January BJP Progress Report

Since it's the last day of January I figured it would be appropriate to show my progress so far with this month's journal quilt. I have a headache, as if I've been exposed to something again (but I have no idea what that might have been), so please forgive any lack of enthusiasm that might seep through.

I came up with the idea for this quilt at the end of December, after I got stuck on the Solstice quilt. The duality I experience in my world had come up again so I thought I would explore that from the aspect of my sign of the Zodiac, Gemini. I was a teenager the last time I gave any thought to how accurate or inaccurate the Zodiac descriptions might be. I did some online research, my primary source being gotohorscope.com. As it turns out, I found it to be pretty darn accurate! It took a week or two of mulling that information over and looking at various depictions of the sign before I decided how I would approach this quilt.

Above all I wanted to keep it simple. That meant no renderings of twin cherubs or anything like that. Instead, it occurred to me that I might be able to create the sort of roman numeral 2 symbol by free piecing or stacking and slicing fabrics. I wanted to avoid any obvious light vs dark interpretations so instead of making one leg of the symbol white, for example, and the other black, I chose to use colors and to cut the symbol in half horizontally rather than vertically. By using the stack and slice method I could cut both halves of the quilt top at once. My first fabric choice was the green I'm trying to include in each journal quilt. Because the green I chose had pink in it I went with a pink print for the other fabric.


It took three tries to get the version you see above. I mis-cut the first time and got a rectangle instead of the symbol I was shooting for. On the second try I learned that I had to keep the legs of the symbol basically the same size or the symbol wouldn't show well. I was happy with this version until I realized that any beading I might do to outline the symbol would virtually disappear against the pink print or compete with it visually. Back to the stash...

This is my fourth try and I'm pleased with it. I have mixed a bead soup of shimmery white and silver beads with which I will outline the symbol. I chose the white per the information on the horoscope web page. I added silver to represent Mercury, Gemini's ruling planet. I don't anticipate doing much more than simply outlining the symbol with beads this time. There isn't really room for much more than that in my opinion. But who knows? Things change as we work, don't they?

And now it's time to think about what to do for February's journal page. I have a giant heart milagro I'd love to use as a focal point on a small quilt sometime, and February seems like the perfect time to use it, but I'm having second thoughts now. I'm leaning toward thinking of my quilts numerically instead of by month. Like, instead of December and January journal quilts they would be journal quilts 7 and 8. To sort of break free from the associations that might come with the calendar year. I guess my primary goal as I approach challenge projects is to do something unexpected, take it in a surprising direction. Watch; having said that I will probably turn out something completely trite for February!

December Bead Journal Project - Finally!

DS#1 has been back in Arizona for a couple of days now. No sooner did we get him off than this area was hit with cold and snow. That messed up the roads, kept DH home, and consequently messed with my personal schedule. Not that my schedule is that intense or anything, but I can't work with a lot of interruptions. There were lots of interruptions as well as the normal let-down after having all of the family together over the weekend. So yesterday was the first day that I was really able to do any creative work. At some point I pieced the base for my January journal quilt but I will show that to you in another post.

I've been experiencing some frustration with my journal quilts for October/November and December. Both have been pieced for some time but for one reason or another I hadn't been able to move the embellishment stage forward. Yesterday I finally broke through the barrier on the December quilt. This is how it has been looking since about the end of December:


I pieced this near the end of December, inspired by the winter solstice and the accompanying lack of daylight at that time of the year (in this hemisphere). It is pieced entirely out of recycled silk neckties. This was also the time when southwest Washington State was was experiencing flooding. The wavy lines at the bottom read like a river to me. (We live about that close to a river too.) What occurred to me as I put the piece together and listened to the news was the old saying that, "This, too, shall pass." The days will get longer again, the floods will recede, homes and lives will be rebuilt (what choice do we have afterall?). The letter beads spelling out the quote filled the space over the river nicely. I wanted to make cloud cover by tacking down a sheer material with beads. That's where I got stuck. The first material I tried just ravelled out too much. Yesterday I went out to JoAnn's and bought a really simple lace. It's sort of a cross between netting and lace and doesn't ravel when cut. I didn't get quite the effect I was shooting for but it works. I didn't want the stars in the print to show through as much as they do but by that time it would have been too much work to do it over. This way I have both heavy cloud cover on the left side of the quilt and then lighter clouds and rain on the right. Very appropriate for this particular spot on the planet.

(This quilt is very hard to photograph because of the reflective qualities of the silks, the beads, and the sequins.)

I haven't bound the quilt yet but that's about all that's left to do. I had quite the quandry when it came to choosing a backing. I hadn't complied with my personal challenge to use lime green somewhere, somehow, on the quilt but I couldn't bring myself to use a green binding like I did on a previous journal quilt. So I went through my stash to see if I could find a lime green print for the back. Nope. Nothing felt right. Eventually I came across my pile of Hawaiian and tropical prints. Ah ha! Where would I rather be at the winter solstice? In the tropics of course! This morning I have pieced this for the back of my December journal quilt:

There's no lime green in it either, but this may have to be the quilt that is the exception that proves the rule. Maybe I'll be able to use lime green for the quick triangle pockets I'll use in place of a sleeve for hanging. Now I need to get off the computer and put this all together!

Peace, Man

Okay, I always wanted to be a hippie but never really suspected that I could be a hippie... As it turns out, I am!

You are a Hippie

You are a total hippie. While you may not wear birks or smell of incense, you have the soul of a hippie. You don't trust authority, and you do as you please. You're willing to take a stand, even when what you believe isn't popular. You like to experiment with ideas, lifestyles, and different subcultures. You always gravitate toward what's radical and subversive. Normal, mainstream culture doesn't really resonate with you.

Are You a Hippie?

(Probably the people who know me best are not surprised by this finding at all.)

Another 2" Square :- )

DS #1 is arriving from Arizona later today for a short visit so this will be a quick post about a quick project... another 2" square for Monica's Pink Artist art doll project (click on the badge in my sidebar).



I finally started feeling like myself again late yesterday afternoon. When I finished the first 2" square I immediately made another top but hadn't been inspired yet as to how to embellish it. So I set it aside and got my scrap bag back out and made another top. Then I pulled out a sun bead I'd bought along with my green beads at my LBS and liked the look of it on the green ground. That led to flower sequins... and eventually I came up with the little dog button to finish it off. What a fun way to spend a couple of hours!

I also pulled out a couple different fabrics to have another go at a base for my January journal quilt for the Bead Journal Project. We'll see how soon I get to that, what with the son's visit and all. But the sun is shining ~ for a change ~ so it could happen. It's amazing how much more energy I have when the sun is shining!

January Take It Further Challenge Done!

Forgive me if I sound a bit terse this post. I did, in fact, go out shopping yesterday (and took my new tote with me and received at least one compliment, thank you very much!). I forgot it was a holiday for a lot of people. The stores were crowded. More people means more exposures for me. It's going to be a few more hours before the full effect wears off.

You may recall that the challenge for this month's Take It Further challenge was to create a resolved design based on someone you admire. I chose to depict (or try to depict as the case may be) the quality that I admire rather than any specific person. I'm still not sure what the best word is for that quality but it has to do with having a very strong sense of self. Being very sure of who you are and what you want out of life. The best symbol I could think of for that was a queen. A good and righteous queen, not someone wicked or evil or power hungry.

I had originally pulled a Burmese silk that I thought I would use for my base but I couldn't stand using just one fabric, and a solid color at that. Cottons didn't seem appropriate as I wanted to convey the feeling of royalty so I went into my stash of silk ties. I wanted to use purple because it has always been associated with royalty. I found the coolest hand-dyed silk! To get the colors I wanted I had to piece sections of it to cover my little 4" x 6" batting. At first I thought I would use it this way, with the seamlines creating an inverted V in the center of the quilt:

But then I turned it around to see how my button and charms would look with the V at the bottom of the piece. I liked that better.

It occurred to me that cats embody the quality I was trying to depict so I found a cat button to add to my piece. I cut off the shank and filed the back down smooth with an emery board, then secured the flat button with a couple of strategic stitches.

Now what? The center had stuff going on in it but the perimeter of the piece was blank. What to do, what to do? Eventually I thought of spiders and how unflappable they seem to be when their webs get damaged. They just repair or rebuild (and we never hear them complain about it!). That's an element of the quality I admire in others so I put a spiderweb in one corner with metallic threads. Then then other corner cried out for some embellishments too. I have a deck of playing cards that have illustrations of flowers and the meanings the Victorians assigned to them. Going through that I found a card for Canterbury Bells which apparently stand for Constancy, another element of the quality I admire. My flowers in the upper right corner are not exactly Canterbury Bells but they come close ;- ) Then, yesterday, I went to my LBS and bought a few more beads in the right shade of green to finish off the bottom edge. Technically this piece still has to be mounted or finished somehow but the design is resolved:

I also pieced three prototypes for my January BJP journal quilt yesterday (before I went out!). I thought maybe the third try was going to be the one I would use for my quilt but, looking at it this morning, I'm thinking I may have another go with a different set of prints. The ones I chose yesterday are too busy to allow any beading to really show up. Whether that happens today or not remains to be seen...