“Yaacov’s Algae” Art Quilt Series

In summer 2021, after a LONG Covid lockdown, I was finally able to visit my mom. While there, I helped her tidy up my late father’s office. In a pile on one of the shelves we found a small cardboard box. It was filled with little index cards on which my dad, who was a marine biologist, dried tiny specimens of algae. This turned out to be his first algae collection, collected between 1959-1961, while he was still a student and before he met my mom.

The dried algae was browned with age and fragile, but many of the specimens were still beautiful and delicate. I took pictures of the ones I liked best.

Shortly after I returned home from that visit, I started playing around with the images I took. I spent hours on my computer, loading them onto various photo-editing programs and digitally altering them through different filters. I printed a few of the images onto fabric on my modest home printer, and created a three-piece experimental series. My mom liked the result very much. I liked it well enough, but wasn’t completely satisfied. I felt I needed to do something more. Something bigger and bolder.

I kept playing. I changes scale and colors, altered directions and flipped sides. I created two collages composed of six panels each, and sent the images over to a commercial fabric printer. Then I held my breath and waited. The prints arrived several weeks later. I was happy with how they turned out, even though the fabrics I chose to print on (silk and cotton sateen) ended up being much thinner and more slippery than I expected. 

The prints sat on my “to do” pile for months. Finally, in fall 2022, I decided to begin. The quilt tops I received had eight panels each, as the six-panel design I created started repeating itself to fit the bigger-than-needed print size. So I began by cutting off the access panels. 

Yaacov’s Algae in Green

I started with the sateen print, which was the thinnest of the two, almost see through. It felt so fragile, that I was worried that the fabric will get pulled and distorted as I maneuvered it under my sewing machine. Before I dared tackle the actual quilt, therefore, I decided to experiment on the cut-off extra panels. This resulted in a long, narrow quilt that I now use as a table runner. 

Although I was able to machine quilt the narrow experiment, I was still worried that the bigger quilt top will not do well under the narrow throat of my sewing machine. After much contemplation, I eventually decided to quilt it entirely by hand. On the first days of January 2023 I sandwiched the quilt, picked out thread, and sat down to work.

I started by outlining each algae image with chain stitch, using Eleganza 8wt perle cotton thread.

It was slow work, but I enjoyed it a great deal. Once all six panels were outlined, I stitched a second line of running stitch around each image, in a different color.

When done with that, I began seed stitching to fill the background. This time I used a thicker six-strand embroidery thread. I used many different colors.

I started stitching on the outer parameters of the quilt, going towards the middle. Little by little, day by day, the background began to fill.

As I got closer to the center, I switched once again from embroidery thread to perle cotton. At the very center I switched to a much thinner 12 wt thread.

After the quilting was done, I spent some time creating two more collages on my computer, and ordering prints of those. This time I asked to have them printed on a sturdier cotton fabric. Then I moved on to the second quilt, the one printed on silk. 

Yaacov’s Algae in Purple

The silk quilt top was colored in beautiful purples and golds. Choosing matching threads made my heart sing.

I hand stitched this piece, too, which took several weeks to complete. I loved every minute of the process. Stitching in the rain always gives me great pleasure, especially with a cup of hot tea nearby and an interesting podcast or artist talk to listen to.

I enjoyed feeling the smoothness of the silk with every stitch. The slow process was meditative and relaxing. The sound of thread going through fabric accompanied the tip tap of raindrops knocking on my windows. It felt very cozy.

Here’s the back of the piece, so you can see all the stitches:

And the front of the finished quilt:

By the time I finished quilting this piece the two additional prints had arrived.

Yaacov’s Algae in Orange

The orange print turned out more orangey than I expected. Not exactly my color, but I find that sometimes it’s good to step out of one’s comfort zone… This piece was printed on sturdy cotton, which my sewing machine could easily handle. I therefore decided to outline the algae on this piece with free motion machine stitching. The resulting outlines, however, were not distinguished enough. They merged into the fabric, blending into the images. They were practically invisible.

Back to hand stitching it was. Once again I outlined each seaweed with a line of hand embroidered chain stitch. That was much better. It made the images pop out.

For the background, I decided to go with organic lines that follow the algae’s shape. I tried several background patterns on the long, narrow experimental piece I made before embarking on this series, and of everything I tried there I liked the organic quilting best. I used 12 wt thread in different colors to quilt different areas of the quilt. The thread wasn’t as prominent on the machine quilted piece as it was on the hand quilted ones, but I liked the organic textures that the quilting added.

The final result turned out to be rather bold:

Yaacov’s Algae in Blue

For the fourth print, I continued outlining the algae of four panels in perle cotton, but for the remaining two decided to add some texture through the thread as well. A friend introduced me to silken chenille thread, which feels wonderful to the touch, and adds a luxurious feel. I ordered a few skeins, and incorporated them into the outline. This gave a beautiful result, allowing the texture of the thread to shine. 

I could have machine quilted the background, as this top, too, was printed on cotton. I really felt like hand quilting, however, and so I did. This time, instead of seed stitch I tried lines of running stitch, which I made more interesting by playing with different thread colors, weights and stitch directions.

By the time I finished quilting this piece winter, and my sewing season, were over.

I left the four tops quilted yet unfinished. I put them away as I moved on to other, warm season activities, but not before I designed and ordered two additional prints. This series, you see, got me really excited!

Yaacov’s Algae in Red and Yellow

A year later, when the rain started falling again in winter 2024, I made myself a nice cup of hot tea and got back to stitching. For the two last pieces I outlined the seaweeds with hand embroidery as I did for the first four, then organically free-motion quilted the background.

When all six pieces were finished, I moved on to facing all of them one after the other. By the time spring arrived, the entire series was complete.

At first I thought of naming the quilts by the Latin, scientific names of the algae they portrayed. My father wrote these names on the back of the index cards on which he dried the specimens. Sadly, however, many of the pencil-written names faded, or were otherwise illegible. I didn’t want to insult my father’s memory by providing the wrong name–he very much cared about scientific accuracy. Instead, I decided to name them in a way that spoke more to me: by their dominant background color.

The Yaacov’s Algae quilt series took over three years to make, from beginning to end. It filled two of my winters with numerous cozy hours of hand stitching and contemplation. It allowed me to connect to my father in new ways, combining, as it did, both our interests. I wish my dad was still alive, to see these quilts and tell me what he thought. I’d like to think that he would have gotten a kick out of them.

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I was honored to display Yaacov’s Algae in Yellow as part of Threading the Needle: National Art Quilt Exhibition at the CF Webber Gallery in Ocala, FL, from November to December 2024.