Journal Quilt 2008 October

Time for another Journal Quilt for the Contemporary Group of the British Quilters' Guild. Four of my JQs for this year have just returned from the Harrogate Fashion and Embroidery Show where apparently they were much admired. I was really sorry not to be able to go and see them for myself as well as all the others on display but we are promised a picture show on our Contemporary Yahoo Group soon.

The fabrics for the October quilt were bought on impulse. During the last hours of the Ingliston Quilt Show some weeks ago, I bought a magazine on one of the trade stands and while chatting my eye suddenly caught sight of these gorgeous fabrics and of course I had to have them! They come from the Fusions line by Robert Kauffman and I have to admit I caved in completely and obtained all the colourways available, and in 1/2 metre pieces too. That did away completely with my good intentions of only buying what I actually need!!! But it was such fun and as you can see I have put them to good use immediately so I don't feel too guilty!

I used 4 different fabrics in this JQ, and 3" finished size squares to end up with a 12" square. Gold ribbon was stitched onto the seam lines. Onto these squares I machine appliqued images from a paper/fabric collage I made with the theme of Venice. Rather than use the actual collage I scanned it into the computer and printed it out on cotton and linen (both from Crafty Computer Paper). The rest of the JQ consists entirely of embellishment in the shape of buttons and size 11 seed beads. The beads came from two mixes from Whimbeads, and are called Golden Harvest and Georgia Peach, so gorgeous, both in name and beads! They were stitched on using running stitch, back stitch, peyote and couching. You can see a detail of the beading above.