We dream We know Journal Quilt

I said you would see this gate again and here it is in it's final appearance. I told you last year that I would continue with the Sketchbook Challenge themed 10" square journal quilts and this is the first one. The January theme was: Sketch with Collage. I knew I wanted to include the gate so I started thinking how I could combine the two elements.

I started by grabbing the box that has all the left over fabrics from various other projects where I had printed my own or vintage images on fabric. They included text, maps, and photographs and I used MistyFuse to add them onto a background which I then layered up with wadding (batting) and a backing fabric and machine quilted this in a grid pattern as you can see above.

To unite all those disparate images I added a layer of thinned down gesso which faded the piece in a very pleasing manner. When adding gesso or paint to an already quilted piece it's always a bit of a gamble to see what will happen and it's not always what you were looking for but in this case it turned out better than I had expected. The next step was to spray this background with fabric paint using various leaf themed stencils. One of the paints I used was a metallic one.

The gate, sun ring and text were all printed onto inkjet prepared canvas sheets, cut out and then added to the journal quilt using my Xyron glue machine loaded up with a fabric glue cartridge. This is great for good adherence although I have to admit I still don't trust it and always make sure such pieces are also stitched down. Here I have used both hand and machine stitching. I discovered in my box of left-overs a strip of couched fabric and yarn which proved to be just what was needed to add some texture at the bottom of the gate. If I ever wonder why I never throw anything out this is the answer! Such items will always come in handy one day!

I added more hand stitching in the shape of little cross stitches and of course added beading to both the ring, and the title as well as around the binding which was made using part of a drop cloth (the cloth with which I mopped up all my painting and gelli plate printing).

The title comes from the poem I posted here on the 1st January, which was also the first time you saw that gate.