I'm Working on a Project: New Quilt C. Bauri, Feathers or Scales

In the ongoing effort to catch up on blog posts, here's a new quilt I made close to the beginning of this year in preparation for this summer's 3D exhibit at the New Mexico State Capitol (which just came down last week).

This started out as some weird upholstery weight kind of scratchy stiff fabric that was sort of beige with orange and brown flowers on it? I had a fairly large roll of it that I inherited from my sister's mother-in-law (thanks Mary!) and was determined to use for something. I decided to paint it and quilt two layers of it together with no batting and see what kind of 3D thing I could make.

I decided to try to make a vessel, and so I trimmed it into this weird shape and sewed up the corners, but it really just wasn't working. It was too floppy and too open and really just not coming together like I thought. So I unpicked all the stitches and since the Capitol show was coming up I decided to smock it.

I went looking for a new smocking pattern and found an article from a computer science journal on 3D modeling of predicted pleat patterns/smocked patterns which very much delighted the nerd in me. I'm not sure if anyone has ever smocked these patterns in person but I decided to try one of them. Unfortunately now I can't find the paper- if I ever do I'll link it back here. I wasn't sure how it would work since it was cut to such a weird shape but I thought I'd give it a try.

It turned out pretty cool- this is the first time I've made a smocked pattern that goes horizontally rather than vertically. And the shape reminded me of the shape of an arrowhead or a scale. The scale vibe is what led to the title of the piece, C. Bauri: feathers or scales. C. Bauri is my beloved Coelophysis, the carnivorous theropod that has shown up on my quilts before. I think historically we always thought of them as scaly, but I think current thinking is that they were feathered!

I like the way this came out, I like that the shape is different from others in this series, and I love the blendy earthy colors.