Quilted Mitochondria

This piece is about 10 inches across.

My first lace pattern

At a coffee shop two blocks from my loft a nice little knitting group formed, and I was urged on by a member to try the feather and fan lace pattern. I have a hard time knitting patterns, I think it takes too much concentration, I always find myself chatting with someone while I knit and hopelessly lose count of stitches. But this is an easy 4 row pattern with only one row requiring your attention. This I can do. I have more time for knitting than other things these days because of my schedule with kids homeschooling activities, and all my recent doctors appointments. Half my week is spent driving all over Chicago for classes in science, drama and sports. And during this time I sit with other moms and chat and knit. I knit this scarf with a yarn called Andean treasure by Knitpicks, it is 100% alpaca and soooo soft.

Quilted Nerve Cells

The nerve cells are outline quilted with a metalic thread with wool batting, so they are puffy and round. The background is quilted with monofilament that is clear enough to not cover the nerve-like designs in the hand dyed fabric, but it sparkles just enough to be seen. This piece is about 10 inches square.

Quilted stem cells

I don't know if this looks much different but it is now quilted with a layer of wool batting behind, with very close quilting in the background red areas so there is somewhat of a trapunto effect. I also painted a little more with some golden fluid acrylic glazes to give a little more transparent shading.

New Socks and Abby's new sweater

My latest socks knit from my hand dyed yarn and Abby's new sweater also knit from it with green alpaca trim.

Finger Splints

This is what my fingers normally look like. Embroidery work makes my thumb hurt. Writing anything lengthy has always caused pain and almost illegible handwriting. Cutting is no fun either. And yet I have made art my whole life. Friday my kids and I went to see a hand surgeon to get help with the joints of our fingers that have a tendency to bend backwards with these tasks. By fortunate coincidence the doctor we saw also had Elhers Danlos syndrome, ( I wonder if that's why he ended up in that field) so he knew exactly the problems we were dealing with. We got these finger splints to keep our fingers straight. What amazing relief.

Blogger is not cooperating today

I have been having trouble all afternoon and evening. now it will publish, but I still can't save a draft or upload a picture. maybe tomorrow it will work.

More cells

This is a electronmicroscope picture of cells, below is my initial interpretation of the cells with Angelina fibers.







This is mitochondria drawn with Tsukineko inks and oil paint stick.

New Work

I have stem cells on my mind. 60 Minutes had a story on some new stem cell research that is showing amazing results for regenerating spinal cord cells making formerly paralyzed mice able to walk. It is amazing that we are so close to so many medical breakthoughs. 60 Minutes went on to say that fertilization clinics dispose of unused eggs. Why is it more humane and Holy to throw away embryos than donate them to research that could potentially save lives? Throwing eggs away feels more like killing them than saving that live tissue and growing it into potential cells and organs to prolong life. Does the Bush admin perform little funerals for all of these eggs they insist should be thrown away?

Stem cells are like the fabric of life.
This is painted batting that is stitched onto hand dyed fabric. The batting is cut away to reveal the fabric underneath. I will probably do a satin stitch around the holes and layer this on more batting and backing fabric and quilt in the holes.

These are nerve cells. I thought this fabric had the look of nerve cells in the texture of the dye, so I painted the additional cells with tsukineko inks. I am not totally sure where this is all going, but it sure feels good to work on something. It has been so hard finding the supplies or tools I need to do this. I spent two days just looking for my box of scissors. It is soooo frustrating.