Making Organelle

I've had the honor of having "Organelle" selected for Art Quilt Elements in 2012.
It was my only entry to the show, since it was a voyage into the unknown for me- I've been wanting to go further into texture, and thought I would write a little bit about making it.

 I started with a piece of raw silk that my friend Darlene brought back from China.
I acid dyed it----part of it was used for another project so it's an odd shape.

 Then I began laying out various types of felting material on top- the white is a needle felting wool from my friend Martha, and the colors are silk and wool from a shop in Taos.The actual layout of the fibers took a day and a half.

 I wet felted the layers together using good old muscle power with a little help from my palm sander :)

The fibers were able to bond due to the coarseness 

of the raw silk, which is the reason I chose it as the base.

the silk & wool roving behaved very differently from the needle felting wool.

I laid this top on a piece of commercial felt- you can see other pieces of it in there, I used every scrap- then I quilted the heck out of it.

Some details- I tried to use the sewing to enhance the flow of the fibers, also I paid attention to the density of the stitching as I wanted the areas with less thread to pop out.

 I then cut the piece of raw silk apart and appliqueed it to a batik background, layered with batting and backing.

here it is being re quilted with my little helper.

The double quilting really gave it a lot of texture- I named it after cell sub-structures....

nearly finished, it took a while to decide on the final orientation.

Here it is, see you at the opening reception, I hope!