Journal Quilt 2008 Flames of Passion

Finally it's time to reveal my JQ for Houston. This year things were slightly different than in previous years. We could each submit 2 quilts (sized 17 x 22") and the JQs were judged by Jeanne Williamson and Virginia Spiegel. Of all the JQs submitted only a small percentage got in so I was over the moon that my Flames of Passion was accepted. You can see a selection of the JQs which did not get in here online. And a selection of those that are hanging at the Houston show can be seen here!!

I actually made 4 JQs as the theme was The Four Elements and I made one for each element, titled: Flames of Passion, In Deep Water, Earthly Delights and A Lot of Hot Air. I'm going to be a tease here as I'm only revealing the Flames of Passion so that I can submit the other ones elsewhere if I choose to. I did submit In Deep Water and Flames of Passion, which I personally liked best (I'm definitely a hot colour girl!) so I was so pleased the judges agreed with me (only one JQ per artist could be accepted). Earthly Delight is my all out favourite but I felt it was slightly too macabre to be selected so I did not submit that one.

And here it is:

We had to do our usual Journal text for this one too, as we did in previous years and here is the text for mine:

Flames of Passion

Pictorial quilts have not really figured in my work before now, as I have tended to concentrate on large abstract quilts. But my involvement in mixed media work, such as Artist Trading Cards, Inchies and collages, has slowly begun to seep into my quilts too. At the same time, the arrival of Mistyfuse enabled me to do a lot of hand stitching and beading as it keeps the work so flexible.

Jan van Huysum (in my opinion the best flower painter of all time). Flower Piece (1736-7)

The other influence on this new departure for me are the 17th and 18th Century Dutch Vanitas still-life paintings, which on first sight simply seem to be beautiful depictions of everyday objects and flowers, but which on a deeper level are full of moral messages and reminders of the shortness of life and of its inevitable end. These messages could be read by everyone living at the time, although nowadays we need to study them in order to understand the symbolism.

These strands together led to my first pictorial work of which I had only made one, when the theme for the 2008 JQs was revealed. Immediately the Four Elements JQs took shape in my mind and the 4 quilts I produced (one for each element), provided me with such pleasure that I was really sorry when they were finished.

My images were mostly more direct than the 17th Century paintings, although I have also included symbols used at that time.

Flames of Passion contains lots of images of things that people and more particularly I, are passionate about and hopefully will keep the viewer entertained for quite some time.

The quilt is made using commercial fabrics, and was raw edge appliqued, using Mistyfuse on the background fabric, machine quilted with invisible thread, hand embroidered and hand beaded. It has a false back to hide all the beading thread (put on with Mistyfuse).

That's the write-up as it will be hanging with the quilt in Houston. I will readily admit that some of the imagery I used, was a bit on the daring side and some of them are in-jokes which I'll keep to myself so as not to offend anyone! I'm leaving all interpretations to the imagination of the viewer!

It was extremely hard to get a good picture of these JQs as all the embellisments interfered with both the scanner and my camera. The top picture is photographed and the detailed one above is scanned and is a better representation of the colours used.

This will definitely be the last year for the JQs in Houston although there is talk of an online show organized on the QuiltArt website. I've participated since 2004 and am really happy I'm now in the last one!