Monday 7 February 2011

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.

7 comments:

  1. What a lovely quilt - the circles have turned out really well haven't they? Please can you bring it into college this weekend?

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  2. I like the way you've combined the coloured and hand dyed fabric.

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  3. I love what you've done. Thanks for giving us a close up so I can see the quilting and the embroidery. Can't wait to see the next post of it.

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  4. That is looking more and more amazing with each step. Can't wait to see what it looks like at the end!

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  5. Hazel this is absolutely amazing. Inspirational. I can't wait to see it finished and I also want to see this quilt entered in some quilt shows. It is an award winning quilt in the making. Spectacular. Lovely colors, beautiful design, excellent quilting and embellishment. A glorious piece of art!

    SewCalGal
    www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

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  6. This looks great. Hopefully I'll see it in person soon?

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  7. I am really enjoying watching your experiments with wax crayons but this piece especially is beautiful. I may even call into college just to have a nosey if you are taking it in.

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