Saturday, January 1, 2011

something new

December 31, 2010 

I caught a glimpse somewhere of someone's "journal quilt project," not for the first time -- it's a common enough endeavor among the artists I follow -- but this time it grabbed me. Maybe I liked the small, square piece I saw, its crowd of faces, each printed on nickel-sized buttons and sewn to the quilted fabric, a tiny circus of images. I was inspired to start something like that myself: one small "journal" square per week, more or less, to alleviate the boredom I sometimes feel while cutting and assembling pieces for a traditional quilt like the one I've started recently.

The square above, roughly 5x5 inches, was pieced at its foundation level from scraps of the quilt cloth I'm cutting. I added a small muslin teabag I used recently to steep some hibiscus-ginger tea; I was taken with the violet-reds of the stain left over. I added a few other items for texture: some sky-blue waxed linen thread, a few hand-dyed scraps purchased from Gerdiary (see link on the right), a ceramic button, a bead, a washer, a scrap of silk flower picked from the grass at a local cemetery.

2010 "Was the year of not giving up, and Not knowing when to quit."

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