Quilting patterns found in a museum

We explored the Denver Museum of Science this weekend. My husband is a scientist and I have a lifelong interest in science, I was a Biology major for my first two years of University.
We went this weekend to see the closing exhibit of S. American Dinosaurs but that post is for another day.

Note the sign above mentions change... my word of the year. On this trip I was reminded the Earth is constantly changing. The weather patterns are changing, affected by human impact on the earth. Before humans, the earth was formed along with the solar system, since then the continents that float above a magma layer, have been moving and breaking apart.
They still move, at about the speed of fingernail growth! They should rejoin in a few million years.

We all must adapt to the changes we cannot control. We must seek to protect the earth best we can too.

As we walked around the museum, I began to see quilt patterns every where! I took a few pics to show you...

 Oooooo  I've seen quilts done of pentagons.... I like them grouped and regrouped... I also like the irregular sizing a lot. How about you? Prefer regular interlocking ones? Or like me, do you enjoy random shapes creating orderly pattern over all? 

What is this thing? A fossil...

 Ain't nature grand?

 how about attic windows?? 

 this pic even shows the shading, and sashing. Have you ever made an attic window quilt with a scene behind it? 
What the heck is this???

 A log cabin ham? 
we wandered into the mummy exhibit and saw this...

 a vulture mummy... I mean... why? Doesn't matter, here it is. This exhibit was not labeled as well as the ones at the Smithsonian so I do not know the provenance of this but it was amid other mummies from a tomb. 
I bent down and said to DH, LOG CABINS!

 And we looked and looked trying to figure it out. Another patron came over and said, "gosh, look, she's right! I never would have noticed?!" 
Really? 
My eyes go to pattern all the time! And for Pharoah's sake! Who would expect this? I still have no idea but it was a cool surprise. Next to it was a woman, tied up in linen and resin forever... wonder if she was a quilter back then? Heehee, now there's a connection!

how about a drunkard's path?

 Or a modern abstract quilt? I plan on doing something from this photo. I love the perspective and the lines. 
The simplicity of lines. A partial curve intersected by angles, quilting lines and very subtle color change. 
Can you see it? I do!!! 

Did my husband notice? Nope. 

What about triangles, and pinwheels? New to modern quilters? I don't think so... these were in the Native American exhibit...

 I love them. I love the strong diagonal line of sawtooth triangles. The subtle color change, the defining line under each row of triangles. I also love the pinwheels with underlining in dark colors. And the snowflake like pattern reminds me of bear's paws. 

I have a basket almost exactly like this!

 The family got it in Cherokee NC on a family outing when I was a young thing. We had a home in Maggie Valley, up on a mountain, and spent a good amount of my formative years going there. 
I love the strong graphic elements here. The underlying color change creating strong vertical lines. The diagonal squares crossing that but connecting the open squares on point. 

and as a young twenty something I took an Appalachian basket making class and made lots of baskets out of cane and found vines, and yarns. I haven't found them in the boxes yet and truth told, I'm afraid they could be broken. I hate the moving process. 

Of course there is a quilt design called basket weave, possibly a variation on log cabin? 

 When I told Shannon at http://imworkingonaproject
 I saw the dino exhibit, she said she took many pics of dinos here to help her in designing her dino quilt. It's the header of her blog... she's also a scientist and her work-woman-ship is astounding in details. 

Now for applique... what about realistic landscape quilts? 

 Ahhhhh, will you try for realism or abstract a scene? Follow existing lines from a photo or more impressionist style? Will you leave out certain elements, change the proportions? 
 If you take a photo you can crop it for yourself. 

Personally I chose this one to show because I like the city and lake, off to the side, and the shadow of mountains in foreground, with snow capped mountains in back. I love the sidewalk intersecting, almost underlining the image. The curve leads my eye into the scene. I might wonder if it's sunrise or sunset? 
Does it have a mood? Does it remind you of a feeling? Does it feel peaceful? 

 Compare it to this image.
 Changing the horizon line. Still a sidewalk intersecting the image, still a citiscape. The buildings play a stronger role here. You still feel the distant mountains, you still see a sky that could be starting or ending the day, you still have perspective. You still have fore ground and distance. I love this image too. 

Perspective... good in art, good in life, right? 

linking to
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Our World Tuesday
Travel_Tuesday 
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