Thursday 8 April 2010

March and April Journal Quilts

I've been having a purge of quilt books (Ian is selling them on his Amazon Marketplace site'Snapupbooks') . One that I wouldn't get rid of and that is still fresh despite being published in 1996 is 'The Fabric Makes The Quilt' by Roberta Horton. I was thinking of it when for my March Journal Quilt 'Indigo Sea' I put together 2 Indigo shibori fabrics bought from Changs at recent Region 1 area day with some African damask from Magie Relph and they spoke 'waves' to me. There's been a bit of a discussion on BQL Yahoo group about the 'skinny insert' techniques of Alison Schwabe and I was also thinking of the curved techniques that Charlotte Yde taught at QGBI AGM in Cambridge. I'm really excited with the results and possibilities in cutting curves into these irregularly striped fabrics. The foreground reminded both Ian and I of sky reflected in wet sand ripples.
I'm also planning to use these stripey African shibori/tie dye fabrics in a quilt based on Tunisian doors and the use of 'skinny inserts' of a blue/black Japanese fabric proved just the job to suggest the cracks in between the wood panels . In April's Journal Quilt 'Berber Door' I've experimented with iron on transfer sheets to 'decorate' the door with the studded nail patterns and 'Hand of Fatima' patterns I saw on so many examples in Tunisia. I'm not sure what the pattern on the lower left means but we saw it everywhere in Le Kef . The transfer gives rather a plasticy feel but that seems quite appropriate for a crumbly door!

1 comment:

lisette said...

these are fabulous - the waves one especially speaks to me. just love indigo!