29. Circles Squared Journal Quilt

I wasn't circled out after making last weeks's journal quilt on the July theme of the Sketchbook Challenge, and for this week's contribution to the 52 Journals project I returned to more circles. As luck would have it I was looking at videos of a online class run by Cathy Bluteau on the Creative Workshops site called Doodles Squared. Not that I particularly wanted to do anything with the class, I just love her artwork and wanted to see it in progress so to speak. And now that we have broadband I could finally take a look! The class started by dividing the journal page into random squares and rectangles. Such a thing always appeals to the quilter in me!

So I grabbed the nearest piece of paper I could lay my hands on (a piece of the newspaper as it happened) and did my own arrangement of rectangles. It looked it a bit bare and so I added circles of different sizes in the various spaces. That looked a lot better.

And I did it again, this time in my sketchbook and a bit more organized, using the pastel colours that I so admire in Cathy's work. I'm not really a very pastel person myself so that's a challenge. Having coloured the sketch in (seen above) with Promarkers I thought of my delectable box of Oakshott fabrics which have a great selection of pastels. Yes, that could work.

So I started, using the fabrics as background, separated by gold binding (Clover)and adding the circles made out of a variety of items I had printed out onto fabric for a variety of projects in the past, such as vintage text from a dictionary, a vintage map of Venice (where else?!), vintage music and copies of bread coupons issued during WWII in The Netherlands. They were all Bondawebbed down and also hand appliqued (as I never do trust that glue!). It still looked a bit bare and I had a think about how I could add more circular shapes. Of course beads would work well but I also remembered the vintage sequins I had bought on Ebay quite a few years ago (and never yet used). By wonderful synchronicity they too were in pastel colours. Thank you, universe. All were thrown into the mix and the finished piece emerged as you can see it in the picture at the top. In honours of Cathy's class which is called Doodles Squared I named this one Circles Squared.

For almost the first time since starting the 52 Projects the edges of this JQ weren't finished with binding but instead by gold zigzag stitching. I'm still not sure I'm completely happy with that but it seemed to fit the piece so I went along with the idea.

Remember the 52 Journals project is something I'm doing entirely for myself (because I'm worth it!) and I'm making a journal quilt, usuallly A4 size, for every week of 2012. If you want to see all the previous ones you can click on the 52 Journals label below this post to read detailed descriptions and see pictures or you can simply watch the quick slideshow in the sidebar to the right.