Wednesday 15 April 2009

Contemporary Quilt Group Journal Quilt

I have been panicking a bit about getting the April quilt finished in time for the deadline but I'm delighted to say that I finished it this afternoon! Yay!
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For this month's quilt I decided I would continue with the Sashiko theme that I had done at the workshop earlier this month. I have to admit that I didn't stretch my design skills too far and used the same arrangement within the frane of the quilt as the Sashiko wallhanging (which I still have to finish). Because of the background fabric I had decided to use, fish were an obvious choice for the main element. When I worked out the design below I used a template given to me by the workshop tutor but I then found a more suitable image, which did not need resizing, in a mosaic design book. You should be able to see that I traced and cut the template from a document wallet. Very useful!
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As I described in my earlier post I cut the fish shapes from some batik squares that I already had. I moved the templates around until they were over areas that reminded me of the patterns on fishes. The fabric was originally meant to be used on the reverse side where I had used oilbars to make rubbings from my shoe soles and then painted with silk paints but I liked this aspect which looked watery.
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The fish were bonded onto the base fabric and then handstitched around the edge in buttonhole/blanket stitch with silk noil which only frayed on me a couple of times.
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I scanned the fabric with the fish bondawebbed on and then tried out a few possible stitch arrangements in various felt tips. I decided that I would go with the bubbles and suggestion of movement lines.
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Ta dah! The finished quilt! I think the scale of the fish and the cropping has gone a little awry but I am so delighted to have put a proper binding on this with the help of this tutorial. :o)) The whole quilt is handsewn as I don't have anywhere to set up my machine at the moment. I also sewed in a little organza for the tails and a few beads crept in too.
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I think I have floated (pardon the pun!) a little away from the Sashiko theme so will probably revisit that in the future but I have enjoyed making this little quilt.
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Now for the next four months!
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11 comments:

Maggi said...

This is lovely Julie and the bubbles are great.

Sandra Wyman said...

Your journal quilts get better and better and the binding looks perfect!

Heather said...

Your quilts are really lovely - the fish look so good against your background fabric. All that hand sewing deserves a gold star!! I'm looking forward to seeing the next one.

Gina said...

Lovely little quilt - the fish look great against the background.

Mrs Mac said...

This is lovely! Must show Dilly these 'phwish'!

LOVE STITCHING RED said...

What a great idea to scan and use a felt tip to try out stitches and design. I always go straight to stitch, which usually works for me, but when at a bit of a loss where to start your tips will be invaluable!!

The quilt is lovely and I look forward to following your progress on next quilt, Julie

Sharne Gregory said...

It's lovely Julie and what a good job on the binding.

sharon young said...

Fantastic, Julie, what a lovely colourful lively piece.

Julie said...

Maggi, thank you :o) The bubbles are French Knots, just one twist on the needle and I held onto the loop as I pulled the thread through.

Helena and Sharne, thank you both for your lovely comments :o)

Carolyn - I often just start stitching too but I really wasn't sure what to do for this piece so I had the scan idea. Your blogpost today on the St Ives collage gave me an idea but I will experiment with something like that later. I have an idea for next month and can't wait to start that. Hope I can keep on target for the rest of the challenge.

alsokaizen said...

what a lovely result. I think scanning and trying out stitches with marker is a very clever way to think the process through...

Jacky said...

I love the koi fish and the batik has worked a treat...beautiful work.