New Beginnings

I try never to make New Year's resolutions. It's a sure way to set yourself up to fail. But that doesn't mean I haven't got plans for 2012 and for the first time ever I'm starting a quilting related project. I'm aiming to make one Journal Quilt every week. I have no idea if this is feasible but I guess there is only one way to find out and that's to give it a go.

I'm going to call this project 52 Journals and will make sure every post of this blog related to the project will be given this label so if you want to see all the posts all you have to do is to click on that label. It's not a very catchy title and I have been thinking about what to call it over the past few weeks, but this is the best I've come up with. At least it says clearly what it's all about.

Some weeks I might be super-productive and make two, which will make up for those weeks when life gets in the way! Do play along if you're interested and let me know you're doing so in a blog comment!

Size wise you'll probably see a lot of A4 sized journals (for those of you in the US this is slightely narrower than 8.5" and slightly longer than 11") like this first one but I'm incorporating making one set on the theme set by the Sketchbook Challenge site every month which I will keep to the 10 x 10" size I used for them last year, simply because this makes the collection of all of them together more coherent when it comes to exhibiting them in the future. And you'll see both vertical and horizontal orientated journals although more than likely more vertical ones as that is definitely what I'm more comfortable with.

Here is no. 1 called Reflections. It's based on the photograph (seen at the top of this blog)I took some time ago of the ceiling in our living room and the reflections of the plant which sits on the floor. I took some artistic licence as the reflection filled the space better if it was reversed. The background is hand painted fabric (which I did a lot of this summer) as are the fabrics used for the reflection. I echo quilted the background as shown, using a variegated thread. I added vintage papers to the leaves and also handstitching.

Three of my favourite French postage stamps featuring a sower (it seemed a great symbol for this my very first JQ in the 52 Journals project) were stitched on as was the text, from a very vintage and extraordinary book about Proverbs. It reads: "the thoughts that are bred in loneliness".

Finally I beaded around the edges of the binding (another hand-painted fabric) with size 11 seed beads. That has sort of become my trademark for all the Journal Quilts I've made over the years and you'll probably start to recognize it over the 52 weeks that make up this year.
The one week, one journal quilt is going to be the one and only rule here. I'm not setting a theme, a size or anything else. It's completely open. I just hope to end up with 52 journals at the end of this year, and you will be able to see whether I succeed or fail here, on this blog! Wish me luck.