Journal Quilts

For my first series, I chose The Night Sky as my subject. I kept a little notebook where I jotted down ideas, drew a few sketches and clipped some magazine photos. Since I was making one a month, it made sense to me to make my sky scene relevant to that month, if at all possible. January is entitled 'Cloudy Winter Night'. The background is velvet and cotton. The moon is a shisha mirror partly obscured with a bit of cotton puff. The tree is sculpted with pipe-cleaners.

April (below left) is called 'Bridge At Night'. I used both commercial and my own hand-dyed cottons. Bias tape and Japanese coiled embroidery thread make up the bridge. It is embellished with beads and machine embroidery. 'Storm Over Chicago' (below right) was completed in May, soon after a trip there to see the International Quilt Festival. I was lucky enough to have a piece of fabric with the Chicago skyline in my stash and I embellished it with Krenik fusible thread for the bolts of lightening and bugle beads for the rain.

June is entitled 'Nebula'. Glass stars were glued to the surface; a chiffon scarf was distressed with a heat gun and then foiled, along with some cellophane; a piece of organza covers it all. Then I machine quilted and lastly applied a few French knots by hand.

July (below left), of course, is 'Fireworks' to commemorate our Independence Day. What better use for my discharged cotton sky, embellished with beads, sequins and crystals, all seen over the rooftops of a town. September (below right) shows an eclipse of the moon, for which I used a Shiva (Markal) Paintstik.

October is 'Harvest Moon'. Here the sky is navy blue taffeta and the ploughed field is hand-dyed cotton. I used an old button, which was just the right colour for the harvest moon, couched knitting yarns and braids for the ridges in the field and machine embroidery for the few remaining corn stalks.

Stitch a small quilt top. It can be rectangular, square or have wavy edges. The choice is yours. Use any fabric. Don't restrict yourself to cotton. Try using velvet, wool, sheers, leather, taffeta, silk, lame or corduroy. Incorporate paper, beads, zippers, sequins, knitting yarns, rubber stamped images, computer transfers, metal shims, and pipe cleaners. Even rusty old objects found in the trash can find a place on your quilt. If any of these 'add-ons' will be difficult to quilt around by machine, you may have to attach them at the end. Of course, hand quilting is always a nice option, especially on such a small piece.

All my journals have Timtex or Peltex (craft Vilene) as the batting. This gives them great stability yet they are easy to machine or hand stitch through. However, your favourite batting will work just as well if you prefer a softer feel. Add your backing and you're ready to quilt.

Machine quilt using the free-motion setting, or try quilting with one of your fancy built-in stitches. Even using a double needle in your machine is an option for quilting. These small quilts are the ideal way to practice free-machine quilting and embroidery. Their size makes them so easy to manipulate under the needle. So, if you've been fearful of trying it on a large project, now is the perfect time.

Finally, the borders are either finished with a fancy machine stitch or strips of fabric were fused around the edges using Wonder Under or Bondaweb. When the year's worth was complete, I put mine in an album. They are also very effectively shown as wall hangings by linking them together with fabric hinges or bind them together into a book. Another good display method is to sew them on a piece of screening.

And don't forget, the best of these little gems can then be expanded into larger sized quilts.

A wonderful book on the subject of journal quilts is Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project published by Quilting Arts and edited by Karey Patterson Bresenham.