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Please welcome my latest science-themed quilt pattern, Atomic Affair! After designing science quilts to celebrate chemistry, biology, and medicine, I felt like physics was being left out. Enter this quilt featuring the universally recognized symbol for the atom!

This quilt was a real puzzle to design. The atoms (which were their own challenge) are, of course, hexagonal blocks, but I really wanted that center block to be rotated for aesthetic reasons. I’m so happy I worked out how to do it, and the good news is that none of this requires any templates—just you and the 60° line ...

I’m pleased to introduce the third quilt I have hanging in this year’s QuiltCon, which is Ekman’s Arrows! The pattern for this quilt is in this year’s edition of QuiltCon Magazine.

This design is inspired by an oceanographic phenomenon known as the Ekman Spiral or Ekman Transport, after Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman. When the wind blows across the ocean, the surface water moves at a 45-degree angle to the wind, and each successively deeper layer of water moves at a greater angle, but more slowly (due to friction), than the surface. As you descend down ...