Hot stuff. Hot potato. Hot to trot. I imagine 'hot' and can't help but envision waves of heat rise and waver like sun rays.
The background fabric was to look like a desert (something I've not yet seen for real), but I wanted to avoid gratuitous cacti and sun-bleached animal skulls. Wavy sun rays in darkening layers of hot colors entwine around each other show heat (I hope), machine-quilting radiates to the edges, and some shimmering orange and yellow beads add spark.
p.s. Is 'entwine around' redundant?