Four in Art - "Colour: microscopic"

The theme chosen for this year's Four in Art quilts was Colour, and this quarter the sub-theme is 'Microscopic'.

'Colour' and 'Microscopic' are great themes - such a lot of food for thought!  I started by thinking about colour in connection with microscopy, microscopic specimens and so on, particularly the use of stains to highlight different parts of a specimen.

I considered making a quilt based on a coloured cross-section of a stem, which would have been nice as my dad is a botanist who spent his career looking at specimens down an electron microscope.  However, I really wanted to explore the implications and possibilities of the absence of colour - using black and white - in my first quilt in this series.

I had been thinking recently about the relationship between patchwork pieces and cells, the first making up a quilt, and the second being the building blocks of all living organisms.  It occurred to me that the seams between the patchwork pieces are like the cell walls which surround each cell - each piece or cell is then separate, yet connected to, other units around it to create a tissue.

Using traditional 'tumbling blocks',  I've tried to examine this idea in an abstract way, using the contrast of black and white to highlight the individual units.  The little black diamonds represent cell nuclei.

Building Blocks

I have probably said this before in connection with the quilts I've made with Four in Art, but I really admire art which is equally satisfying whether it can be 'read' or not.  Cells, or blocks?  - what I really wanted here is that if you had the opportunity to view (say) onion cells down a microscope during your school days you might look at this quilt in a particular way, but that if not, then the pattern would stand by itself.

Please do visit the other Four in Art members.  We have a group blog, and you can also view each member's work at the links below.   As usual each quilt is such a different response to the theme!

Betty  on flickr

Camilla at Faffling

Elizabeth at OP Quilt

Janine at Rainbow Hare

Nancy at Patchwork Breeze

Simone at Quiltalicious

Susan at Patchwork and Play