Femina 2: Muscular by Ildiko

As I mentioned a few months ago, I will deal with the female body, more specifically legs.

My first Femina quilt showed the chubby legs of a baby, a period when women don't at all consider what their body looks like, and even less of what the society considers beautiful. They just exist: ignorantly amassing fat. But then at one point they are taught that they need to develop their muscles, not only to be able to walk or do different activities but also to show off and/or please others.

My quilt is based a freely available photo of probably young female legs, which may be considered beautiful in some cultures. Though they may appear to be too skinny in others.

The photo was posterised using five values, and then the legs assembled from red cotton hand-dyes with double-sided adhesive. The whole thing was then placed on a piece of matte red silk. I did not intend to make the figure stand out too much from the background, still needed to add a narrow pinkish strip on her half to add some definition there.

The quilting is based on my research of muscle tissue.

I used two different variegated red threads to simulate the stacks of muscles AND create a kind of horizon line, and then couched a thick slightly metallic one to indicate some contours. I finished off with hundreds of tiny seed stitches. Red quilts are notoriously not photogenic.

The quilt measures 80 by 50 cm.