November Journal Page

I might have got the hang of putting in the photos so they show in the correct order. Yahoo puts them in backwards so you have to pick them backwards, well that's the theory.

I was late with my October contemporary quilt journal page challenge because I redid my September one. But a bit of cold weather brought on my asthma and kept me indoors so I actually got Novembers JP done in the nick of time. For this month I've chosen song is "Tie a Yellow Ribbon round the old Oak Tree". I don't actualy know who originally sang this song but its been around long enough for people to recognise it. I thought a lot about how I was going to represent the oak tree, I could have fme'd it but I've been wanting to try out transferring an image using inkjet transparencies. Maybe I should have done the quilting after I'd transferred the image because it missed in the dips (which I should have thought of) making the whole thing look a bit hazy. It also made the fabric feel hard and difficult to hand sew through. But hey that's what the challenge is for, to try out new ideas so I've left it as it is.

Actually on second thoughts I like the hazy tree image it gives the feeling of that early morning mistiness you get at this time of the year. I digitised oak leaves and using several layers of sheer fabrics in different colours sewed them out and burned round them to be sewn on by hand. I decided to trap some in the binding and layer them on the bottom to accentuate the autumnal theme. Finally added a ribbon round the old oak tree.

It didn't take too long to make this JP as I'd had the idea in my mind for some time but originally it was going to be a village green background. We've been out and about quite a lot recently and it struck me that the plainer the background the more you see the trees. So the background was drawn from the pattern of fields seen this time of the year. All in all it took me a couple of days to make and I enjoyed doing it. Now on to December's JP the last one in this challenge.

The postman has been good to me again, two 'Medieval" postcards arrived yesterday one from Brigitte who also has used the inkjet transparency method to transfer an image onto fabric. Brigitte's image has turned out much clearer than mine. Jennifer has created a card using machine embroidery then covered it in a medium resembling glitter glue. This has given it the look and feel of the stone carvings we find on posts on the moors around here.

I don't think I showed my November arch for Gabriela, its part of a year long arch exchange on TextileChallenge group. The background is a techniqued used by Maggie Grey in her latest book Textile Translations Mixed Media. I painted pelmet vilene with gesso, made marks in it, sprinkled salt in some areas then sprayed it with Adirondack colour wash paints. Once it was dry I machined stitched it with metallic thread and gilded some areas with gold and silver leaf. Finally I stamped flowers on it and painted them with gold glaze from CraftyNotions and added a glass bead to the centre of each flower.

This is my November arch from Anni in Denmark she's made a wet felted background and then felted pieces of lace into it. Anni's added buttons and embroidered flowers to the background. The whole piece is soft - soft touch, soft colours I keep wanting to stroke it. Its a beautiful piece Anni, thank you so much.

One other challenge that I've been keeping up with but haven't posted about for a while is the Stitchinfingers 100 stitches in 200 days challenge. I think I'd finished day71 the last time I posted and I'm now up to day 90. I'll post photos tomorrow of the completed blocks containing these seam treatments. I find it boring scanning in each day's seam treatment. I personally would prefer to see the finished article rather than the individual stitch. So tomorrow more on that challenge.