October Journal Quilt

I'm making these small (8 x 10") journal quilts for the challenge on the Contemporary Quilt Group. They set the size and also the requirement to have a small (1/2" square) piece of a specific colour on our pieces. For the last 4 months of this year that colour is orange. Perhaps that is what inspired the autumnal look of this quilt.

 I set myself the challenge to use tartans and tweeds on my pieces, coming mainly from the Lochcarron Woollen Mill in Selkirk as well as from Fabric Affair.

I used unconventional raw edge appliqué with hand stitching to make the pieces adhere and almost melt into each other. All the journal quilts I make this year have a folksy look about them which was harder to achieve than I imagined. There is a lot of hand stitching as well as beading with size 11 seed beads and embellishing with vintage buttons. The binding is done using ShweShwe fabric from the African Fabric Shop.

August Journal Quilt

A new month brings with it a new journal quilt sized 8 x 10" made for the challenge on the Contemporary Quilt Group. Their requirement was to add a green square to the JQs this month and you can see it underneath. 

I'm using tweed and tartan for my Journal Quilts this year and in the background of this piece is a tartan fabric I bought many, many years ago (I think about 25) in Inverary. I have been hoarding it carefully all these years and now for the first time I have managed to persuade myself to cut a bit off and use it!

The piece is hand quilted, raw edge appliqued with hand stitching, hand beaded and embellished with vintage buttons and also some buttons I fell in love with in New York at Daytona Trimmings in West 39th Street, a veritable treasure trove of loveliness. You can see one on the green piece above. 

It's a very woolly piece and feels rather unsuitable for this summer month when for once the sun is actually shining!

July Journal Quilt

July already! And time for the next Journal Quilt. I'm making these for the challenge on the Contemporary Quilt Group who set the size this year as 8 x 10". They also wanted a square of at least 1/2" of a particular colour to appear on the journal quilts and for this month that square had to be green.

I set myself the challenge of using tweeds and tartans in my work and to used hand stitching for everything apart from the binding. So this is hand quilted, raw edge appliquéd using hand stitching and hand embellished with beads and vintage buttons.

 The idea is to make them look folksy and wonky which is harder to achieve than I had anticipated.

The binding for each quilt is made from an African fabric. They are different each month but come from the same fabric collection of Shweshwe Quilting Fabric available from the African Fabric Shop.

May Journal Quilt

 A new month means a new Journal Quilt. I'm making these monthly for the challenge on the Contemporary Quilt Group who have set the size at 8 x 10" and also require us to add a piece at least 1/2" large in a specified colour. For the next 4 months that colour is green (and you can see it bottom left.

I have added a further challenge to myself  i.e. to use tartans and tweeds in my journal quilts this year. The background is hand quilted and the pieces of tweed have been appliquéd on, simply by hand stitching. I'm trying to merge them into the background that way.  As you can see there are 3 layers of appliqué, one on top of each other. Although the fabrics I'm using might be traditional the methods are not and there are lots of raw edges adding to the texture of the journal quilts. I'm also trying to make them look folksy which is proving more difficult that I had anticipated.

 Some of the fabrics I'm using come from LochCarron Woollen Mills. 

Lots of embellishment form the final layer of the piece in the form of size 11 seed beads and vintage buttons.

April Journal Quilt

During my absence a new month began and that means it's time to show you my April Journal Quilt sized 8 x 10". The size was set by the Contemporary Quilt Group for their journal quilt challenge. The requirement is also that we add a purple patch to the first 4 JQs this year, this being the last one. You can see it middle row on the right, and also elsewhere.

I'm using tweed and tartan fabrics for all my journal quilts this year (most from LochCarron Woollen Mill in Selkirk), which are temperamental to work with but give the finished piece a lovely soft feel. There are raw edges but they are hold down with lots of hand quilting.

And of course I have added lots of beads as well as vintage buttons. I have replenished my bead supply in New York which is reassuring to know! I even managed to pick up some beautiful buttons.

Word Journal Quilts 2015

Here are all the Journal Quilts I made in 2015 together. As you probably know by now they are all sized 6 x 12". A size that was set by the Contemporary Quilt Group for their journal quilt challenge. I made the choice of using words for all my JQs and therefore orientated them horizontally.

Unlike the previous two years I didn't plan to put them all together at the end of the year and they look far too disparate to do so in any case. When the time comes from my next solo exhibition I might exhibit some of them individually and they will be up for sale.

If you are interested now in any of these you can of course buy them. These ones will be on sale for £100 plus postage costs to wherever you happen to be. I will only mail using Special Delivery (in the UK) or Internationally Signed For (everywhere else). Payment in the UK can be by cheque, for the rest of the world I can send you a Paypal invoice. You can contact me by using the email address in the sidebar.

If you want to read more about any individual piece you can do so by putting the word on it into the search engine at the top of the sidebar at the right.

Sparkle Journal Quilt

The good weather has meant getting behind in posting art on this blog as in all honesty when the sun shines I simply have to be outside. It has always been like that. I'm a sun worshipper! Of course I wouldn't get behind as much if I stopped making art and working in my sketchbook, but it's just so much fun and when things dry quickly I can keep in what most artists call "the zone".

Only thing to do is try and catch up as best I can and I'm making a start by showing you the 6 x 12" journal quilt I made for July inspired by that element that is seldom missing from any of my art: sparkle. The size for the journal quilt was set by the Contemporary Quilt Group and I decided to dedicate my journal quilts this year to words.

The background for this one was a piece of gelli plate printed fabric that was hand quilted. The letters were cut from a very sparkly fabric (I think it was originally meant as a christmas one) using the Brother Scan'nCut machine. They were machine appliquéd onto the background. I then went to work with the sparkling embellishments, adding sequins and beads to the letters, glass buttons at selected places as shown and finishing with silver seed beads along the binding.

 

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Fragments Journal Quilt

After the dog walk this morning I was only too pleased to be able to retire to my studio! Even the dog didn't enjoy it much. My finger even hovered over the On switch of the heater, but thus far I have been able to resist that temptation. Instead it's going to be a day of more or less solid stitching. The new month (is it really June?) brings with it a new 6 x 12" journal quilt for the Contemporary Quilt Group. They set the size for all the journal quilts this year and I choose my own theme of words.

The background of this piece was made using the selvedges of fabrics, where you usually find the name of the producer of the fabric, as well as the individual designer. Also the name of the fabric itself and a representation of the colour scheme. The small strips were all laid on a background fabric, topped with Mistyfuse, ironed down and machine quilted.

I used a very impressionistic looking fabric for the letters of the word FRAGMENTS, and they were cut out with a Brother Scan'nCut machine, Bondawebbed (WonderUnder in US speak)down and machine stitched. As per usual I added seed beads on the letters and around the binding (made from the same fabric as the letters. Finally I sewed on some vintage buttons as shown.

 

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Derelict Journal Quilt

It's that time again. A new month has started and I have made another small (6 x 12") for the Contemporary Quilt Group. By the way, if you follow that link to the group you will see one of my previous journal quilts featured (Polkadots) and that's the first time I tried out making text the main feature of a journal quilt. The Contemporary Quilt Group set the size for this year, and I decided to use words for my journal quilts as the main feature. Dereliction is inspired by the DerelictThursday project on the Blipfoto site where every Thursday we tried to capture an image of dereliction and decay. I started participating on the 5th February (you can see the picture here) and I have re-used that picture here. Spoonflower printed it onto a fat quarter for me.

I cut that image into strips and inter weaved it with a toning hand dye. The result was machine quilted and I then added the green letters which were cut on a Brother Scann'Cut machine, Bondawebbed on and embellished with small size 15 seed beads.

Vintage (but not derelict!) buttons were sewn on and more beads (this time size 12) were added along the binding.

Zeitgeist Journal Quilt

As you will probably remember if you are a regular reader, I'm once again doing the Journal Quilt Challenge on the Contemporary Quilt Group. They required the journal quilts to be 6 x 12" this year and the choice was up to us to go horizontal or vertical. As I decided to dedicate mine this year to using words I went for the horizontal option. I'm enjoying selecting the words I want to use and for this month I went for a German word: ZEITGEIST.  Zeitgeist is " the intellectual fashion or dominant school of thought that typifies and influences the culture of a particular period in time"

I started raw edge collaging suitable imagery on a background fabric using Mistyfuse and then buttonhole stitched around each piece by hand. I used a wide variety of fabrics including many that featured clocks as, of course, the Zeit bit of the word stands for Time.  The letters were cut out of a Tim Holtz fabric which is entirely composed of clocks. I used the Scan 'n Cut machine by Brother for the cutting. The next step was to Bondaweb the letters down and I was so pleased with how the pattern from the background sort of merged with the letters. I would like to say it was planned but the truth is that it just happened!

I then added further embellishments by hand included a clock charm and parts from actual old watches for the clock hands etc. And needless to say I beaded both the letters and around the binding in what is by now my standard trademark for finishing journal quilts, as I have been doing it since 2004.

La Vie en Rose Journal Quilt

Another month brings with it another word for the journal quilt project I'm doing with the Contemporary Quilt Group. The group set the size for the challenge (6 x 12"), and the choice of whether to go horizontal or vertical was up to us. As I had already decided to use words as my own theme I went for horizontal. My word for March is La Vie en Rose. The weather conditions sadly don't reflect this at the moment as we are suffering gale force winds and lots of rain, with snow also forecasted for later on.

So it's quite good to be able to seek refuge into a rose-tinted world. Usually La Vie en Rose is translated into English as: "Seeing life through rose-tinted spectacles". A bit cumbersome and not at all romantic sounding, in my opinion though, unlike the French version! "In the pink" is also a suggestion. My own interpretation leans to: feeling like you are enveloped in rose petals" and that's the way I went with this journal quilt. The most famous interpretation of the words was of course in the song by Edith Piaf. You might want to listen to it as you watch these pictures.

I used a wide variety of rose themed fabrics and raw edge appliqué done by hand,  to make the background which I then hand stitched using running stitch as you can see quite clearly in the detailed pictures shown. The next step was to cut the letters from another rose fabric using the Brother Scan'nCut machine and machine appliqué them on. The fabrics have to be bondawebbed in order to use the machine so that helps with the appliqué! Little red size 15 seed beads were sewn onto the letters and size 11 ones around the binding.

I like how the letters sort of merge with the background and you have to pay attention in order to read the text. I found some yummy rose beads in my stash and they were sewn on as the finishing touch.

Ethereal Journal Quilt

The new month brought with it a word search for the next Journal Quilt I'm making as part of the challenge on the Contemporary Quilt Group. The group set the size for this year at 6 x 12" and the choice of which orientation was up to us. Mine will be horizontal (or landscape) as you can see. It was my choice to dedicate each monthly journal quilt this year to one word and for February I choose the word: ETHEREAL.

Ethereal: extremely delicate and light in a way that seems not to be of this world.

For the background I used transparent fabrics (some sparkling), cut into rough squares and laid onto calico (muslin in the US), then covered with a cream piece of netting and machine quilted down with a grid using a mix of different machine threads. The letters were cut from a batik fabric using the Brother Scan'nCut machine. In order to use the machine the fabrics have to be Bondawebbed so that was used to adhere them in place and I then machine stitched them down.

Silver size 15 seed beads were stitched onto the letters and I added some hand embroidery in the shape of crosses using the stitched grid as my base.

Finally I stitched size 11 seed beads around the edges of the binding for which I used the same fabric as for the letters.

Courage Journal Quilt

As I mentioned some days ago I wasn't sure if  I would make any journal quilts this year but I would leave the final decision till I knew what the Contemporary Quilt Group would announce for their journal quilt challenge and I had considered how to fit that in with my already existing plans for future work. Well I now know that the Group is running the JQ challenge again this year and the only requirement is that the journal quilts have to be sized 6 x 12". It was up to the participants to choose either a portrait or landscape orientation but that choice, once made, had to apply to all 12 of the JQs we make this year.

That fitted in beautifully with my  plan to make word quilts so I signed up and choose to use the horizontal (landscape) orientation. For the very first one (January) I used my word for the year Courage and here is the result. I'm going to use these small journal quilts as stepping stones for larger work based on words.

The quilt is made from commercially available batik fabric. The background was strip pieced and machine quilted.The letters were cut using the Brother Scan'nCut machine and machine appliqued using Bondaweb (WonderUnder if you are in the US).Size 15 seed beads were sewn on the letters and I sewed on buttons as shown. The final step was to bead along the binding using size 11 seed beads. This has become my signature for all my journal quilts.

La Linea d'oro Quilt

As promised here is the finished La Lineo d'oro quilt which consists of my 12 La Linea journal quilts made during each month of 2014 for the journal quilt challenge of the Contemporary Quilt Group. You can read more about each individual one by clicking on the Journal Quilts 2014 label underneath this post or in the sidebar.

I usually take good pictures (to send for submission to various shows and exhibitions) outside during the summer months against the wall and in subdued sunlight. Sadly such things are not available at the moment so it's an indoor picture for now, just to record the fact that the quilt is finished. Photographing this one will be difficult even in ideal conditions outside as the camera is very averse to all that sparkle!

The background is a piece of lime green fabric that has been machine quilted in straight lines and then painted with white emulsion paint and sprayed with a variety of fabric paints toning in with the journal quilts. The journals were each appliqued on by hand and then more gold lines were also added in the borders, this time using machine stitching. The binding was made with the left over gelli plate printed fabrics I had used for the individual journal quilts. I had a long debate with myself whether I should hang them horizontally or vertically and as you can see the vertical orientation won the day.

La Linea d'oro 12 Journal Quilt

I've reached the last one in my series of monthly journal quilts sized 8 x 8" for the Contemporary Quilt Group. They set the size for the quilts and also demanded that we had a line running through each quilt from side to side. My line, as you probably know by now, is golden. And you are probably also aware that my background for each journal consists of a patchwork of gelli plate printed fabrics on a stabilizer background which I made way back in January. I cut each little 8 x 8" piece for the individual journal quilts from that large background and layered them with wadding and backing fabric. Machine satin stitch was used to secure the separate patches.

Then each journal quilt received either one large or three small circles appliquéd on top with hand done buttonhole stitch. In the case of this one it was a large circle as seen above.

 The gold line was also appliqued on and then where appropriate hand quilting was added. 

The final step was embellishment with sequins and beads as you can see above. All the La Linea d'oro quilts were finished with buttonhole stitch around the edges which will be used to put them all together and that will be my next step now that all 12 have been made.

It will have to wait till I have finished the quilt I'm presently working on,  but in the meantime I will try out different layouts and will show you my preferred one once I have made the final decision and then eventually (and I think that will be next year!) I will show you the finished quilt when all the stitching together by hand is done.

I have enjoyed making these although I will readily admit that once I started making the first one back in January I simply kept on going and all of them were finished by March, which is not in the spirit of making a monthly journal quilt. But as soon as I had the idea of putting them together into one large piece it seemed a good idea for cohesion's sake to make them all in a short timespan.

There has been no announcement yet if the Contemporary Quilt Group will do another Journal Quilt challenge in 2015 nor have I decided whether I will participate should there be one. It sort of depends on what the guidelines would be. You'll have to wait and see!

La Linea d'oro 11

It's a completely different sort of day today weather wise. As I'm typing this the rain is lashing down outside and it's cold and windy. So this will be a stitching day after I have written this post and added my daily blip to the Blipfoto site. This is my monthly 8 x 8" journal quilt done for the challenge on the Contemporary Quilt Group. They set the size as well as the requirement that there had to be a line going from side to side on all our JQs this year. As you can tell by the name I've given all the journal quilts my line is straight and golden.

All the fabrics I'm using on all my JQs for this challenge have been painted and printed using my gelli plate and acrylic paints. After making myself a huge collection of these fabrics with circular stencils I patched the best bits together on an iron-on stabilizer and from this large piece I cut out the 8 x 8" sized pieces for every individual JQ. I then appliquéd either one large circle or 3 smaller ones (as in this case) onto the background using hand done buttonhole stitch. I machine satin stitched along the borders of the individual patches, added hand quilting and then came to my favourite bit.

Which is of course the embellishment which uses sequins and size 11 seed beads as you can see in the above detail. Only one more month to go now and I can't wait till I start to put all these individual pieces together into one large quilt using the buttonhole stitch on the edges of all the JQs as my starting point.