SHEEP'S EYES

$Sheep's Eyes - fractal art quilt by Rose C Rushbrooke, hand stitched, hand dyed and commercially printed cotton, beads, silk ribbon. Image copyright © Rose C Rushbrooke.$
© Rose C Rushbrooke 2001
13" square

Pattern: Original fractal design.
Technique: Hand stitched.
Medium: Hand dyed and printed cotton fabric, beads, silk ribbon.

A fractal is a mathematically generated pattern repeated at every scale. Here you see the Mandelbrot Lake duplicated several times. Ultimately giving the disturbing impression of a huge, staring eye.

You can see the amount of intense hand quilting stitches on hand dyed yellow fabric using variegated cotton thread. Marking for the lines was drawn around a circular template with a mechanical lead pencil. A thin batting was used - Hobbs Thermore batting. The needle goes through this material like butter, making quilting a real pleasure.

Each round of fabric is appliquéd, one on top of the other.
Every edge is embroidered in outline stitch using either rayon or cotton floss.
The bright dotted edge of the Mandelbrot Set is outlined in silk ribbon French knots.
The green circle is outlined in satin stitch.
The shadow around the blue circle is drawn with market pen using several different colours of tiny dots.
The tiny glass seed and bugle beads are sewn on by hand.
Each round is emphasised with hand quilting.

You can see how the silk ribbon embroidery picks up the green and blue fabrics. Two different sized ribbons are used - 4mm and 7mm.

All my pieces are titled and signed on the front using permanent marker pen.

The large blue circle of fabric is raised with corded trapunto. Lines of quilting are laid down and yarn is threaded through the channels to raise the fabric.