5. Tristesse Journal Quilt

It hadn't been my plan to work in a series for the Journal Quilts I'm making for both my 52 Journal project (where I'm making a JQ for every week) and for the Contemporary Group of the Quilters' Guild but somehow I seem to be in the process of doing just that with these combined one. The Contemporary Group set a theme of red for the first 4 JQs (Jan, Feb, March and April) and once I had finished the first one (which you can see here) I thought I would do something completely different for the second one. But then I was putting away the fabrics I used for the first one and discovered the negative space left on the devore fabric, after I had cut out the shapes on the sides for the first quilt. It looked very attractive and it seemed a real shame to waste it.

The inspiration for both quilts was the above detail from one of the gravestones in West Linton graveyard. I started making a background for this Journal Quilt by piecing together red and pink fabrics, using the crazy quilt background, and that was then free-machine quilted using red thread. On top I appliqued the negative space left over from the previous Journal Quilt, but that left rather large areas on both sides to fill. It took some time till I decided to fill it with words; words I like either because of what they mean or how they sound or both. These words were stamped (using an Hampton Arts alphabet stamp set) onto pink vintage ribbon and then machine stitched onto the quilt as shown. I again unshanked metal buttons and sewed them on down the centre, using beads. And as a final touch I beaded around the central shape as well as along the binding of the journal quilt.

I haven't quite made up my mind if the next 2 red Journal Quilts will be part of this series too but I feel they probably will be. You will find out in March and April respectively! And don't forget, if you want to see all my weekly Journal Quilts for this year so far, all you need to know is click on the 52 Journals label below!