Blogger Quilt Festival: Organic Chemistry Quilt

I think the Blogger's Quilt Festival, a few years ago, was my first introduction to the world of quilt and fiber arts blogs.  I really enjoy looking through all of the entries each year, and discovering new blogs and people!

If you're new to my blog, welcome!

I knew that I wanted to enter this newly finished quilt this year, but wasn't sure what category to enter it in.  Since all of the molecules are appliqued onto the quilt, I decided to enter it in the applique category, even if it is very non-traditional!

I started this about 2 years ago, as part of the Modern Quilt Guild's challenge, which had a theme of "organic".  After machine embroidering the hexagon and pentagon "molecule rings" onto all of the blocks, and then hand embroidering the first few blocks, it quickly became obvious that I wasn't going to get it done in the time period allotted.  I had time to stitch the blocks during  a cross-country road trip 2 summers ago, and even stitched together the back that same summer.  Then, I put it away and it sat for a very long time...

I think it sat for 2 reasons... the finished quilt wasn't as nice as I had envisioned in my mind's eye.  I love the concept of it, though, and wanted to see it realized.  I love geeky science quilts!  The other reason was that I had no idea how to quilt it.  In the end, I pretty much just closed my eyes and started quilting it, hoping for the best.  The hexagon quilting too forever, but I'm glad I endured and got it done!  I was thinking about adding some free motion quilting in addition, but decided that I like the "simplicity" (ha!), or clean lines of the hexagonal quilting, and left it alone. The back is pieced together from all of the various fabrics that I used to make the hexagons and pentagons on the molecules.

It's 60 by 75 inches.  Each appliqued and embroidered square is backed by muslin to keep the stitches from showing through the fabric, so it's a thick, heavy quilt as well.  I think if I added up all of the time I spent hand embroidering each block, researching the chemicals, and quilting this beast, I probably put more time into this quilt than any other.  Whew!

Be sure to head over to the festival to see all of the other amazing quilts there!

Organic Chemistry Quilt is FINISHED!

After 2 years of working on and off of this (mostly off), I am so happy to say that my Organic Chemistry Quilt is done!!!

I started this originally as part of the Modern Quilt Guild's challenge, which had a theme of "organic".  After hand embroidering the first few blocks, it quickly became obvious that I wasn't going to get it done in the time period allotted.  I had time to stitch the blocks during  a cross-country road trip 2 summers ago, and even stitched together the back that same summer.  Then, I put it away and it sat for a very long time...

I think it sat for 2 reasons... the finished quilt wasn't as nice as I had envisioned in my mind's eye.  It's still not really a "favorite" quilt, but I love the concept of it, and wanted to see it realized.  I love geeky science quilts!  The other reason was that I had no idea how to quilt it.  In the end, I pretty much just closed my eyes and started quilting it, hoping for the best.  The hexagon quilting too    f o r e v e r   , but I'm glad I endured and got it done!  I was thinking about adding some free motion quilting in addition, but decided that I like the "simplicity" (ha!), or clean lines of the hexagonal quilting, and left it alone. The back is pieced together from all of the various fabrics that I used to make the hexagons and pentagons on the molecules.

It's 60 by 75 inches.  Each embroidered square is backed by muslin to keep the stitches from showing through the fabric, so it's a thick heavy quilt as well.  I think if I added up all of the time I spent hand embroidering each block, researching the chemicals, and quilting this beast, I probably put more time into this quilt than any other.  Whew!

Shanna and Melissa's "A Lovely Year of Finishes" helped motivate me to finish it, but I'm also getting it done with just a few days to spare to enter in our upcoming Krazy Horse Quilters' Quilt show!!  If you're in town May 4-5th, come see us!!

Dopamine

Dopamine is one of the many neurotransmitters found in the human body.  Neurotransmitters are chemicals that essentially transmit signals from the nervous system to other cells.  Since the nervous system (including the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves) is the "control center" of our bodies, these neurotransmitters play important roles.

Dopamine has long been associated with things that gives us pleasure, such as food, drugs, and sexual activity.  More recently, researchers found that it's also released in stressful situations.  It is now thought of as responsible for motivation and the pleasure of motivation, or the "reward system".  It is also involved in physical motor behavior, and in emotional arousal.  This explains why Parkinson's Disease, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, Depression and possibly ADHD are often associated with abnormally low dopamine levels, or abnormalities in the dopamine receptors of cells, as these are disorders that involve either poor motor function, low or disorganized "motivation", or emotional response.

Disclaimer: Once again, I'm not a doctor, and none of this should be used for medical advice.  I just love science and find beauty in it as well.

Adenine and my Organic UFO

Since I'm still working on my Organic Chemistry Quilt, I decided that this will be my April finish goal (since I didn't finish it in March) for "A Lovely Year of Finishes" link up.  I'm also linking up with WIP Wed, since it is still a WIP ;-).  Below is the half-quilted quilt.

I also decided that it'd be fun to highlight my organic chemicals one by one while we all wait for this quilt to get finished!

Organic Chemistry was one of my most difficult classes in college.  It was required for a biology degree, and I'm sure glad it was, as I used a lot of it in the medical lab.  Working in the Chemistry and Special Chemistry departments in the lab gave me much better knowledge and appreciation of this science.  Organic Chemistry is, after all the chemistry of life.

For my quilt, I picked only chemicals that have these fun little hexagonal and pentagonal rings.  Each side of the pentagon or hexagon is a chemical bond.  Here's what it looks like on paper:

Adenine is one of the "nucleotides", or essential building blocks of DNA and RNA.  They're so vital to living things that I had to include them on my quilt.  There are 4 of these that make up DNA (Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Thymine), and 4 that make up RNA (Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Uracil).  These 4 DNA bases combine with a "sugar phosphate backbone" in pairs that make up the classic DNA double helix.  These long chains are then coiled up into chromosomes that are found in the nucleus of every living cell.  Pretty amazing!

Adenine is also a major component of ATP, or Adenosine Triphosphate, which is a major energy-releasing compound found in all cells. It is also used in other metabolic cellular  processes.

So that's our Organic Chemistry trivia tidbit for the day!

I'll try to do a write up on each of my quilt molecules in the days to come.

Meanwhile, if anyone can tell me how to get that awful smudge out of my digital camera, I'd really appreciate it.  The lens is clean, so I fear it's inside the camera somewhere.

WIP Wed, West Coast Edition: PQ5 and Organic Progress

When I first bought the fabric for my Organic Chemistry Quilt, I first cut a generous "border" from the selvage of the fabric in order to resew it back on to look like the margins of a page.  I finally sewed this back on.  I also decided that I'm going to pre-wash the batting to try to minimize the shrinkage.  I don't always do this, as it's a big hassle, and takes time, but I think it does help a bit.  Tomorrow I hope to start pin basting it!

One good thing about having this top finally done is that I can now add these yummy scraps to my scrap bin!!

This week's "Project Quilting" challenge is to take our inspiration from the page 28 of any publication.  Wish Spring right around the corner, seed catalogs are on just about all of our  tables and counter tops. I'm itching to make something "Springy", so I'm hoping to make a project based on the page above!

Finally, I just turned in my final quilt block swap that I've been doing for the last 6 months at my local quilt store. Above is what I turned in, and below is what I picked up (from Feb).  I LOVE that Tula Pink frog!!

Be sure to check out what others are up to at Freshly Pieced WIP Wed!

March UFO Goal: Organic Chemistry Quilt

For March's "A Lovely Year of Finishes" over at Fiber of All Sorts, I've not only chosen my hardest and oldest, UFO, but also the one I most want finished.  It got "stuck" almost 2 years ago, when I failed to finish it in time for the Modern Quilt Guild's "Organic challenge".

Another reason it got "stuck" is because I have no idea how to quilt it.  I worked so hard on the embroidery that I really don't want to quilt over it, but it takes up so much space that I can't leave it all open.

I'm open to any and all ideas on this one! I've thought about an all over hexagon / chicken wire patter, or some FMQ-ed hexagons in both the organic rings, and in the open space (maybe in different colored thread), or maybe even just tying or tacking it evenly instead of quilting it. I just really don't want the embroidery to get distorted, and have never done a quilt like this.

I'm also thinking about adding some random fabric hexagons and pentagons here and there to add more color to the quilt.  There is just something not quite right with it, but I can't put a finger on it. It's one of those quilts that seemed better on paper than in practice...

The back is done, and borders all cut out, so all that's left is sewing the borders on, and pinning it and quilting it.

I know that once Spring gets going full tilt I'll be slowing down in the sewing room and spending much more time outside, so I really GOT to get this done!!

Speaking of my sewing room, here are the shelves that my husband made and just installed about an hour ago!  The stain on them is still a bit tacky and needs some time to dry, but otherwise I'm finally able to put all of my sewing things in one room, for the first time in over 3 years!! Yipee!!