Nautical Journal Quilts

My Nautical Journal Quilts are being displayed at the Ingliston Quilt Show this weekend and I paid a visit this morning. The forecast again isn't too good so I reasoned I should go while the going was good. This is not the best picture as the area in which the journal quilts were displayed was very dark and for once I was forced to use the flash. But I have included individual pictures of each journal quilt too so that you get a better look.

These two pieces called Jeannie and Drummond Castle were inspired by a shipwreck story I came upon during a visit to West Linton Graveyard where Jeannie was commemorated on a gravestone erected by her parents. Her body though isn't there but lost in the waters of the Atlantic. I have blogged about this on my other blog about West Linton Graveyard and this is the story:

Jeannie

Every gravestone tell a tragic tale of course, but this one is particularly poignant as it refers to a tragedy at sea. Here is the text:

Erected by

Rob Gilbert

In loving Memory of

his daughter Jeanie

who was drowned by the sinking

of the SS Drummond Castle

on 16th June 1896, aged 46 years

the above

Robert Gilbert

died at Hallmyre Cottages 5th Jan'y

1905, aged 80 years

also

Margaret Steele

his wife who died 7th Nov. 1912

aged 86 years.

From accounts elsewhere it appears that this tragedy happened on the 16th June although it would have taken some time before Jeanie's parents were informed of the sinking of the SS Drummond Castle. The mail packet and passenger vessel  (built in 1881 in Govan, Glasgow) was on it's way from Cape Town to London when it got into difficulties, hit rocks near the coast of Brittany, France, and sank within the space of 4 minutes. Only 3 people out of 142 passengers and 101 crew were saved. It struck me as specially sad that Jeanie was apparently on her way back home when she so sadly perished. Where she had been and why are pieces of the puzzle that I'll probably never discover.

Subsequently a book was written by Henri Queffelec called "Les iles de la misericorde" in which these tragic events were described in depth. Apparently the ship was sounding it's horn when it went down but because it disappeared so quickly under the waves French fishing boats coming to its rescue were at first unable to find the exact position.The French fishermen did rescue the 3 survivors as well as bringing back to shore many bodies of the drowned. Silver medals were struck with the approval of Queen Victoria as award for the Breton fishermen and other inhabitants of Brest, Ushant, and Molene who helped in rescuing the survivors  and in the recovery and burial of those lost. A total of 282 medals were struck. 

The wreck was re-discovered in the 1930s by Italian divers and then again in 1979 when several objects were brought to the surface. They can now be seen in the museum in Molene . One simple gravestone but it has led me to research this sad event that I was completely unaware off. 

In 1996 the people of Moshene and Ushant, a poor region of France, commemorated the centenary of this disaster as amongst the many shipwrecks along that coastline, this one had left the deepest mark, and graves of the victims abound in graveyards along the coast. So one graveyard in West Linton led me to another one in France.

Since writing this post on the West Linton Graveyard blog and doing some more research I've now bought a print about the disaster on Ebay as well as the book Les iles de la misericorde on Amazon!  Some of the imagery was used for these two journal quilts.

Somehow the story of the SS Drummond Castle has gripped me. In the subsequent enquiry it was decided that something had gone wrong with taking the depth soundings which led the captain to believe the ship was in deeper water than it actually was,  and that more than likely human error was the main cause of this tragedy.

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.

Peace Journal Quilt

Let's start by telling you that this last Journal Quilt I have made for this year is in no way a reflection of what is happening today in our Parliament, for either one side of the debate or the other. Our MPs (Members of Parliament) are voting later on today, on whether or not to send in war planes to bomb IS in Syria (we are already bombing in Iraq). It's pure chance that I'm uploading this quilt today. It was made back in October and in fact, the decision to use the word PEACE for December's Journal Quilt was taken back in January when I compiled a list of words I wanted to use on the 12 JQs for 2015.

That said, this is the final word quilt for this year. The journal quilts I made were all for a yearly challenge set by the Comtemporay Quilt Group who set the size for the quilts this year at 6 x 12". I decided to dedicate each one to a word and thus used a horizontal orientation for them all. There will be a new challenge for 2016 but the details haven't been revealed yet nor have I decided whether or not I will participate. But if you are interested you need to be a member of the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles as well as of the Contemporary Quilt Group within that Guild.

Now for this particular journal quilt! It was made using bits of gelli plate printed (using stencils) fabrics that were raw edge appliquéd together and machine quilted. I added the circle which was made separately by putting snippets of transparent fabrics on a piece of background fabric, covering it with a transparent fabric and hand stitching the circle. It was machine appliquéd (using gold thread and a buttonhole stitch) onto the background and then beaded along the edges.

The letters for the word PEACE were cut from a sparkling, transparent fabric (with Bondaweb applied to the back). I used my Brother Scan'nCut machine to do this. They were machine stitched onto the background and also beaded as you can see on these detailed pictures. I used size 15 gold seed beads.

Finally I added my now usual signature in the form of size 11 seed beads around the edges of the binding. Sometime soon I will take a photograph of all the journal quilts I made this year.

Texture Journal Quilt

This is my penultimate journal quilt for this year. I'm making them for the challenge on the Contemporary Quilt Group and they set the size at 6 x 12". I choose to make mine horizontal and to dedicate each one to a different word. For November I selected TEXTURE as this is a word that has been used a lot to describe my textile art.

 I made the piece itself very textural by using a background of vintage laces which I then hand and machine quilter. The letters were cut out of a brown/gold fabric using the Brother Scan'nCut machine. They were machine appliquéd on by machine and using Bondaweb (WonderUnder in US speak). Vintage lace flowers were sewn on with a bead in the centre.

The final touches were vintage white buttons and size 11 seed beads on the letters itself as well as along the edges of the binding.

Mindfulness Journal Quilt

October already! How did that happen. But no matter, the sun is shining although again the early dog walk was both foggy and cold. Soon though we will be able to sit in the sunshine. In the meantime this is an opportunity to post the Journal Quilt for October. The journal quilt challenge is set by the Contemporary Quilt Group and they determined the size for this year as 6 x 12". I decided to dedicate all mine to words that were meaningful to me. For October this is: MINDFULNESS.

I have been reading many books on this subject during the summer as well as doing meditations. Living in the moment is still not easy (I don't think it's simple for anyone) as my thoughts are on a true merry-go-round at all times but I'm definitely reaping the benefits in feeling more calm and less agitated. There were various events that happened over the summer months that made me go back to all my mindfulness books and I wanted to commemorate this in this journal quilt.

I hadn't anticipated that the word itself would give me lots of trouble, mainly because it is so long. Ideally I would have wanted more space to portray it but I had to stay within the 12" width. It meant pushing the Brother Scan/nCut machine to it's very limits and as you can see some of the letters ended up as slivers of fabric. Only the Bondaweb held them together but when I removed that (extremely carefully!) the fabric just tended to fall apart. Somehow I managed to finally get them machine appliquéd on the background  (that was hand quilted) which is a Vlisco fabric (made in The Netherlands for the African market) that I had long treasured. I only had a small bit of it, just enough for this piece.  I felt it was the sort of pattern you could meditate on.

Then I added small size 15 seed beads on the letters themselves as well as on the pattern of dots that was part of the fabric itself. These are gold but the sparkle is lost entirely on the photograph.

There is plenty of opportunity to practice being mindful and calm at the moment with not just a British Telecom engineer present but also a heating one to service our boiler. I think I might take the dog for a very long walk quite soon!

Solitude Journal Quilt

It was a real autumn morning covered in cobwebs and mist. A new month has begun as has a new season. And it's also time to share my new journal quilt for September. These monthly journal quilts are part of a challenge set by the Contemporary Quilt Group. They also dictated the size as 6 x 12". I choose to use the horizontal orientation and to dedicate all my journal quilts this year to words.

As you can see I have left the word (Solitude) smaller than on my other journal quilts so far, because I liked my background so much that I didn't want to cover most of it up. This background was made using the smallest size gelli plate (3 x 5") as a stamp to get the different coloured areas while at the same time using wooden carved blocks (from Textile Traders) in the paint first.

Afterwards I stamped on the trees (also from a wooden carved stamp). The piece was then extensively hand quilted using running and back stitch as well as embellished with seed and bugle beads as well as sequins. The binding fabric was painted on the gelli plate too.

The word SOLITUDE was stamped onto a separate piece of fabric and hand appliquéd on. I'm now thinking about my next word!

 

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Letters Journal Quilt

I'm a bit late this month but here is the latest contribution to the Journal Quilt Challenge on the Contemporary Quilt Group. They have set the size for this year as 12 x 6" and I choose to use a horizontal orientation. I also themed all my journal quilts this year to use words. For August the word I selected was LETTERS.

I gathered together all the fabrics that had writing on them and it proved to be a staggering amount! I didn't use all of them but instead selected the ones that went well togethe,r and made the background using a crazy quilt foundation piecing method. Once that was done I cut the letters out of the red words fabric using my Brother Scan'nCut machine and using Bondaweb and machine sewing appliquéd them onto the background as shown.

Then I went back to my stash, this time of real letters in wood, metal and plastic and adhered them as you can see using sewing as well as Diamond Glaze. The final step as always with my journal quilts was to add beaded embellishment by hand.

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.