Last of the 2012 Journal Pages

 

I really wanted to get this years Contemporary Quilters Journal Page challenge finished as I've found the blue ones difficult to create.  I really enjoyed doing the red and yellow ones  and though I do likethe colour blue, the monochromatic blue journal pages were just a bit too much. 

 

I have continued with the origin of nursery rhyme theme for this last one and chosen:

 

Humpty Dumpty

 

 From around the 15th century the name Humpty Dumpty was used to describe a large person (perhaps egg shaped..)   However in the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty was an oversized cannon used by the Royalists in the seige of Colchester.   The Royalists mounted the cannon on the church tower of St Mary at the Wall.  They used it to excellent effect on the Parlimentarian troups (aka Roundheads) and appeared at one point to be winning.  However, someone, probably Lord Fairfax got fed up of being hammered by Humpty and gave the order for the Roundheads to concentrate all their fire power at thechurch tower.  Which they did and eventually managed to breakdown part of the tower wall.   With the result that Humpty Dumpty then fell off the tower (wall) and rolled down the hill.   The Royalists tried unsuccessfully, despite all the Kings horses and all the Kings men, to put Humpty back on the wall.  

 

This took place in the Summer of 1648 and eventually on the 27 August (my birthday!!) after 11 and half weeks of seige, Lord Goring surrended the city to the Parlimentary forces.

 

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.

Journal Pages

I've had three wonderful journal pages over the last couple of days all from the Colour Composition swap on the Surface Design Group . This one is from Charmion Stephens and is based on the Triad colour, hers were blue, orange and purple. The handmade beads make this one special.
This was Sandy Reis's 'Perfect Circles' just love the gradient colour in this one.
And my last but definitely not least is 'Favourite Artist' Klimt from Britta Ankenbouer. I don't know anyone who dislikes Klimt his patterns are compelling and Britta has done them so well.

Been doing some hand sewing on my Arch for Pam but I'm not yet at the stage where I want to show it. It's in fuschia silk with origami flowers and that's all I'm saying for now.

Been to see my mil today and was really pleased to see she is doing well, they've taken her off some of the pain killers, still has the morphine patch but that's all. She seemed so much brighter and can now potter around on her own. Still difficult to understand as her speech is poor but there's a twinkle in her eye as she was obviously cracking a joke. Pity I didn't understand it. My mum is fine too and has been out on her scooter to do some shopping. I think its the sun we've been having it has lightened her mood. As for me, not too good in the mornings, still quite breathless and my hands don't stop shaking until mid afternoon, something to do with the stuff they've given me to keep my airways open. But I'm assured it'll stop as soon as I've finished all my medicine.

Still not got my portrait photos in the post Keith keeps forgetting to take them with him when he goes out but I will get them in the post tomorrow.