I didn't think I'd manage it but I have finished my final Journal Quilt for 2010 and there are still 3 days before the deadline!! Yee har! I wasn't sure what the final quilt was going to be but, after watching a video at Laura and Linda Kemshall's Design Matters TV site I decided to have a go at paper piecing. I had a look through my photos for some fairly simple shapes and settled on an image I took in the harbour at St Ives.
This is the page from my sketchbook with the finished JQ next to my inspiration. The shapes were so simple I could have just used curved piecing but I thought I would carry on and use paper piecing as I had never done it before. In fact I think the shapes would have been easier to stitch in curved piecing but I got there in the end.
I used my own hand dyed fabrics and apart from stitching in the ditch to hold the quilt sandwich together and the horizontal quilting lines, all the rest was hand stitched including the binding. While I have Mum staying here hand sewing seems to be more convenient.
So, that's it on the Journal Quilt front for 2010. The new quilt size will be announced in January and I shall then have to decide whether to join in again. There is no doubt that this project does give you a focus and an opportunity to try things out on a small scale but I don't know what the new year is going to bring in terms of Mum's care so I will reserve judgement for the moment. Meanwhile I've grouped the 12 quilts from this year as you can see below.
