White Oak rings and ray, x50

Oak trees have extremely strong structures, even among hardwood species. This allows their branches to grow very long horizontally.

The book’s image¹ of White Oak cells showed an intriguing variety of circular patterns, and a contrasting linear ray.

The quilt started with a length of plain white cotton cloth. The background, and groupings of leaves and acorns, were painted. The silhouette of the trunk and branches were drawn with fabric pastels. This cloth was centered over a larger batting and backing, creating an open border. I free-motion stitched the microscopic details with a variegated thread in black, red and yellow. In the border, the mosaic-like bark is painted in acrylic to achieve a hard texture. Finally, a binding was added around the outer edge.

This quilt is in a private collection.

• 26" H x 25" W
• Cotton fabrics, cotton threads, paint
• Machine quilted

Detail