Journal Quilt 2009 June

Time for another Journal Quilt dedicated to Marie Studholme and sized 6 x 12" for the Contemporary Group of the British Quilting Guild. For this month I choose to use one of my most treasured Marie postcards (also one of the most expensive cards!)

This one seems to me to be in a very Art Nouveau style and Marie herself looks lovely, all frothy and lacy which led to my decision to use laces, both modern and vintage, for the background. They were randomly applied to a background which was already layered with wadding (batting) and a backing fabric, so I quilted the piece at the same time as doing the applique. I also added couched white knitting yarns (you will recognize this background from various previously shown ATCs!)

I found a lovely vintage round piece of lace in my stash and used that as a sun image at the right hand side, and to which I added hand-stitched rays. The original postcard was scanned into my computer and printed onto iron on fabric sheet (from Crafty Computer Paper). I then added stitching and beading as shown.

I am as interested in the back of my vintage postcard collection as I am in the front. They give a fascinating inside into the world at the time (early 20th Century) and it is clear that these postcards of well known music hall stars were already collectables in their own time and judgements are frequently found on the back of the cards about the prettiness of the actresses concerned. Marie was considered to be a very pretty one indeed, as you can read on the bit of text I've transferred to fabric and added to my Journal Quilt.

Vintage buttons were sewn on and the borders finished with transparent ribbon as I've done for all my JQs this year.