? How did you like their use of color? 

Today I am going to tell you about how I designed my quilted sunflower wall hanging, which I titled, "A Closer Look into the Stem."

We were charged with using a sub-category of MICROSCOPIC in this color-themed project.

We were to find something we were interested in and look at it on a microscopic level. (It didn't mean our quilt needed to be microscopic). Some examples of topics to Google with the word "microscopic" were: sea water, viruses, mountains, chocolate, sugar, and ice. When exploring many of these elements on a microscopic level there could be repeating geometric shapes or interesting organic shapes that can be applied to quilting inspiration. 

This was a tough project for me. 

I understand "some" uses of the color wheel and the choices one can make;

but, I have difficulty making the choices in fabrics.

So, I put that on hold and worked my way through the microscopic aspect of this project. 

I looked at butterfly wings, chemicals, minerals, gems, plant cells, bird feathers and bug parts! 

The choices were over-whelming. My Pinterest Board is bulging.

(The United Kingdom has the Micropolitan Museum 

with curated exhibition halls. Really!) 

I found macrophotographic is the term used for microscopic photos. 

Some of those were cross-sections of flower stems.
There was a really cool one of an orchid and some of sunflowers, too.

Image courtesy of foto76 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I like sunflowers. The cross-sections could be drawn.

(I am glad we have 3 months to work on a project,
because I was down to the final 3 weeks.)

I would use the cross-section of a stem as the center of the flower. 

I printed it onto fabric in the computer printer. 

I used black thread to stitch around all the parts of the stem cross-section.

I found a sunflower coloring page that was free to use but not redistribute.

(http://thesignexpert.com/free-vector-art/flowers/)

I enlarged it to fit the petals around the 8" center I had printed on fabric.

I used a glue stick to keep all the petals in place while I sewed the center (above).

I worked with yellows to yellow-orange colors and chose a green background. 

I know this was not exactly the analogous color scheme I had looked at on the color wheel, but I liked the range of yellows with the green background. 

I had a number of thread colors to work with and found that the rayon threads gave more pizzaz to the petals than the cotton threads. 

The petals were pretty flat (below) and needed more color so I added other fabrics to the petals. I wanted the microscopic stem to show as such, so I didn't put any color there.

The petals were quilted to the batting (see the mess on the back). 

When quilting all three layers, 

I wanted the quilting to be simple and not distract from the flower. 

I was pleased with the box overlapped by the on-point box and set behind the flower. 

I put triangle corners on the back for hanging the quilt.
I do this before sewing the binding on.
I am able to place a dowel in the triangle pockets and hang the quilt
on one nail put into the wall.

What colors would you use to create a project?
Is there something microscopic that interests you?
Leave a message and let me know.

I think I might try something with a butterfly wing just for fun.