7. Close-Up Journal Quilt

The weeks seem to be coming around so soon and it's already time to upload the next Journal Quilt. I'm making these on a weekly basis so that hopefully I will end up with 52 in total once 2012 comes to an end. Once a month, and this is the week, I'm also making them on the theme suggested in the Sketchbook Challenge site, which for February 2012 is Close-Up. Sometimes the themes they come up with are so perfectly in tune with what I want them to be that it is uncanny and even a bit spooky. As I made all the JQs for the Sketchbook Challenge last year in size 10" square I'm sticking to that for this year too.

This quilt was inspired by the detail (close-up) of the gravestone shown below and was executed entirely in silk fabrics, including one silver one. Sadly some of the sparkle is lost in the photography but you can see a hint of it in the picture below. The gravestone, of course, was just grey and weathered so the colours I've used were my own choice!

Here is a close-up of the Close-Up (sorry, couldn't resist!) on which you can see the stitching and beading in detail as well as the irregularity of the dupion silk. To me that adds to the texture.

This is a detail of the gravestone which inspired my Journal Quilt this week. It comes from a stone in Aberlady graveyard belonging to George Connor. I had photographed this only a couple of days before the new theme was announced on the Sketchbook Challenge site. Perfect timing!

Although as I mentioned in an earlier post it seems that I do look at life in detail a lot, specially through the lens of my camera and looking back over the previous Journal Quilts in the 52 Journals project, they all seem to qualify as a close-up! You can see all the previous JQs by clicking on the 52 Journals label below.