10.4 Pixel Play

This week our Project Quilting Challenge was Pixel Play. We were to create a quilt using Pixels as our inspiration. For those who don’t know what a pixel is, here is a simple explanation I found online- 

The term “pixel” is actually short for “picture element”,  small little dots are what make up the images on computer displays, whether they are flat-screen (LCD) or tube (CRT) monitors. The screen is divided up into a matrix of thousands or even millions of pixels. Typically,you cannot see the individual pixels, because they are so small. This is a good thing, because most people prefer to look at smooth, clear images rather than blocky, "pixelated" ones. However, if you set your monitor to a low resolution, such as 640x480 and look closely at your screen, you will may be able to see the individual pixels. As you may have guessed, a resolution of 640x480 is comprised of a matrix of 640 by 480 pixels, or 307,200 in all. That's a lot of little dots.

Each pixel can only be one color at a time. However, since they are so small, pixels often blend together to form various shades and blends of colors. The number of colors each pixel can be is determined by the number of bits used to represent it. For example, 8-bit color allows for 2 to the 8th, or 256 colors to be displayed. At this color depth, you may be able to see "graininess," or spotted colors when one color blends to another. However, at 16, 24, and 32-bit color depths, the color blending is smooth and, unless you have some kind of extra-sensory vision capability, you should not see any graininess.

I downloaded a couple of apps one that would take a photo and make a pixel pattern & one you could draw your own pixel pattern on . I also found a site where you could upload a photo and it would create a cross stitch pattern from your photo, it gave you exactly how many stitches there were & the colors you would need. When they announced Pixel Play as the theme, I was really excited because sewing with only squares is so easy, but when I started taking photos & uploading them to create pixel patterns I realized that it would take a lot of squares to make a quilt, some of the patterns I created had more than 3000!

I was pretty positive I needed to figure out something with about 2900 less squares. 

This was a photo I took of a small white butter plate with a round white rock in it. 

When I was looking for ideas to pixilate my quilt this week, I came across another interesting article & definition- 

Pixilation, spelled with a second i, is a filmmaking technique that dates to the beginnings of cinema, in which live actors are posed frame by frame and photographed to create stop-motion animation. An archaic British word meaning "possession by spirits (pixies)", the term has been used to describe the animation process since the early 1950s. 

Of course the word Pixie caught my eye and I thought about little pixie houses made of mushrooms, I decided I wanted to create a little Pixel Play- Pixie Play House! LOL

I found some fun mushroom photos & 
some vintage mushroom houses, after pixelating them I realized I needed to scale things down, I didn't have time this week to sew 500 squares together & if I wanted to complete the challenge it would going to have to be a whole lot smaller! 

I drew out a graph & a sort of mushroom shape then started digging through fabric for ideas. I came across one of my favorite pieces of batik that is a checkerboard design and I got the brilliant idea to incorporate “pixel” looking fabrics, I was surprised I had as many fabrics as I did with little squares in them. I used the green to give the background that dappled shadow look of leaves in the sun. I didn’t have much red & white fabric but I did find a batik that looked sort of mushroom cap red speckled. 

I made my squares 1 inch and then wished I had used bigger squares or fused them instead of sewing them. My seams were not very matching, but I was happy with the way it turned out. We had more snow this week & the bright colors make me long for spring & fishing in the warmth of the sun! I remembered I had some little fishing buttons so I added one little “gone fishing” sign, while I was digging in the button tin I also found a tiny little pixel shaped button I used for my door knob. 

I did a random quilting job, the finished quilt is only 8 x 10 so it didn't make sense to put it on my longarm machine. Doing smaller projects on my sewing machine is good practice, but I will admit I am spoiled by the longarm, it's so much easier to move the machine around & draw than it is to move fabric around.  I appliquéd a couple of leaves to the quilt just to add some depth and make it look like the tiny house it is supposed to be. Then I bound it with that crazy black & cream checkerboard fabric. 

It was a fun challenge & I'm really excited about the pixel apps I downloaded, someday when I’m feeling really ambitious I might have to attempt some bigger pixelated projects! 

The whole country had snow dumped on it again this past week, & I almost did a snow pixel picture, but thought maybe that would be cheating since basically it would be one big white square! LOL 

1. I found a fun little poem about Toadstool houses that I added to the back of my quilt- 
   

   (the picture of the quilt back was taken before I inked it in, but I wanted to show the fun batik)