A trio of journal quilts

One of my quilting goals for 2019 is to make a journal quilt every week or two.  A journal quilt is generally a small original fiber art work made quickly as a way to explore new techniques.  Often they record some element of the creators' life.  

Making them is meant to be a fun and playful, but to do so on a regular basis requires a serious time commitment.  I made three during November to see if I liked the process, and found that I did.  

The first was about our recently deceased cat Fetcher and how I keep feeling his presence in my studio as I work.  It featured a photo of him sitting on my cutting table, used a background of irregular fabrics fused to a batting, and was titled "My friendly studio ghost."  The photo was transferred to fabric using a method involving the cleaning fluid Citrosolve and the thin border around the photo was a hand-stitched stem stitch of thick cotton thread.  

 On the back I stamped messages of thanks and love.  You can see how the little piece was a combination of various techniques and also a memento of something I was feeling when I made it, and I added hand-written captions on the back to help me remember the impetus for the piece when I come across it in the future. 

The second journal quilt attempted to capture a funny moment with Paul as he wrapped a present for his friend Tommy in orange post it notes.   Click here to read my blog entry about it.  For this journal quilt I chose Paul's favorite color, green, for the background, and tried to show the package, complete with it's purple note for warning TSA that this was a Christmas present, and the many strips of scotch tape that Paul used to secure the gift.  

Unlike Fetcher's piece, which was very easy to make, this one was a real challenge.  It taught me that I really don't know anything about using shading to create dimension, and that led me to sign up for Annette Kennedy's online class Painted Pictorial Quilts, on www.mbluprint.com.  

I wrote the label for this piece on my computer and printed it on fabric which I then fused to the back.  It worked well and I decided to use printed labels for all the journal quilts I make this year. 

As New Year's approached I wanted to use a piece of fabric I had created recently by painting with stencils that my friend LeeAnna had given me.  I loved this fabric and it felt like a celebration to me, perfect for the New Year festivities.  But it was the wrong size for the 8x10" I was aiming for with these little quilts and the regularity of the small dotted section didn't quite fit with the rest of the fabric.

 So I took a deep breath and cropped that part off.  Then I cut those little dots into strips and played around with it on the design wall for a few days.

But I finally decided those little dots weren't going to work out so I cut the fabric with the large dots into the rectangle I needed.  Some sections were too empty so I painted on some additional lines.  I liked that but decided it needed something more to communicate the idea of a new year, so I found my old number stencils and painted 2019 in four of the big dots. 

Now I had a good looking piece of painted fabric but wanted to add some fiber elements, so I stitched around the dots and lines and couched on the gold braid. 

Here's the final piece.

I like making journal quilts but found they took more time than I expected.  I'm going to aim for making one a week during 2019 but not fret if I only finished one or two a month.  They are lots of fun and fun is why I make fiber pieces, so why not kick back and enjoy the process?  

Linking to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.