Make an Eclipse Art Quilt! And Share it with NASA!

The good news: There's a once-in-99 years worldwide eclipse tomorrow! 

OK, that's not news, you knew that. What you might not know is that NASA is inviting people to make art quilts based on the event! The agency says, "You have until September 15, 2017 to complete your work, take a picture and upload it ...by using #EclipseArtQuilt."  To learn more about the Eclipse Art Quilt project, go to go.nasa.gov/2qoqTis. 

So now you may be thinking about whether you should photograph the eclipse. As a rule, it's a good idea for quilters to take their own photos to inspire their fiber art. But an eclipse may be the exception. You surely know that to protect your eyesight, you should not look at the eclipse without certified safety glasses. Taking direct photographs of the eclipse is also unsafe for your camera if it isn't outfitted with a solar filter. NASA's advice on safe eclipse photography is here. UPDATE: Even a cellphone selfie isn't safe for your eyes.

Fortunately, there's no compelling need to take your own photos. There are fantastic, abundant, royalty-free, and/or public domain eclipse pix - from the the past and tomorrow .

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has a long page of royalty-free photographic images of solar eclipses, at https://eclipse.aas.org/resources/images-videos.  You can't use them for commercial purposes, and must credit the photographer. Here's a simple-but-elegant time lapse photo from the site, taken by Rick Fienberg/TravelQuest International/Wilderness Travel, who had front-row seats to the event on a cruise ship off the coast of Indonesia. 

Is that not awesome? I could imagine creating an image like on fabric, using a discharge method that pulls the dye out of dark fabrics. Discharging can be done with anything from bleach pens to low-fume  agents like DeCoulerant, which is carried by many quilt shops. Read more about discharging on Dharma Trading's informational webpage, here. 

Below is another amazing Rick Fienberg image, of what astronomers call the eclipses' "diamond ring". According to AAS, the ring "appears just before the beginning of totality, when a single bright point of sunlight — the diamond — shines through a deep valley on the Moon's limb (edge) and the inner corona — the ring — becomes visible." 

Again, I could see translating his image with bleach discharge on dark fabric. Or maybe with a process known as sunpainting, in keeping with the cosmic theme. Or painting on white fabric with black and grey paints, using Mickey Lawler's addictive SkyDyes approach. Or  improvisational cutting of grey and black batiks. 

Want to review more images? Tomorrow, there will be an onslaught. According to NASA, "Viewers around the world will be provided a wealth of images captured before, during, and after the eclipse by 11 spacecraft, at least three NASA aircraft, more than 50 high-altitude balloons, and the astronauts aboard the International Space Station – each offering a unique vantage point for the celestial event.....Never before will a celestial event be viewed by so many and explored from so many vantage points – from space, from the air, and from the ground..." 

(Above is a NASA image.) And what if you can't get outside during the eclipse? You'll be working, or sleeping, or not feeling well, or a caregiver? NASA is going to televise the whole thing! Learn more here. 

Just for fun, I decided to google "Eclipse Quilts," and here's what I came up with. First, this Main Street Market pattern (it doesn't look anything like NASA photography, but is spectacular), 

And this really cool pattern designed by Sandy Brawner of Quilt Country, right now on Etsy, here. (No financial affiliation with this company or any company in this blog post!) 

The classic quilt book Strips'n'Curves by Louisa Smith has a slew of eclipse-ish quilt projects. 

When  you think about it, an eclipse is a process by which a full circle becomes a partial circle, and then recovers. If that's not quilt fodder, I don't know what is. 

Finally, super-quilter Carol Bryer Fallert Gentry made a famous series of Corona quilts,  Corona 1, Corona 2, and Corona 3 in the 1980s. On second thought, these quilts are so magnificent that I would now like to heave my sewing machine out my window. (Fortunately, I live on the ground floor.) So maybe you should design and finish your eclipse quilt, share it with NASA, and THEN look at what Carol made!

For more ideas on using public-domain astronomy photographs in fiber arts page, check out this earlier blog post. 

UPDATE: Thanks to a tip a commenter, below, I learned that the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY is showing Fallert Gentry's famous Corona 2 quilt, in honor of the eclipse. You can see it on the museum's website, here (as well as at the link above, on the artist's website). The museum will close for 15 minutes at midday so staff and visitors can witness the event! 

UPDATE: Thanks to a friend, I learned of a spectacular raffle quilt made by members of the Madras United Methodist Church in Madras, Oregon. Proceeds from the raffle go to a local food pantry. Learn more about it here (scroll down). This image is from their website. The raffle ends August 22. 

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Keys to the Universe: How to Sun Paint the Big Bang from Your Junk Drawer

Starting with the end: I made this!

It's a quilted wallhanging, about 26" x 36"  Here's the center:

I made that key fabric! All by myself! Well, okay, not really, I didn't weave the cloth. But I did paint all those keys. Sort of.

It all started because I have shelves full of beads, buttons, rocks, dice, Scooby-Doo figurines, marbles, poker chips, ice cream sticks, corks, beer caps, Scrabble tiles - you get the idea, the j-word. (junk.)

One of my favorite compartments is devoted to keys. Old keys are like old friends  - I can't remember what they did, but I can't throw them away.

So one day I decided to trace some. I placed one on my sketch book, and then changed my mind and decided instead to lay them all out and take their picture.

So much character! So few memories! Mostly of  unwheeled family suitcases!

I started thinking that I might print the photos directly onto fabric.

But then it came to me: I live in Southern California! I can sun print them! Sun printing is also called sun painting or heliographic art. Certain fabric paints - like Setacolor Transparent  and Dy-Na-Flow - can be used to safely and easily print objects, The paints cost a few bucks more than craft store acrylics, but the special effects make them worth it.

Experiment #1: I painted a stretch of  wet white muslin with a mixture of green Setacolor Transparent paints, and arranged the keys (and some wee padlocks) on top....

...Left it in the sun to dry, and voila! 

Interesting, but the mossy green wasn't thrilling me.
In experiment #2, I laid the keys in a circle, smallest toward the center, on a Setacolor purple background:

Dry: 

I overpainted that with blue Dye-Na-Flow, and laid buttons in the spaces between the key shadows. Set that out in the sun: 

 Removed the buttons. Now the keys were light blue, and the button images were purple.   

What's not to love? It looks like an explosion in my junk cabinet! Running with the explosive theme, I tested button clusters....

...and plastic paper clips...and milk-box and seltzer-bottle lids,,,and various border fabrics)...

That earthy green-and-white key sun print above just didn't want to play nicely with the subtle center. Which led to experiment #3, sunprinting more small objects on fabric painted blue first, then green: 

The fabric above became one border. I selected three more borders, all prints.

Once the quilt was constructed, I started stitching things down for good. I started with tiny lavender and white beads toward the center, then the buttons, then colorful small safety pins (just pinned on, no need to stitch). Further out, I stitched larger multi-hued glass beads, and the paper clips...

Above, in the lower right hand corner , I also threw in a white glass sneaker bead. 

The sunprint border was quilted and embellished with hand running stitches and bugle beads. 

For another border, I used this Japanese-ish chrysanthemum fabric from an old skirt: 

 I dressed it up with iridescent lime green beads in each flower's centers, plus vintage white buttons  between motifs. (Too much is never enough!)

For a third border, I used an atomic fabric graciously gifted to me by the queen of All About Appliqué, (Thanks, Kay!) to which I added iridescent faceted beads....

Finally, to the fourth border, I stitched a variety of green bugle beads. 

Two outer borders consist of fabric that looks like graphed data. I added plastic alphabet and question-mark beads. and silver glass beads.  

For the outermost borders, I cut key fabric from an old shirt. I haven't embellished it at all (yet). 

The finished quilt is at the top of this post. 

Interested in trying sun painting?  I buy my Setacolor Transparent and/or Dye-Na-Flow from two places. One, the Dick Blick store near me. If I'm too busy to go there (parking is a pain), I buy it online at Dharmatrading.com. [Update: I am told that Dharma is out of many Setacolor paints right now. Setacolor transparents are in stock at Dick Blick's online store; at Pro Chemical and Dye; and MisterArt.com. No financial affiliation.]

Explore other sun printing possibilities using Dharma's handy search window. Select "Browse by Technique," then click "Sun Painting," You'll find several different products.

PS Shared on Nina-Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Friday. Take a look to see many links to beautiful and interesting art quilts!