Journal Quilt 2007 August

I've send pictures of my JQs for May, June, July and August to Helen today for the Contemporary Group of the British Quilters' Guild so it is about time I reveal August here too. The JQ for Houston went postal last week. We're only doing one this year, sized 17 x 22" but for the rest it has to remain secret so I'm only showing that one once Houston opens in October.

I made the fabric/paper collage for this one ages ago when I worked in Deann's album which was based on the months of the year and for which I did August (the month of my birthday). I scanned the collage into my computer and then printed a selected part out onto a inkjet linen sheet (from Crafty Computer Paper). I then split this into the vertical sections and applied these by machine onto a background of golden velvet which I had heavily machine stitched using one of the decorative stitches on my machine. I beaded around the edges of the sections and bound the quilt with dark red silk.

Still 4 more months to go for these as we are covering all 12 months. I am enjoying these hugely (as I did the one for Houston). I really feel totally comfortable now with the size and A4 is just that little bit better for me than the American letter size 8.5 x 11". I strongly prefer a vertical orientation but am challenging myself at the moment by making my first quilt in landscape format, inspired by my neighbour's kitchen window.

I'll show you pictures of that in due course but for now it will remain another secret.

I also made my ATC for the Precious Pet Faux Postage contest for Artchixstudio. If it gets chosen it will be included in a faux postage sheet which can be obtained from them in due course. I choose the chicken killer i.e. Troi, the greyhound for my precious pet. She is definitely the most photogenic of my pets and looks like butter would not melt although now we all know better than that. The text as well as the crown are from Artchix whereas the fabric background is a fabric produced by a Dutch company called Vlisco for the African market. I was given this fabric (thanks Judith!) and there is only a tiny wee bit left now. It's so gorgeous I hope I might find some more of it one of these days!

Troi definitely looks like she enjoys ruling the roost but this week she was given a stiff reminder that she actually doesn't!! The crown suits her, though. Just hope she doesn't demand to wear one every day!