Quilted Anatomy: decorative organ quilt

Hey All! I put some of the paper pieced organs I've made over the last few months together to make a mini-quilt. It's hard to believe that I only started sewing a year ago. I've certainly progressed far! I really enjoy quilting, and I love making quilts that reflect my interests. Hope you guys enjoy these!

 

I even used some of the fabric I designed on spoonflower!

I'm really pleased with how this quilt turned out. Next I've got to do some more organs, and maybe a whole system!

Quilted Anatomy: Lungs

Hello all! I'm continuing my series on quilted anatomy. This time, I give you: Lungs!


I wanted to make sure the colors would match the first two I made (P.S. I made a kidney), so I laid out my fabric and picked the colors I thought matched lung color IRL and also the nice palette I have going with the heart and kidney. In real life, the lungs are a bright salmony-pink color, almost neon. They're fantastic to look at.

Then, I had to cut up the pattern I made based on one of my drawings. The trachea was probably going to be the hardest, so I started there. I had a nice batik that makes a really good ligament color.

You can see the garden from my craft room

About halfway through, I realized the step between main color and shadow was way too steep. So I decided to start over, adding an extra color with fabric I got from The Stitchery.

 

Much better!

 

 

Here it is with the other two. I think it turned out great! I'm really excited to do more organs. I'm working on a pattern for a Uterus and a Liver, but I also want to do a brain and the cross-section of an eye. We'll see what happens next!

 

Quilted Anatomy: Heart

So I've had this idea in my mind for a while - I want to quilt anatomically correct organs. It combines my background as a medical illustrator with my love of quilting. I spent a loooong time making my own paper piecing pattern of a heart (from one of my illustrations) and trying to get it down just right. It took a lot of tries to make the pattern, and I ended up having to chop the pattern into about 20 different sections and piece those all together individually. I made about a million mistakes and the first one I made had terrible colors. This is the second one I made. I increased the size about 50% and chose some better colors than the first (not posted here. Never will be).

materials all ready to go!

I think it turned out pretty well, considering how many pieces it ended up being. I missed part of the top left pulmonary vein over there, but I can applique it back on. I'm thinking of embroidering on the cardiac vessels next...