28. Going around in Circles Journal Quilt

A new month means the announcement of a new theme on the Sketchbook Challenge site and as those of you who have been following my blog for some time already know that also means a new journal quilt made according to that theme. As I made all the JQs for this challenge last year size 10 x 10", I'm sticking to that too for this year. All my other weekly journal quilts for my 52 (one for each week) Journals project are A4, and it's great to have another size, just for a change, although the square format is sometimes a challenge too. The Sketchbook Challenge theme for July is: Circles! Nothing, and I mean that, nothing could suit me better. I already had a picture taken during the World Textile Day I went to a few weeks ago ready on my desk with the idea to use it as inspiration so I grabbed it (you can see the circular form in that picture further down) and set to work.

And somehow this journal quilt turned into one of the most labour intensive ones I've ever done. I started it on July 1, when the theme was announced and finished it yesterday, not quite beading all day but not far from that either! I used another picture (seen at the bottom of this post) as my colour inspiration and had a wonderful time searching all the nooks and crannies of my studio for suitable beads and buttons. The background is machine quilted red velvet which you can just see peeking through the embellishments and around the edges and the binding is a turquoise cottom which seemed to suit the rest of the colours I was using.

As you can see quite well on the above picture the journal quilt became quite 3-dimensional and the piece that  can be seen in the centre is an old brooch into which holes were made so that I could sew it on as well as glueing it. I'm never that confident that glue will hold although I did use it to attach the beads on top of that brooch (using Diamond Glaze.

inspiration for circle design

I had a great time beading away and have depleted quite a bit of my stash specially the small plastic multi-coloured buttons so I must make sure to find some more. I think I obtained them way back when from a Chinese supplier on Ebay. I always love going for a rummage there to find colourful and unusual supplies for my art.

colour inspiration photograph

The title of the journal quilt was almost too easy. I used to give a talk entitled: Going around in Circles, based on my series of large quilts inspired by the circle shape, so it seemed a logical progression to name one of my 52 Journals this year with the same title.