2006 Journal Quilts Unveiled

Now that the Houston Quilt Festival is over I can show you my 2006 Journal Quilts. I used various techniques once again this year. Two of the JQs were my assignments for the Level 1 City & Guilds Creative Computing in Stitched Textiles course I did earlier this year.

January was an experiment after seeing a Victorian keepsake made from cardboard (2 1/2" x 2 1/2") I decided to try it in fabric. It took a bit of working out but I got there in the end.

February - I used hand dyed and painted fabric and golden gel transfer for the Japanese design.

March - I created the applique design in PSP, applied a few filters and printed it onto abaca tissue layered on top of various coloured organzas. I free motion stitched around the design, cut back some areas and around the outside edge, burnt with a heat tool to reveal the colours. The background is painted bondaweb, applied chiffon stitched and heated to reveal some of the painted bondaweb. The wooden dowels are painted and copper shim intertwined.

April - I created the design in PSP and printed it to fabric. The fabric was then cut and stitched together with silk organza, hand painted and printed fabrics, machine quilted.

May - Is a simple woven fabric design. I wanted to show as much of the fabric as possible. I used a wax resist and hand dyed the fabric.

June - This little quilt was a trial run for my larger quilt for the Doing Small Things Challenge. The background fabric was bleach discharged (it started as navy blue). I also used hand dyed and hand painted fabrics.

July - Hand painted and hand dyed abaca tissue, hand dyed silk organza, painted and embossed copper shim, accent beads through a stencil. I used some of the techniques I learned from making this quilt in Dianne's book and box. This was a particularly useful exercise.

August - Hand dyed and painted fabric. Painted and embossed copper shim. Painted and embossed artists straws. Accent beads applied through a stencil - I enjoyed these very much.

September - Background fabric painted with golden gel medium, painted, irridescent markal paint sticks (gold) applied on top, design drawn on wet gel with a kebab stick. "Poppies" coloured using Stewart Gill Alchemy and Pearl-ex powders. Machine quilted.

I learned so much from making these little quilts and also have a permanent record of the techniques to refer to in future work.