Sunday, May 11, 2008

Bead Journal Project for March

Yes, now that it's May - and Mother's Day to boot - I have finished my journal quilt for the month of... March. Actually, it's been done for several days now. It just seemed appropriate to hold off showing you the final product until today. ;- )

This is "Mother Hen," completed:



A detail shot of the two chicks that have already flown the coop...


As well as a shot of the last one to leave the nest...

In my first post about this quilt I mentioned that I was in search of the perfect thing to use in the background areas to embellish and/or quilt the piece. I bought a skein of rayon floss that I thought I might blend with regular cotton floss, but I also bought beads. As you can see, I went with the beads. They are not the beads that I had in mind for the background but they are what the local bead shop had that would work. And actually, they work quite well. They are size 8 triangles in a gold/green colorway. The colors are perfect, and the triangles lay nicely on the surface of the quilt. They're just bigger than I wanted (I would have gone for size 10 if I'd had the option).

Overall I'm very happy with the way this turned out. When I first pulled the fabrics for this particular journal quilt I had no idea or plan to make yet another self portrait. There are just so many facets to any human being! I could probably continue to make self portrait quilts but frankly, I'm getting a little bored with myself. I would like to move on to other subject matter. To that end I have signed up for Sharon B's Studio Journal class through Joggles.com. Class doesn't begin until the end of June so in the meantime I bought Robin Atkins' newest book to read and ponder and play in. I had to have DH make a slight alteration to the book's format however.

All the lovely full-color photographs just created too many fumes for my body to cope with. The sheet protectors don't seem to be a problem for me (!) so now I can put the pages in a used binder and be inspired any time I need it :- )

Ooo, the sun just came out! Woohoo! Time to grab my new book and go absorb some vitamin D.

Happy Mother's Day!

3 comments:

  1. Very nice piece. I like the primitive quality of the hen and chicks and their separation from each other on the quilt reflects a key part of the motherhood experience: the chicks grow up and leave the nest.

    Very nice job. Happy Mother's Day.

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  2. Hi I love your mother hen, wish I had a real one just like that, she's beautiful.
    Thanks for the comment on my Tif Challenge, we have a few things in common but I suppose the one that I noticed was that you like Celtic music, I listen to that mostly when I am stitching. Thanks again Tricia

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  3. I have chemical intolerance too. This is the first time printer's ink has bothered me (even though I've used the same printer for two of my other books). When I sat down to sign a bunch of them, I had to stop after 10 or so because of the ink fumes. Drat! Well, you've found a good solution... and besides, you can open the book flat to any page you like! Great idea! Robin A.

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