It's that time of the week again when I upload my most recent contribution for my 52 Journals project. If nothing else this project has me more aware of time passing than ever before. I was giving a talk to the Peebles Embroidery Guild (I'm a member myself) last night about Journal Quilts and while putting it together I suddenly realized that I have been making them now for 8 years. 8 years!!!
And this is the latest one. I found the papers I painted, splashed, stencilled, stamped and adorned in other ways I no longer remember, over the summer. Read about the process here. What struck me was how often I have used circular objects to make my mark. I definitely have a thing about circles as is also evidenced in my large quilts. They are a symbol of eternity. You could walk on the edge of a circle and never come to the end. Somehow the curves, the symbolism and their connection (at least in my mind) to time passing (think watches etc) speaks to me and I decided to use the papers for this JQ. At first I scanned the papers into the computer and then printed them out to fabric but in the end I used the actual papers themselves as the scanning process meant that all the gold spraying etc. was completely lost and I so love my sparkle!
Fortunately the papers in question were heavy duty watercolour so quite sturdy as They were then stitched on as shown to a black fabric background and hand quilted following the circle lines. Then I added two layers of acrylic wax (you can get this from ArtVanGo here in the UK) to add more substance. The clock face (from an old watch) was added, beaded around, and filled in with Diamond Glaze. I found another wonderfully suitable vintage text to go with this piece. It reads: "Today is the golden chance".
After all, today is all we've got!
I added more beading as you can see and a black binding. It's a very stiff Journal Quilt but I'm not putting any restrictions on the JQs I'm making as part of my 52 Journals project. Anything goes!
Remember if you want to see them all, just click on the 52 Journals label below! Or check out the slideshow in the sidebar.
2 comments:
Oh! this is the kind of work that draws you in and makes you want to stay awhile. So much to see. I put it on my inspiration board in Pinterest so others can enjoy, along with the arrow block. Thank you for posting the story and your wonderful work.
i love this, frieda - wow!
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