Sara's Spiral - Prehistoric sea

I love spirals and use them frequently as quilting motifs. My mystery quilt is also based on a spiral. I generally choose geometric and abstract designs. I did want these challenges to help me expand my work and have tried to choose different techniques each time. I was telling someone in a mini-group I go to that I was going to look for spirals in nature. She excitedly showed me images from the new Paleontology wing at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and I knew that was where I had to head with my camera. I used to collect fossils when I first re-settled in Houston in the late 70s and remembered learning about ammonites. There were so many varieties of them that were short lived that they are used as index fossils to help identify the age of a geologic strata. The specimens at the museum were gorgeous. The ammonites had squiggly separations between each of its growth chambers. Some of the specimens looked like a quilter had done small meandering over the shell. I started with a photo of a model of a living ammonite.

 I watched Susan Brubaker Knapp's DVD on painting and stitching starting with a black and white print out of my photograph and choosing my own colors. I traced the design lines from my photo. Scanned the tracing into the computer and then printed it as close to 12 by 12 as I could. I copied the lines onto some fine pfd fabric and pinned the fabric taut onto some foam core board. I painted with mostly Setacolor paint and a bit of Jacquard lumiere paint and some Stewart and Gill Alchemy paint (the copper and yellow green of the eye). The painting took a lot longer than I expected it would and I waited for drying between colors.After everything was painted and dried, I backed the work with 2 layers of Pellon 40 weight stabilizer (Susan uses an interfacing but I already have the stabilizer) and sketched over any pencil lines with thread and added additional shading and texture with thread. This was tricky for me - the piece probably could have used additional thread work but I tend to love stitching and playing with thread so much that I end up thread painting not sketching so I intentionally held myself back. I finally sandwiched the top with a sample of wool batting and quilting with monofilament thread to add texture but not more color. The quilt was finished with a facing.

Sara's Spiral - Ammonite as it might have existed in its Spiral Home