40. The Illimitable Future Journal Quilt

It was hard work getting this Journal Quilt ready in time to upload today, involving 2 days of more or less solid stitching and embellishing after my mother left on Tuesday. But here it is! It's mainly blue as apart from my own 52 Journals project it's also part of the monthly Journal Quilts for the Contemporary Group of the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles. This group has set the size (A4 portrait) and the colour. The first 4 months of the year were red, the next yellow and our final four blue. I'm using wintry pictures I once transferred to fabric using Transfer Artist Paper (TAP) for some project I've now long forgotten about. But the pictures looked great and this is my way of recycling them. For this one I used a view of the Pentland Hills in winter which you can see in detail below. And if you're a first time reader (welcome!) just a reminder that  for my 52 Journals project I'm aiming to make one small (usually A4 size) journal quilt for every week this year. You can see the ones I've made so far in the slideshow (see sidebar) or by clicking on the 52 Journals label below this post.

I started with a turquoise piece of velvet that I machine quilted using one of the decorative stitches on my machine. To that I appliqued (using Bondaweb) pieces of silk fabrics that together told a story of the past that exists only in my imagination. One of these fabrics portrayed the sea and this slotted in beautifully with the TAP transferred image of the Pentland Hills, even though no actual sea exists on that image (nor in reality!), but see above just how seamless that connection is. Meant to be!

The other images I used were of wave like patterns as well as an old town, a ship and a balloon. After all the applique was finished I overlaid the entire piece with a organdie silk scarf in turquoise and then stitched by hand in a variety of stitches and threads, around the various imagery as shown. I beaded around the moon with size 11 seed beads and added star shaped embellishments in the sky. I stitched on the vintage text to which I also added Diamond Glaze afterwards to give it some protection and make it more substantial than just paper. The text reads: "Behind us the irrevocable past, before us the illimitable future". I'm continually surprised by how I manage to somehow find text that goes so well with the image I've build up on the journal quilt. Such synchronicity and by now I have come to trust that when I look for text I will find just what the piece needs. Most of the text I'm using on my 52 Journals comes from Proverbial Philosophy by Martin F. Tupper. My version (now falling to bits and with text cut out here, there and everywhere) was published in 1867 and has amazing engravings which were the reason I originally bought it for the grand sum of £0.50. I have the feeling that quite soon now I'll be indulging and buying another copy on Ebay!

Of course I once again beaded along the binding as I do for virtually all my journal quilts. Only another 12 journal quilts to go now. Astonishing!