An Embroidered Block Quilt Made With TurtleStitch

This embroidered block quilt is a culmination of six months of learning to code in TurtleStitch. 

(Please note, for all of my papercrafting friends, Turtlestitch designs can be exported as a SVG and used in the Silhouette program because embroidery is graphically similar to line drawing.)

In May, I joined an online "Tea and TurtleStitch" workshop with instructors, Cynthia Solomon and Susan Klimczak to learn how to code in TurtleStitch.  It was an amazing six month journey with two fabulous instructors and a wonderful community of fellow teachers.  On this journey, I rediscovered my love of coding. (I haven't coded in over thirty five years.) TurtleStitch is based on Snap!, a block based programming language. Please check out TurtleStitch, https://www.turtlestitch.org. to learn to code using this powerful "drag and drop blocks" programming language to make designs for an embroidery machine or an electronic paper cutter like the Silhouette or Cricut machine. 

I loved coding the designs and reimagining them by changing variables, adding different proportions and random numbers. Sometimes, changing one variable, an entirely different design was created. I also enjoyed changing the size and type of stitch being used. This change could emphasize different parts of the design.  I liked imagining what the design would look like with different colors and types of embroidery thread (variegated thread) before embroidering it.  When the design was being embroidered, it was delightful to see its fabrication. It was mesmerizing to see the needle at work, moving around the hoop creating stitches that finally created the coded design.

My Brother PE 800 embroidery machine has embroidered half a million stitches while on my six month TurtleStitch coding journey. Here are my coded designs that I created in TurtleStitch. https://www.turtlestitch.org/users/Elaine I am forever grateful to Cynthia and Susan for teaching me TurtleStitch. It was a wonderful experience that I will always treasure.

The embroidered blocks, starting at the top left are:

1). Hommage to Vera Molnar, a pioneering computer artist. This block uses Richard Millwood's code to produce randomized lines which are contained within a square block.  I embroidered the design using variegated thread.

2). A pentagon that is spiraling inward.

3).  Flowers coded with Cynthia Solomon's arcleft, arcright and petal procedures.

4). Falling Blocks, original by Schotter Nee coded by Joachim Wedekind 

5). A square spiral embroidered using variegated thread.

6). A Parabolic Star String Art

7). A quilt block using a combination of Cynthia Solomon's arcleft and arcright procedures and Margaret Low's bow tie procedure.

8). A randomized 5 x 5 decagon pattern in the style of Vera Molnar using variegated thread.

9). Peano - a classic recursive or space filling design (aka as fractals)

10). A flower quilt block using a combination of Cynthia Solomon's arcleft, arcright and petal procedures.

11). Flowers coded with Cynthia Solomon's arcleft, arcright and petal procedures.

12). Randomized 5 x 5 star pattern in the style of Vera Molnar using variegated thread.

13). A Fan Flower - Margaret Low's bow tie procedure reimagined.

14). More spiral blocks in the spirit of Vera Molnar using variegated thread.

15). Icarus coded with tracing paper attached to the stage area.

16). Hexagon Star Spiral 

17). Pacman drawn using Jagda Huegle pixel drawing procedure.

18). Leaf circles with Cynthia Solomon's arcleft and arcright procedures using variegated thread.

19).  An asteroid formed by four parabolas string art.

20). Star Cycloids Using Duopoly2, a recursive procedure coded by Cynthia Solomon using variegated thread.

21). Sierpinski Curve, a recursive procedure coded by Cynthia Solomon

22). A quilt block using a combination of Cynthia Solomon's arcleft and arcright procedures, Margaret Low's bow tie procedure and a Lissajous procedure by Susan Klimczak.

23). An Independence Day tribute in the style of Vera Molnar.

24). A star polygon increasing in size as it spirals outward.

25). A turtle design coded with tracing paper attached to the stage area.