This month for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge, we were supposed to make something that was geological in nature, but it was supposed to be in colors that weren't the norm for rocks. Last year I took a class with Scott Murkins, who was also our quilt show judge. His specialty is strata quilts. I had made several blocks in that class, but couldn't decide how to put them together. When this Challenge came out, I thought by combining four blocks, I could abstractly simulate a geode. Since most geode's centers are light, I made this one dark. I know this is a little bit of a stretch of the imagination, but I love the colors in this little quilt that measures about 16" x 16".
When my sister, Nancy, and I were younger, we had to walk 1/4 mile to our mail box everyday in the summer. We loved to pick up rocks, take them home, and crack them open to see what they looked like inside. We were always astounded at how beautiful they were. We'd find an ugly old gray rock and when we cracked it open with a hammer, there was no telling what we might find. Our favorites were the ones that had flecks of blue in them, which were quite rare, but very beautiful. When we found some that had gold or silver flecks in them, we always wondered if it was "real gold". Of course, it was probably iron pyrite or something, but we always had high hopes that we had found the mother lode. This quilt is symbolic of the flecks and veins that we used to find in rocks. We visited a rock shop where the owner cracked open the rocks and then polished them and they were spectacular.
In this quilt I used metallic threads to quilt it to add those silver and gold flecks. It doesn't show up well in the photo, but I hope you get the idea.
