Friday, May 22, 2009

May Journal Quilt

I have been in a real creative slump lately so I thought I would do a journal quilt to get me moving again. I am calling this one 'Morning In the Garden' and it measures 9" x 11".
I bought some watercolor crayons about a month ago and last week was playing around with them and painted the large flower and green fabric on the left. This started as a larger piece on its own and I even added batting and backing and did the quilting and thread painting. Then I decided I hated it..... out came the scissors and I cut away the right side. I stated looking through my stash for a fabric to put it on. I laid what was left of the original piece on the orange/yellow fabric and added another layer of batting and backing fabric. I stitched down the orange flower and leaves (through all 6 layers) stuffing fiber fill under the flower petals to give them a 3D look. I also intentionally ironed in all of the wrinkles I could get on the leaves for additional texture. I then quilted the orange/yellow fabric. It still needed something else.

The black flower stems on the lower right are made from self adhesive cord that I found on clearance in the scrap booking department. The small blue flowers were made by cutting two, about an inch in diameter circles from organza and one from a silver fabric. I then layered the silver circle between the two organza circles and did an anchoring stitch in the center to hold them together. Out came the heat gun and holding the circles with long tweezers, I heated them until they melted into the flower shape I wanted. I did over do one and had to toss it but the others came out ok. The heat gun will melt the organza quickly so it can take a little trial and error to get it right. I then stitched down the stems and flowers and added beads to the centers. Still not done....... I used puff paint to add the stamens to the center of the lily and used Shiva paint sticks to add some highlights.
I took this picture from a side view trying to show the dimension in this piece. Click on the photos to get a larger view and better sense of the dimension. I think I might mount this to a painted canvas.

13 comments:

Digitalgran said...

This is a wonderful piece of work and I would suggest to whoever reads this to click to see the larger image. It's a fantastic photo of the piece. Thanks for sharing the way you re-created it.

Terri Stegmiller said...

This is a gorgeous quilt. Love the dimension and the colors and shapes are beautiful. Thank you for your visit and comment on my blog!

Margaret said...

Kudos, Judy. This piece draws me in with the terrific color and dimension! Every corner has a different attention-grabbing look/feel. Love it. Would be a great little workshop for our FAF group? Interested?

Susan Schrott, Artist said...

Judy
I would say this piece definitely got your creative juices flowing. I love the textures, the rich colors and the free motion quilting.

Michele/TextileTraveler said...

Judy, this is just stunning. The level of detail is amazing, and I love the texture. You should enter this somewhere!

Pat said...

This is absolutely beautiful. Now (being a fairly new quilter), can I ask a question that will sound dumb to many? What IS a journal quilt??? You began your post by saying you'd been in a slump and decided to do a journal quilt to get out of it....and I am totally unfamiliar with the term "journal quilt" and would like to know more about this and why it is called a journal quilt. Thanks1

Judy Alexander said...

Pat, this is a really interesting question. I think of a journal quilt as a quilt that is small in size and gives you the opportunity to try a new process or technique without investing too much time. It also could represent what is happening in your life at the time. A lot of art quilters do journal quilts on a regular basis such as once a month.

My art quilt group will be having a show in the fall and the theme is exploring dimension. Thanks for your visit and question. Judy

Vivien Zepf said...

Man, this is what you create when you're in a creative slump? Wow!!! Bravo!

NEEDLEWINGS said...

Awesome as usual! You are so inspiring!

Dotti said...

This is an amazing piece of work! This makes me want to get out my Neocolor II crayons and play also!

Dotti

Judy Hartman said...

This is REALLY beautiful, Judy.
I love the colors and the depth you've achieved and the photo is wonderful!
Very inspiring!

Unknown said...

People often think art is easy, but usually it's persistence that pays. Nice work!

sherry carrigan said...

This piece is absolutely gorgeous! I see a day lily in my future. Thanks so much for sharing your techniques.