Journal Quilts 2011 Review

One of my goals in 2011 was to participate in 3 Creative Studios Journal Quilt Challenge.  Vicki Welsh of 3CS made it so easy to participate.  No rules other than the ones we set for ourselves.  My goal was to do 1 journal quilt per month, and to use some of my own hand dyed fabric. 

Mission accomplished!

Elephant Reunion : 3CS Journal Quilt Challenege - Technique of the Month

Elephant Reunion
Thread Sketch on hand-dyed fabric
Size is about 9 x 12 inches.

Notes on the Making :



The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
~Henry David Thoreau

I started with this picture of 2 elephants showing their affection for each other. It's really a very moving story that I had seen on Nature about an elephant who was kicked out of the circus due to an injury . A small zoo in Alabama picked her up, but for 25 years, she never saw another elephant. Recently, they moved her to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee where she could be with other elephants. She actually KNEW one of the elephants there from her days in the Circus and they had a heartfelt reunion. They say elephants never forget ... ;-)

First aired in 2000 "The Urban Elephant" brought viewers the touching story of Shirley and Jenny, two crippled elephants reunited at the Elephant Sanctuary in Howenwald, Tennessee.
To learn more about the Elephant Santuary visit here:
The Elephant Sanctuary : Hohenwald Tennessee

Thanks to A Brit in Tennessee for reminding me of this story! I was so moved by their reunion, that I wanted to do a thread sketch to honor their long-time friendship and affection for each other.






On Friday morning (before Quilt Camp), I used my light box, and worked up a sketch based on the Elephant image above.

On Friday evening (at Quilt Camp), I transferred the sketch to Golden Threads quilt tracing paper. You can see it pin-basted to the fabric and batting, which works as stabilizer. I tend not to include the backing fabric at this stage, as the backs can get pretty tangled and ugly after all this thread work.

Drawing out the design twice is actually a great help to getting the design into my brain BEFORE I start to stitch.

After a brief warm-up, I started in on the stitching, with simple black thread (regular cotton on top, and a lighter polyester in the bobbin suitable for embroidery). I don't want so much thread build-up on the backside. Whereas a thicker thread on top helps to cover more ground, and fill in the shapes better, faster.

The background fabric is a piece I snow-dyed way back in February 2009--It said so right in the corner. ;-) It's good to keep such notes!

It took about 7 hours on Friday to make this little quiltie. That includes starting with the sketch and stitching time. I actually had it done by 11 pm!

Lessons Learned : I spent an inordinate amount of time picking out the bits of quilt paper. This method works great in other situations, but not so good here with the dense stitching. Perhaps water-soluble stabilizer might have been a better choice (? I've had trouble getting all the stabilizer out without it becoming al-gummo, so not sure that is the answer.) Perhaps simply drawing the sketch onto the fabric would have worked, too?


Detail of one of the elephants.
If you look closely, you can see some of the tracing paper ... Still need to add a few little beads for the sparkle in their eyes.

The binding is a simple envelope, so the backing in relatively "clean."
I am very pleased with how this turned out!

Read more about Thread Sketching as The Technique-of-the-Month on the 3 Creative Studios Blog. I'll definitely be doing more of this!

Playing with Red Barn Scraps

With some of the scraps from Unca Ray's Red Barn Quilt, I made a cover for this portable sewing kit. It's really a re-purposed box of matches. This is the sewing kit I keep in my Quilt Guild Bag. This way, I'm always prepared in case they give us some kind of small project to do on Guild night. The safety pin marks to top of the box--so I don't open it up-side-down by accident.


I also made this small journal quilt using more scraps from Unca Ray's Red Barn Quilt. The Rooster is a silhouette made from some black landscape cloth (It seems very similar to Lutradur, and is available locally for much less $$) along with a layer of bronze-sparkly tulle. There's a lot of reflection in this picture, so I took another one below.




I traced the outline of the rooster onto Quilting paper. Then layered it (from the bottom up : batting, red patchwork, black landscape cloth, sparkly tulle, quilt paper), and sewed it. Then I clipped carefully around the rooster; Free-motion quilted the rest of the background, added a backing and finished it with some yarn on the edges. It's 9-1/2 x 9 in.

Cranes at Sunset : 3CS Journal Quilt for July

Here is the completed Cranes at Sunset Journal Quilt. Without actually measuring, I can tell you it is slightly smaller than a fat-quarter. It is essentially a whole-cloth quilt.

It could also count for the Sketchbook Challenge whose theme for July is Element. This captures the elements of Air and Fire.


Here's a detail shot of the stitching and cranes.

Here's how I made it from start to finish :

One of my self-imposed requirements for the 3CS Journal Quilt Challenge is that I have to use some of my own hand-dyed fabric. This sunset piece is from a weekend Skye Dyes workshop I took with Mickey Lawlor in 2008 (or so). This piece has been a long time in the gestation phase!


I knew I wanted cranes flying in their typical formation, because it would fit so nicely in the bright area of the sunset. We do see cranes in Wisconsin. ;-) This picture shows the "used" freezer paper stencil I made to get the birds on there. I thought the stenciled birds would look sharper and cleaner than birds stuck on with fusible applique. These are just a little too small to futz with fusible. A little black fabric paint worked marvelously through the stencil. Frankly, I was surprised and delighted at how easy it was. I knew I only had one shot at it. The freezer paper can be lightly ironed to the fabric so it stays in place and prevents leaks. Works great!

Here are the results at the stenciled stage :


Since this is a whole-cloth quilt, there was no piecing to be done. I made my quilt sandwich. This time I used a recycled mattress pad for the batting. My preferred batt is Hobbs 80/20. I love the antique look it lends to quilts. However, if it hangs in a wall-hanging, sometimes it can sag after a while. So I wanted to use a poly batt, and this is what I had at hand this weekend. It seems to have worked out fine.

The next step was to choose free-motion quilting patterns. So I sat down with Leah Day's 365 Days of Free-Motion Quilting and studied the patterns. Ever since I discovered Leah's project, I've always meant to sit down and practice each pattern as she posted them, but that never really happened ... This worked out well, though : Having a project in mind, and being able to find the designs that would work.


When I found designs I liked, I practiced them on paper before going to the sewing machine. There were some of the possibilities for the setting sun (hot) areas. I was going for the shape and motion to echo the flying birds.

You can see what I wound up stitching is not exactly like Leah's patterns, however, it was still a great inspiration to look through her pattern library. Check it out!


Here's the swirling spiral pattern I used for the dark part of the sky. I thought it had a moodier feel, so I went with this one. Again, the actual pattern as stitched in my little quilt is not perfectly the same as Leah's model, but again, it was great inspiration. Thank you, Leah, for doing your Free Motion Quilting Project!

This afternoon I finished up the binding, with sweat running down my face, and my back. We don't have air conditioning, so I'm really glad it's finished, and I can go to a cooler part of the house to blog about it!

Marsh Sunset : June Journal Quilt

This journal quilt is made from some of the leftover fabrics from this quilt.
When I lived in Madison, WI, I used to drive out to Cherokee Marsh several times a week to watch the best light show in town! Even now when I go back, I try to make the pilgrimage to Cherokee. Sigh!

The Techniques:
After the basic background block came together, I made a freezer paper stencil and painted on black fabric paint for the heron silhouette.
Then I made my quilt sandwich and stitched an outline of the sun. I used a different free-motion pattern inside the sun (Pebbles) vs. outside the sun (Water). I needed a clear demarcation of where to stitch each pattern, as well as a trough for the beadwork to come later. Once the freemotion work was done, things were a bit wonky, so I spritzed it with water and steamed it back into shape. I like Hobbs 80/20 batting because it crinkles up so nicely after it;s washed, or spritzed. It gives it an antique look. That's also when some of the lines on the bird appeared. I tried stitching through the paint, but my machine and the thread put up all manner of protest, until I gave up on that idea.

Next it was time for the beadwork. I strung several sunset/fire colored beads onto a string, and then couched them down by hand. I'm getting more comfortable with that whole process.

It's the usual envelope binding with a machine-stitched cord to frame it.


Detail of the heron, beadwork, quilting and the yarn border.

Little Blue Bird : May Journal Quilt

I finished the Little Blue Bird Journal Quilt this weekend.
The blue and purple background is one of my hand-dyes; so is the pink cheesecloth. The Little Blue bird was free-motion embroidery stitched in a workshop last fall with Karla Spinks.


He's been sitting on on design wall for the past few months in this state. I wasn't quite sure how to proceed. I knew I wanted a cloud of pink for spring blossoms on the tree, but I also wanted to be able to see the sky through those blossom-laden branches. So a solid piece of fabric wouldn't work ... It took me a while to figure out I could use the cheesecloth for that purpose. So I top-stitched the pink cheesecloth onto the batting topped with the background fabric.


In this picture, I had just stitched down the branches, using a piece of quilting paper for placement of the branches. Once it's stitched on, you can easily tear away the quilt paper. For the branches, I made a machine-stitched cord out of 4 pieces of textured yarns. Lots of color in these branches (black, purple, brown and green) all twisted together.


Next, I added the little blue bird with a simple applique stitch and invisible thread. When I first made him, I had also embroidered a branch for him to grasp. That had to go, so I cut it off and let him grasp the yarn branches instead. Since the yarn branches are kind-of 3D, I had to add a little extra batting under the rest of the bird to make his head stand at an even height with the parts on top of the branches.


Next came the little flowers. These were cut off of a silk flower probably gotten at a thrift store. I had pulled the flowers off months ago, and tried to dye them. But they must be synthetic, as they would not take the color. They are not stark white, they took the slightest hint of color. For the centers, I added gold and pink beads. Some of the flowers were folded over or crushed, so I let them stay that way.


Detail of Blue Bird and Flowers.


Here it is trimmed to size and squared up awaiting the backing. [It is square : The design wall is tilted, so it looks a little wonky.] For the journal quilts, I usually do a simple envelope binding.


This is the stitching from the front through the batting layer.


The final step was to add a twisted yarn as a border (which you can see in the photo at the top of this post). It just needed a little something else to finish it off properly.

3CS April Journal Quilt : Red Wing Black Bird (Mock II)

This is the final installment (?) from the Red Wing Black Bird series that began as a simple sketch in my Sketchbook Challenge notebook. It later morphed into a paper collage, and finally grew into this full-fledged journal quilt.

Requirements : Use some of my hand dyed fabric.
* The green background was dyed in Feb 2009
* The green cheesecloth was dyed in Feb 2008

Size : about the size of a fat quarter


Notes : The cheesecloth is free-motion stitched to the wintergreen background fabric and batting. I just followed the crinkles and folds in the cheesecloth. My aim was to secure the cheesecloth down. My regular open-toe free-motion foot did not work at all with this cheesecloth. It kept catching on the strings. The open-toe zig-zag foot worked much better because it's sort of curled up at the front, like a ski; That way it's didn't catch. The real backing came later ... You can see how much I thread painted the grasses at the bottom. Unfortunately, they don't seem to show up much on the front-side. I am considering going over them with Neocolor 2 water-soluble crayons to make them stand out more ...


I liked the scrubby, ragged edge of the hand-dye and couldn't bear to trim it down when adding the backing fabric, so I managed to preserve that textured edge by attaching the back to the batting layer. It's a basic turned binding, envelope style.


The rock was made with a scrap from a pair of wool trousers that I managed to felt (by accident). Since I can't wear them anymore, I've discovered the fabric makes fantastic rocks. I just sort of crumbled it into a rock shape, pinned it in place and stitched it down. Then I added some yarns to add depth to the crevices. It's a great perch for this red-wing!


The bird is made from black felted wool. I started to attach the red/white patch on the wing by needle-felting, but soon realized that it would distort too much. So I went with Plan B : applique the wing at the shoulder and thread paint the red and white patch. That worked! The bird's wing is attached only on the shoulder side. The wing-tip can pull away from the bird body. In this picture you can see a slight shadow under the wing ...


If it had been a smaller quilt, the bird on the rock would have been enough of a focal point. But it looked like the bird was watching something in the sky--it needed something up there for balance ... but what? A dragon fly? A green marsh star? I considered beading something to put in the sky, but I knew that was likely to add years to finishing this piece. I am not a confident, nor an efficient beader. Plan B : Try to find a suitably hideous brooch at the thrift store. Enter this Emerald beauty found at the St. Vinny's in Madison, WI (They have really "good" junk there!) It's just the thing to balance this piece.

Midnight Watchman : January Journal Quilt

Here's my entry for the 3CS Journal Quilts Challenge. A few years ago, I had a hollyhock in the garden that was this dark. No kidding! I think it was called Midnight Watchman in the seed catalogs. I loved it!

This one is actually postcard size. It's been sitting in my studio for more than a year, just waiting to be finished with something. I added the beads this weekend. It's made from some leftover burnout velvet, along with the red leaf that came from a spray of fake flowers. Lots of rich texture that is difficult to photograph.


I stitched it to the flap of this messenger bag. It was a freebie with a company logo on the flap, so I covered that up with the new postcard. I'm using this bag, now to hold my art supplies (pencils, brushes, erasers, Neocolor crayans ...) for the Sketchbook Challenge. This keeps everything together, and makes the kit more mobile.