Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Penny's quilt



The quilt depicts an Aspen grove in Utah called Pando.  Somewhere I found out that all aspens are clones and each grove has a single root system. Pando is the heaviest living organism, something like 850,000 tons.  Being a clone and having a single root system can protect the grove in case of a forest fire for instance.  The trees may burn but since the roots remain the grove can grow back quickly.

What I found interesting about this challenge is that it took so much thought - I spent about 7 weeks thinking about it and a sewing marathon of three days putting it together.

All of the fabrics are from my stash.   The white and black fabric was a lucky find.  Can't imagine why I bought it but it worked very well.  It looks like someone went crazy with a bottle of india ink on a white and gray fabric.  The beige fabric was fused to the background and then I zigzagged it down.  I used Ruth McDowell's freezer paper technique to put it together and had a great time.
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7 comments:

  1. Carol EschFebruary 29, 2012 at 8:30 AM

    love love love it............I love the aspen leaf color and had recently become aware of the root system. Great piece!!!!!!

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  2. Carol EschFebruary 29, 2012 at 8:31 AM

    All of ours should be posted this morning. Madalene is in charge of posting mine because I posted early...........

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  3. Madalene Axford MurphyFebruary 29, 2012 at 10:21 AM

    Of course! An aspen grove is a really strong symbol of connection. Love the way the roots carry into the binding, and I also love all those yellows for the aspens. Nice touch with the grassy, twiggy quilting. Can't believe you did this great little piece in three days.

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  4. quilthexleMarch 1, 2012 at 7:14 AM

    I had no idea about an aspen grove being "one" organism ... and you captured it so well! The colors really make me smile - I love aspen trees. And the blue of the sky makes this beauty sing - at least to me ;-))

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  5. Carol EschMarch 1, 2012 at 5:16 PM

    The roots can actually be thousands of years old. You never see a lone aspen tree apparently.....

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  6. DeborahMarch 1, 2012 at 9:14 PM

    Nice work, Penny! I appreciate the effort of the McDowell piecing...so worth it! I love the story of the aspens...and I love the way the roots resemble a line of people!

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  7. UnknownOctober 15, 2021 at 4:40 PM

    I love this image and would like to use it as a graphic for our church's annual pledge campaign. However, this image is too small for me to blow it up to a 36x48 poster.
    Question: Is it okay to use this?
    Question: Would it be possible to incease the image size?

    I see that this image was posted in 2012 and am hoping that Penny is approachable for my project.

    Thanks in advance for any help you can give. me.
    Judy Pickett
    Unitarian Universalist Church of Tarpon Springs, FL

    ReplyDelete

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