November 8, 2007

I had to bite the bullet and post my Journal Art Quilt. These are for the final challenge of Karey Bresenham's Journal Art Quilt Project - 2007. The original JQ's had to be 8" x 11", but these were to be 17" x 22" and include at least 3 techniques from the Creative Quilting book featuring previous Journal Art Quilts. I knew what techniques I wanted to use, but it took a long time to decide on how to use them. I finally decided that I like making fabric postcards so much that I would make a sort of "travel poster" of NC's beaches and make each scene a little postcard. I really enjoyed making the small pieces - each one a miniature scene of its own. I purchased some pfd fabric from Hollis Chatelaine and used fabric dyes to paint the background in a very simple sunset with sand bottom. The fabric is like butter and takes the dye beautifully.

I decided that "painting" would be the "thread" of my scenes, both using fabric dyes and thread to paint the pictures. The backgrounds are mostly painted and much of the rest of the scenes is free motion thread painted.

The pelican and the seagulls were photos printed on printer fabric paper which was then fused to 10 oz. cotton duck. Each bird is entirely made of thread. They were trimmed from the duck and stitched on their backgrounds.

The rest of the scenes incorporate thread painting directly onto the little postcard, free motion style. The grasses, horse's mane & tail, etc. are all done this way.

I also used Angelina fiber for the light in the lighthouse and for the sun in the round photo transfer of the sea grass at sunset.