Journal Quilt in Progress

I've decided to try a new venture for me this year - the Contemporary Quilt Group Journal Project. The group has a journal project each year and this year it starts in February. There are very few rules apart from the size (10" square) and in the first 4 months it must include a circle (with other things to include later in the year). As you can see I've done that!!

I started with a browse through my books on Art Deco ceramics. I particularly love Clarice Cliff's pottery but also visited an exhibition in London a few years ago of ceramics from the Hermitage in St Petersburg  which feature geometric shapes in striking colours. This is all right up my street! I love geometry and especially circles so I keep coming back to simple shapes and bright colours. This design was developed from a pattern around a bowl.

Anyway after drawing out a design - the curved 'ribbon' I traced it onto fabric and coloured using wax crayons. Then I drew random circles to fill some of the white space but decided to applique them in hand dyed fabric. I found some dyed silk satin in my stash in just the right colours so fused them on.

So far I've embroidered blanket stitch around the circles and some other automatic stitch patterns along the curves:

Here's a close up of the embroidery:

I added trapunto behind the circles using what I am calling 'glue stick trapunto'. Basically I ran a washable glue stick around the inside of the back of each circle close to the buttonhole stitching. I finger pressed on pieces of wadding a little larger than needed. When the glue had dried I was able to fold back and trim away the excess wadding to make a pretty neat circle - quick and easy!

This evening after work I started background quilting and I can't believe how well the cicles have 'puffed up'. I had to take the photo under the light of my machine but hopefully you can see the raised circles. So next I have to finish the background and stitch detail on the centre of the 'ribbon'. I'll be back later in the week to show you my progress.