Thursday, October 15, 2015

Rita's Circle Quilt: Smile please, Pluto.



This is Alice writing!  Rita asked me to post her photo and narrative for her, as Randy was going to be out of town and she was unsure about how to access the photo and the narrative.  So I happily agreed, and after first finding only the photo, I posted it.  I persisted in my search, though, and now have found her excellent and informative narrative!  Sorry, Rita, for the delay is posting this part!




About noon on July 14, 2015, after a nine-year, 3 billion-mile journey, NASA’s 1000-lb., grand-piano-size, $700 million New Horizons probe flew past tiny Pluto at a blistering 31,000 m.p.h.  As it went by, within just 6000 miles of the icy world, it furiously snapped pictures and recorded data on the temperature, composition and structure of this tiny dwarf planet.  Pluto’s little world has intrigued astronomers since it was first discovered more than 85 years ago.  Until Pluto showed up, all the outer planets were known to be gas giants.  What was this pip-squeak doing out there all alone?


Because of our space exploration program with fly-by probes and orbiters, we already had marvelous photographs of the inner eight planets.  Now we have one of Pluto as well!


As I was musing about what my Circle quilt would be, I settled on the idea of picking the best “glamour” shot that could be found of each of the planets.  Originally I planned to put them in order from the sun going from upper left to lower right.  However, in printing the photos, I made the scale of the planets too large and they would not fit on an 11 x 14 format.  So it was time to get creative.  They are still in their correct order clockwise around the quilt, starting with Mercury and ending with little Pluto, but a great deal of artistic license has been used to depict their orbits around the sun.  On my little quilt, Pluto looks to be quite close to the sun, when in fact it is the most distant planet.


For a refresher from 8th grade Earth Science, the order of the planets outward from the sun is: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.


The background is composed of several different black fabrics sewn on the diagonal.  The photos of the planets were borrowed from several different sources and with the magic of Photoshop (Randy’s expertise) were then printed on Printed Treasures fabric in the ink-jet printer.  Wonder-Under fusible was applied to the back of the photos from which the planet images were cut out and then arranged on the black background.  Silver seed beads and silver thread were used to create the “distant starlight”.

16 comments:

  1. Brilliant!!!! I think this is my favorite that you have ever done!!!! Wow!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. WoW!!! It looks like I am looking through a telescope!! So visually impressive! Can't wait to hear how you did it Rita!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am relieved to know that the planet images were printed on fabric - LOL - I was going to insist Rita have an emergency workshop to teach us to paint such realistic planets!!! It is wonderful that the teacher AND artist in Rita come out in her work and narratives!!I Your scale mistake was fortuitous as I think your arrangement is more visually impressive than the usual planetary alignment appears.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  3. I agreed with Lois, that of all the wonderful quilts we've seen by Rita on this blog, this might very well be MY favorite too! As Nedra says, visually impressive, and now that I found the narrative, I'm hoping Nedra and Lois will come back here to read this. Rita, you are a consummate artist in every sense of that word!

    ReplyDelete
  4. STUNNING ! Visually out-of-this-world! Yours and Randy's work combined to make the perfect work of art ! And your narrative was enlightening ! Thanks too for the 8th grade refresher re the order of the planets... It's been a very long time since I was in the 8th grade !

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love that you used "Glamour" shots of the planets! Adding the silver thread and seed beads was the perfect touch to the black background. I also enjoyed seeing the different black fabrics. That added even more depth to the quilt as well as the little orange flang around the quilt.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beautiful quilt. I have always had a fondness for Pluto. I like your use of photos on printed treasures. They seem so real.

    ReplyDelete
  7. When I first saw this I thought, this looks like a photograph! Nice job

    ReplyDelete
  8. When I first saw this I thought, this looks like a photograph! Nice job

    ReplyDelete
  9. Really nice execution of the planets. Looks like we move in the same "circles!" LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  10. These are certainly planetary glamour shots and a meticulously executed quilt. I remember that My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles to remember the planets. I was sad that pluto was demoted!

    ReplyDelete
  11. What can I say, Rita. This is spectacular! I love the various shades of black for the background, and your planets are SO realistic. Perfection!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Fascinating, gorgeous & definitely glamorous! Much appreciate the 8th grade Earth Science refresher as it has been a very looooong time!

    ReplyDelete