Monday, September 24, 2012

Seymour is Finished!

You guys-  I feel like there should be a party!  Pardon the melodrama but I feel like I've poured all my creativity and time and energy into Seymour and now he's complete and finished and wonderful.  I've never worked so long and so focused on something so personal.  I've had quilts that have taken longer, but mostly because they've languished as UFOs for years in closets.  I checked; my first post on Seymour was April 10th; since then I've focused almost entirely (with only a few small-project breaks) on him.  One of the most startling thing about this project was how challenging each step was.  Rather than taking forever because I needed a million blocks or something, almost ever step required something different; figuring out how to accomplish what I wanted, how to optimize some technique I'd never tried before, or how to tackle something with my particular resources.  There was a TON of make-it-up-as-you-go-along, and I dare say many experienced quilt artists would have known exactly what to do.

In any case, here he is.  For those of you who've been following since the beginning, thanks for sticking around.  And for anyone just clicking through for the first time, I've been posting about Seymour fairly regularly, so for more info just click on his tag in my sidebar.  The final quilt is designed to be laced together to display back to back or unlaced to be displayed as a diptych.

Here's my artist statement:

S is For… #3: You Cleared My Name
24” x 70”, 2012
Shannon Conley

Coelophysis bauri, a carnivorous theropod dinosaur, is the state fossil of New Mexico due primarily to discovery of a large number of skeletons near Ghost Ranch, NM.  Coelophysis had long been the poster child for dinosaur cannibalism until work published by Nesbitt et al. in Biology Letters (2006) demonstrated clearly that stomach contents from mature Coelophysis were not juveniles of the same species or even dinosaurs at all, but rather were unrelated early crocodylomorph archosaurs.  In honor of Coelophysis’ “cleared name” I created this original art quilt depicting him, at approxmately full size. He is shown in his modern-day home (in front of Chimney Rock) on one side and in a more Triassic setting on the other side.  The quilt is made of commercially available fabrics of all types and embellished with twine, trim, wool roving, beads, dryer sheets, polymer clay, and paint sticks.



Here's a close up of the label and the eye and teeth which I haven't shown before.  The label shows a map of New Mexico with the Zia sun symbol over the area where the Coelophysis remains were discovered.  The teeth are polymer clay; I made them as beads and then sewed them to the quilt.





Thanks to everybody in blogland for all your encouragment!  I'm linking up everywhere this week since so many kind people from lots of different places have supported me.

18 comments:

  1. This is fricking AMAZING, so much detail - awesome, my boys awe in awe ;D

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  2. Wow, I can't get over how cool this is!

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  3. I normally don't post on Shannon's blog but this is the most amazing thing I've seen her do in quilting (except my Marine Corps quilt of course). She has spent untold hours from the first research to making sure every detail is perfect. Ripping out, redoing, near tears, and stuck with it to what is truly a work of art. I'm proud of her and if this quilt doesn't win some major awards, there are some blind judges. :) Great job honey!

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  4. Great finish--not just a great finish, but also a great quilt. (And I did not know it was the state fossil of the state in which I live--probably because I teach Special Ed instead of fourth grade!

    Also, I love the fact that you made polymer beads for teeth.

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  5. I love it, Shannon. I can't wait to show the boys in the morning; I think they'll love it too.

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  6. Holy COW, Shannon! He is so amazing! AMAZING!!! The label just on it's own is AWESOME!!!

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  7. This is just amazing. You should be really proud of yourself. All your effort has paid off tremendously.

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  8. Unbelievable! I can't believe this only took you a few months to finish. It would probably take me 20 years :) The teeth beads are killer!

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  9. That is such an amazing quilt. What an accomplishment! The judges would have to be beyond blind not to recognize that! Even people who don't sew have to be amazed by that. W-O-W.

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  10. sorry, I'm late posting this, but it looks great!!! There is so much amazing detail, you should be very proud of yourself.

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  11. Wow!! The detail! I also live in OK-Altus

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    1. Debbie! How cool to meet another Okie! There are a few of us I've found- haven't met any in person as I haven't had time to join up with any guilds, but someday I will! Thanks for the comment!

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  12. Thanks guys for all the kind comments!

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  13. Quite the finish! I am speechless.

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