Blue Marks Journal Quilts

Now the Christmas activities are over, with a well stocked freezer and fridge, I'm now in the second day of my planned creative period. First thing on my list was completing  my Journal Quilts 'Shades of Blue'. I had so many ideas that came to nothing - I worked for quite a while on  blue doors and printed off loads of images on  fabric before deciding they were too photographic and not enough blue! Sorting through my fabric stash  and scraps for potential bookwrap material, I came across some monoprints and leftovers from other projects with interesting marks so this became my theme.

 Several years ago  after Cas Holmes workshop I bought some Pebeo Soleil fabric paints and did some sun printing with weeds  from the garden, I combined these with some monoprints from Jo Budd workshop and machine quilted it

 I was pleased with the double stitched leaves I achieved on Indigo Winter School at Great Missenden and combined them with some scraps of arashi left over from 'Weymouth Waves', adding some machine stitching.

 I produced this gorgeous monoprint with  brush strokes of  screenprinting inks on silk when  working on pieces for Red Flotsam but couldn't bear to use it! So I took photos and inkjet printed sections out on fabric at different scales (below). I used different thicknesses of white thread and hand stitched it.  Definately an idea to follow up - having your cake and eating it!!

It has its limitations though - it doesn't have the sheen of the original so in this last JQ I used a silk satin monoprint, both shiny and matte sides and machine stitched with Madeira metallic thread. I really wanted to hand stitch it but ran out of time but I like the effect anyway.

 

I've really enjoyed this years challenge  and found it a useful process to explore and make mini-series on different themes resulting in a more cohesive collection. Look forward to seeing what next year brings!