CQ 10

It is amazing what leaving a picture and samples pinned to the wall does! I had been thinking in one direction and am now pursuing a new line, just on the basis of repeatedly seeing the textiles displayed before me!
That is the beauty of a challenge - forcing one to try ideas that  would not normally get an airing.
The pained Lutrador that was destined to be cut into wheels and applied may now be a whole cloth background - and fabric I had dyed (badly) for another project now seems to be an ideal backing for the Lutrador

and a freezer paper cut out chimney with a small amount of Markal stitch to define one edge and the base may well work too.

I've had a great creative, eye opening day!

August JQ planning

The very act of deciding to do something simple seems to have released the creative juices! So... I've been doing some experiments which have taught me some useful lessons:
* Plan properly before rushing in
* Always measure accurately, doing it by eye is not good enough
* I quite like raw edges, but not sure yet how to get the effect I want ( some pieces just look badly cut out!)
* Surface decoration is more important than piecing to me (never thought I'd ever say that!)
* I have to start to think about what on earth I do with all this "stuff" I'm producing I can't just put it all in a cupboard, too much of it. Samples are ok, they can be cut down and put in the sketchbook, its the "finished" bits I'm worried about.
I quite like the idea that the background is itself pieced - 2 samples made:

This is woven from strips of fabric.

This has 2.5" squares applied to wadding that has adhesive on one side.
I think I prefer the woven version but perhaps with some bondaweb as well.
Then I tried a freezer paper stencil on both samples and sponged fabric dye onto the fabric. This works well and I'll definitely use that technique again.

2011 Journal Quilts - March Quilt?

Following my experiments on Saturday I am now trying out ideas with them in the small repeat pattern shown earlier. We are working to a 10" square so I redrew it to size before tracing it onto Freezer paper. The fabrics had bondaweb applied to the reverse and the cut up freezer paper lightly ironed onto the RS of the fabric. To reduce the bulk I applied the shapes to muslin.
I then joined the sections together with fine seams to give the basic overall pattern for this experiment. Now I plan to embellish the surface.
I am feeling a growing tension - I am actually enjoying working on this smaller scale and wonder whether I will want to make a larger wall hanging, I am enjoying the intricacies of this scale which is really new for me.