And why do I care? Because I'm making an art piece for Stretching Art, the twentieth such exhibition they have sponsored. And the theme is "Twenty." Anything themed on the number or idea of 20, or XX. And that relates to carrots as follows: When I visited India in 2014 with my granddaughter, I bought a charming piece of handprinted cotton with carrots on it. The next day in Varanasi (I think) we saw multicolored carrots on display in the food market. I had never seen purple carrots before; they were so gorgeous next to the orange and yellowish ones. Thus I knew one day I would make a carrot quilt.
It is called "XX CAROTAE" or 20 Carrots. You can see the vertical orange carrots printed over the botanical swirly ground. The twenty featured carrots are appliqued and quilted, their feathery leaves embroidered in various simple stitches. I also quilted the printed carrots around the edges.
The next decision was, what to do about the background--leave it alone? Machine quilt in some sort of pattern? Hand-stitch? I finally chose to add French knots in white string; these aren't obtrusive on the white ground, and add some texture while holding the three layers together nicely. I started on that last night.
Today I stitched on a binding,which I'll finish soon. Then the rest of the French knots and a label. This has come together in about three days. It's funny; once the concept jells I feel compelled to get to work right away. I used to tell Pat, "Don't bother me, I'm on a roll." And he would just shrug, order pizza for supper and leave me to it. I so appreciated that.
So: Veinte Zanahorias
Vingt Carrottes
Twenty Carrots (or Carats, I guess)
XX Carotae