Journal Quilts 2007

In a desperate act, in 1939, after my mother's family had lost the house and dry goods stores in the Depression, the family loaded 3 children and whatever belongings they could salvage into the '36 Pontiac to move to Florida, a golden land where it was rumored there were jobs. What must Miami have been in the imagination of my chatterbox, theatrical, and romantic young mother?

They made their trek South. Hitler marched into Poland. My mother squabbled with her brothers. Their feet rested on suitcases in the backseat. She dreamed of Errol Flynn, repeated "all the world's a stage" to herself, and saw "for coloreds" signs for the first time. She was 14, excited, and shielded from the dire circumstances of the economic reality.

Journal quilt making for me has been an archaeological journey, one in which I plumb my mother's memories for detail in layers digging down while building the quilt in layers going up. This is one in a series of quilts based on incidents in my mother's life in which I abandoned starting with a technique and concentrated on immersing myself in thoughts and emotions previously unknown to me. As I went, my visualization gelled until the quilt took this, its concrete form.

 
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Miyajima

Creative Quilting techniques used: pen drawing (p. 166); flower appliqué (p. 68); appliquéd textile (p. 55).

The Torii Gates at Miyajima are one of the most photographed sites in Japan. I made this Pigma pen image on silk after taking a pen-dot class from Cyndi Souder. I took the photo of the floating gates in 2005.

The silk shibori scarf was given to me by my friend, Sachiko. Her aunt, Kazuko Tabata, used it when she was young. I am fascinated by the craftsmanship of the artisan who made all the tiny knots and then dyed it with the red-orange, seen in the Torii Gates. I like the scarf's flower dot image and my pen-dotted image together. I didn't want to cut the scarf, so I wrapped it to the back of the quilt.

I added the flower broderie perse appliqué because it is a technique I've been using frequently and it brings to mind all the wonderful flowers I saw in Japan. I also used the black floral print as a background because it reminded me of the many subtle beautiful things in that amazing country.

 
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Phyllis Cullen

 
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CallaLovelines

Creative Quilting Techniques used: printing directly on fabric (p. 54); raw edge appliqué (p. 60); painting fabric with Set-a-color® fabric paints (p. 191).

The idea for this quilt was born when my daughter-in-law mentioned that her favorite flower was the calla lily. I immediately thought of the fabric I had in my stash that was perfect for that flower. I did struggle with finding a design that would fit the vertical format of the journal quilts, because I nearly always work in a horizontal format. I did not want a "bouquet" of flowers and experimented with several layouts.

When I finally settled on a rough approximation of this arrangement, it left three open areas for design. We had just had a family get-together where four generations of my daughter-in-law’s family were present so I thought of commemorating that event as the background to her lovely flowers. Placing the pictures in simple dark frames makes them recede, while the flowers come to the foreground. I chose the black background because I had seen a Guatemalan painting which showed that the dark color would crisply set off the lilies. I felt that the quilt should be bound in the same plain fashion as the frames without mitered corners. The doubling and then folding in of the edges of the fabric created significant difficulty in making correct smooth corners.

The white lace adds a three dimensional quality and airy feel as is often created with tiny open flowers in a real flower arrangement. I was very pleased with the way the transparent paints colored the base of the flowers in such a realistic fashion. The photo inks are pigment inks. I chose not to do stippling around the figures because I like the halo effect achieved, but do wonder how it would look if I had. I have seen real calla lilies and believe the flowers would not be improved with more quilting.

 
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Memories of Lesotho (Africa) for Alissa

Without Karey's encouragement and the inspired wisdom of the QuiltArt network online, I would never have been able to stretch myself so far out of my comfort zone. My daughter went to Africa for one month and I held my breath until she returned. The photo she took of Lesotho's unique homes and the untouched green rocky landscape surrounding them, really intrigued me, so I decided to challenge myself to translate that vision into fabric. I have never been able to draw, therefore to begin this project by creating an original drawing was a huge step for me. The real key, however, was how my precious world-traveler would react to this piece. and I'm so pleased that she loved it! I am so grateful to Karey for providing the impetus and support to make me travel into unknown quilt territory ! My quilts will never be the same after participating in two Journal Quilt Projects. Thank you, Karey, for all you do!

 
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The Dyer

Creative Quilting techniques used: carved stamp and stamped fabric (p.220); fused silhouette (p.165); handmade fabric beads (p.171).

On a working trip to Sierra Leone, my daughter took a photo of Sister Rogers dying fabric. I loved the curve of her body and wanted to document and honor this aspect of textile art. I traveled to South Africa this past year and used fabric from that country and from western Africa in this quilt.

Participating in the Journal Quilt Project was a wonderful stretching experience for me. I tried many techniques and documented two years of my life. My journal quilts were part of a two person quilt show and I taught classes in journal quilting. It has been fun to be part of an international project that took on a life of its own!

 
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The Lion Remembers

 
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Isaiah 55:12

Creative Quilting techniques used: writing bible verse on quilt (p. 52); 3D leaves tacked on (p. 71); various quilting patterns throughout quilt (p. 154-155).

This was my first Journal Quilt project. I had an idea right away after signing up for the project, I just wasn’t sure how to orchestrate it. I love the verse in Isaiah that talks about the mountains and hills burst forth with joy and trees in the fields will clap their hands. There’s a very lively song using this verse that reminds me of Fiddler on the Roof songs.

In March, I sketched out an idea. I kept adding notes and pouring over the Journal book. There were so many things I wanted to try! It was a matter of deciding what and how, without getting crazy.

I then took paper and mapped out 17x27. Well, my idea wasn’t working all that great in those parameters. I kept wanting to go landscape instead of portrait.

Then the shootings at Virginia Tech happened and I thought about doing something on that. Then life got in the way. In the middle of May I started getting cold feet. I voiced that on the QA list and so m any people wrote to encourage me. I also found a few like-minded "chickens" like myself. One AQer even threatened me that she wouldn’t let me quit! So, back at it I went.

I just keep coming back to my original idea and maybe part of this learning experience is for me to learn how to "make it work!" (Yeah, I got hooked on Project Runway because of the QA list!). So there I was at the end of May bound and determined to get started on it — even if it killed me! By the end of July, I had it fused. I really wanted to try some 3D type techniques without beading and I needed something in front of the mountains so decided to wash the fabric scrunched up and apply it like that. I was very pleased with the way it came out. Then I wanted to try a bunch of quilting patterns, so I enjoyed using the "rows of field" for playing. I had seen the quilt in the journal book with the little green bead leaves (p. 71) and I loved that, but I used fabric fused together instead. I’m really happy with the way it came out.

 
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Diminishing Returns

Creative Quilting techniques used: photo transfer (pg 24), Tsukineko All-Purpose Ink for shadowing (pg 13), Tsukineko inked words (pg 53).

I participated officially in the 2005 Journal Quilt Project and in this final year, though I have done journal quilts on other years without entering them. I have found doing the small exploration pieces to be quite challenging as I don’t usually work small. But trying out of new techniques has been invaluable to my development as an artist. It was fun to use an unusual array of items on past journal quilts like staples in one piece, use left over earrings in another and to play with such an array of disparate ideas. This year I looked forward to the new challenge and took the opportunity to explore how I could use images and expand the writing element in my work.

I tried to capture a bit of my concern about the changing water context of our lives but I am left with so many questions... like; how do we start to use water more wisely? How do we change the notion that water is not unending? How do we find the strength to do the tough actions that need to be done? Are we able to stop this uncontrolled use of our most valuable sacred life source? And ultimately, how is all this going to affect Canada’s national security?

 
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Detritus/Strata

Creative Quilting techniques used: computer manipulated photographs (p. 194); monoprint (p. 225); painted fusible (p.26).

What came before / What we leave behind.

Walking or cycling the one-third mile down the lane to our newspaper and mailboxes it's impossible not to notice the cans discarded by workers in the adjoining ferneries. They get flattened, buried, unearthed and sometimes mowed in two. Thoughts of using them as art had wafted through my mind, but I'd never gotten serious with myself about it. After discarding the idea of using the Journal Quilt Project as a means of trying to create in a style that 'just isn’t me', the cans beckoned. The idea of the cans as detritus was followed by the archaeological image of strata. I would work from there. I photographed and collected cans; cleaned, photographed more and began playing with the images in Photoshop. I sun-printed fabric layed over cans and when it was unsuccessful photographed that fabric, as well as monoprinted fabric, then returned to the computer for additional manipulation. Images were inkjet printed. These were combined with monoprinted and commercial fabrics and painted fusible. My method of design entails constant addition and subtraction until it looks passably right, without thinking about technique or materials. It was hard to ensure there were the requisite three techniques being used in a way that resulted in an integrated work. I also dug through some mental detritus of my own during this project and unearthed the truth that there is more than enough room for growth and exploration within my own style.

 
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Autumn Song

Creative Quilting techniques used: scanned photo of image (p. 77); stamped image (p.85); machine couching.

This piece features an image drawn by my husband, Mort Miller — one of many done in his weekly life-drawing class. I scanned his artwork and printed it on Extrav-organza. After placing three printed images on a multi-fabric background, I outlined each woman in rayon thread. The background is fused and the joins couched with ribbon and rayon thread. The organza is couched with acrylic yarn. Stamping directly on some of the hand-dyed background fabric added interest. I also tried a new-to-me technique by stamping gingko leaves on "nappy liner" and melting the stamped liner onto hand-dyed fabric for a different texture.

This year's journal quilt has been the most difficult for me. Partly, the change in size was daunting because I usually work even smaller than 8.5 x 11. Mostly, however, I felt paralyzed because submitting only one piece made me feel it had to be perfect on the first try. When you make nine pieces and choose the best five (as in years past), you have room for lesser designs to fall by the wayside. After a couple of months, I decided I had to just start and that I would do several pieces, choosing the best. Thanks to Karey Bresenhan for giving me the opportunity to stretch my boundaries!

 
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Catharsis

Creative Quilting Techniques used: button embellishment (pg 59); Angelina (pg 45); beading (pg 30); staples (pg 207).

My 2007 journal quilt is one that's been rolling around in my head for a long time, 7 years to be exact. The number 7 is a lucky number for some people, but it wasn't for my mother. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, and she died at the age of 77. Since this is 2007 and the last year of this project, I thought it was finally time to make this quilt.

This quilt has allowed me to express in an artists way the sadnes I felt about my Mothers death in 2000. It is filled with symbolism for me. Since this is 2007 and she died in 2000, there is a row of seven 2000's. The poison (chemo), slash (mastectomy), and burn (radiation) expresses how the medical community deals with cancer. The radiation symbol is for the radiation treatments she received when her cancer spread. The black circles at the bottom of the quilt represent the cancer cells that engulf the few remaining healthy cells left. There are 7sevens quilted in the background.

I've used techniques that I've learned how to do in the last year, namely the use of Angelina fibers for my Mother's hair. I also bought my irst power tool (a drill) that I used to drill holes in the letters. There are many tools an artist can find to use in a hardware store!

My dictionary defines catharsis as "the purifying of the emotions or relieving of emotional tension, especially by art." I'm hoping that this quilt will help me get over the mental block I've had for the last 7 years.

 
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Rahu

Creative Quilting techniques used: beading (p. 83); painting and pen (p. 174); trapunto (p. 52).

Beads have a way of finding a home on my quilts. It wasn't until I signed up for the first journal quilt project that I sewed on my first bead. Now I have a very difficult time leaving them off! In making Rahu, I knew that I wanted to quilt the background fairly heavy to bring out the trapunto. Never having done this before, I questioned myself as to how I would quilt around the beads or even if I could. I beaded through the top and batting only, but I wanted to quilt through all of the layers including the back. I decided to stipple quilt what I could and got as close to the beads as possible. After doing this for a while, I noticed that the beads were coming loose. Apparently I was getting too close to them with my darning foot. Then I decided to, very carefully, try and stipple without a foot. That did the trick. It didn't happen right away, but I did get the hang of it eventually. Consequently this did create a lot of stops and starts. It took a great deal of time burying all of those thread tails. In fact, this is the first quilt in which I did that for the entire quilt. Later I went back and re-strung every bead; hiding my knots in the batting! In the end, I was pleased with the way the back turned out.

I painted Lumiere© paint on the head and tail so they would stand out from the main body. Then I painted gold glitter on the spikes and used a pen for the toe nails.

Trapunto is something I had wanted to try and this turned out to be the perfect subject for this technique. His head reminds me of a beautiful beaded evening bag.

 
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Carolyn Sower

Autumn Goddess

2007 is my first year to participate in the Journal Quilts (JQ) project. It was scary for me as I don't normally send my work out into the public. I stressed over making my JQ, and ended up with three different ones that I discarded as unsuccessful. I started a fourth, but it wasn't interesting enough. I wanted to push myself a bit more, so I made a fifth one which was a "keeper."

This quilt is not like anything that I have done before, and I was sure it would end up looking like a blob. I used a lot of new-to-me techniques. I had read about painting and melting tyvek and other things, and decided to find out what the fun was in torturing various fibers. I also challenged myself to use all of the fiber pieces that I altered.

I painted timtex, tyvek, interfacing, stitch witchery, and poly fiberfill. I was thinking that some of these were polyester and when put in a flame, should melt and get a hard plastic edge. I first used a heat gun. The polyester fiberfill melted beautifully. It was all puffy when I started, but when hit with the heat gun, it started melting and shrinking down in loft. It ended up being more compressed with spots of melted holes. Wonderful texture. The stitch witchery melted into a stiff blob, but still useable, and the tyvek shrunk nicely. The heat gun didn't do anything noticeable to the interfacing and timtex, so I took a flame to them. The timtex only ever showed some scorch marks. The interfacing had some burn holes, but I never did get the hard melted plastic on the edges.

Once I arranged everything on my background, I added Angelina for the sun, rayon threads laid and couched for the sky, wool roving that I hand felted for the middle ground texture, and beads to the flowers. The bottom area was a bit bare so, I heated copper sheeting to get some color change and pounded it with a hammer to create texture. The sun area was too overpowering, so I created a goddess using synthetic overlay. I named this piece after it was completed because I didn't know exactly what it would turn out to be until it was done.

 
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Unnamed

Creative Quilting techniques used: sunprinted/painted fabric (p. 85); hand dyed fabric (p. 116); couching (p. 231); painted and heated tyvek (p. 43); angelina heat bondable fibers (p. 93); circles using a thumbtack to pivot the fabric (p. 231).

My 2004 Journal Quilt page that was featured in the Creative Quilting book featured circles using different techniques. I've continued to use this theme in a variety of pieces. In addition to the techniques listed above I've also included a painted and heated styrofoam plate; some fabric wrapped chenille stems (technique found in Sherrill Kahn's Creative Embellishments) and some fibers that I painted.

I’m not sure if continuing to use many of the same design features as my 2004 piece means I'm working in a series or if I'm in a rut.

But whichever it is I'm having lots of fun.

 
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Overwhelmed

Creative Quilting techniques used: Thread painting (p. 63 & 23); Photo transfer (p.125); Raw edge fused appliqué (p. 58 & 97); Fabric Painting (p. 219).

This was my first journal quilt, it has been a tremendous experience which has made me stretch well beyond my previous work.

I started this quilt three times, with three different concepts, but could not bring any of them past the design process. I reached the point where I was discouraged by my three failed attempts, stressed by the looming deadline, and overwhelmed by the many other obligations of my life — husband, four kids, full-time job, etc.

Then I had a vision of a favorite Bible verse, Isaiah 41:10, which says: "Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, I will hold you in my righteous right hand."

This quilt is that vision. While the overwhelming chaos of my life blows around me like a whirlwind, I sit peacefully in God’s hand.

I used several techniques for the first time in this quilt. In order to make the hand seem real, I thread painted in fingerprints and lines. Then, I hand appliquéd it to the background and used machine trapunto to make it stand out, then thread painted in the joints and major lines. Both techniques were new to me and I thread painted four hands before I was satisfied. Fabric painting was also new to me, and I used a technique where acrylic paints are mixed with shaving gel, so that the fabric keeps a softer hand. I used several gold and yellow paints and marbled them through the gel, then painted them onto the fabric.

 
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Reiki Peace Quilt

Creative Quilting techniques used: Tyvek painted with Lumiere and heat distressed (p. 175); stitching on metal (p. 223); hand-beaded embellishment (p. 245).

Late one February night, I couldn't sleep, and was reading my monthly on-line newsletter from reiki.org. I read about William Lee Rand's travels to the magnetic North Pole, where he placed the first World Peace Crystal Grid. He later traveled to the South Pole and to Jerusalem, placing grids constructed of copper, gold and crystals in the hope of magnifying prayer energy to facilitate world peace. They are designed in the shape of the heart chakra, and each petal has a symbol of one of the \ 12 major world religions. The inscription on the plaque says: "May the followers of all religions and spiritual paths work together to create peace among all people on earth." Rand's vision of world peace and religious harmony inspired my quilt.

In addition to tyvek, glass beads, sequins and 100% brass woven fabric, I used coffee-dyed and distressed waxed rice paper, Angelina fibers, polyester fabrics, hand quilting and machine quilting. I edged the quilt with coffee-dyed cotton. The hand-quilting is done in a geometric pattern to represent Earth's magnetic fields. The three medallions are actual photos of the North Pole Grid, printed on cotton and over-painted with gold acrylic. The 12 sequins on each tip represent the 12 major world religions, and the four spirals represent elements — air, water, fire and earth. The distressed tyvek square represents our endangered planet Earth. I chose deep purple for the bottom background because it is the color used on the reiki meditation symbol, the Antahkarana, and light aqua for the top background to represent the sky.

Over the past months I experimented with many new materials. I like the contrast of silky fabric with metal and paper, the organic quality of hand-dyeing cotton and paper versus the man-made Angelina fibers. I used hand quilting on the background since the fabric was so silky and slippery. I have been sewing and painting for years, but I only began combining the two in September 2006 with quilted postcards, and first began journal quilting in January 2007. This quilt represents a major accomplishment for me, and is my first large piece. I feel I have finally found my artistic niche and voice as a mixed-media art quilter.

 
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