Contemporary Quilt Group – Journal Quilts

This year, for the first time, I committed to joining others in the Contemporary Quilt Group – part of the Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles – making Journal Quilts; one small quilt a month. This year the stated size is 7 inches wide and 10 inches high. I decided to use my own emotions as the inspiration for each quilt, basing each piece on the way I feel on the day I begin working on it.
Dorothy Russell and the January Journal Quilt

Dorothy Russell’s January Journal Quilt

The first four images were posted, as required, on the Group’s Yahoo site by 30th April and I have already completed May’s offering. These little quilts are fun to make and can be experimental as there’s not a huge commitment of time given to each one. It is, never the less, a good idea not to leave each piece to the end of its month or I’d have to work on twelve ways to depict ‘stress’!  
Dorothy Russell and the February Journal Quilt

Dorothy Russell’s February Journal Quilt

So far there has been some variety in my emotional state, thus the first one, January, represents a day on which ‘I Woke Up Angry’, for no known reason: in fact it was this which gave me the whole emotion based approach to my 2010 Journal Quilt series. February’s piece is entitled ‘Today was a Good Day’ which says it all and the colours and shapes represent a very positive and mellow mood.
Dorothy Russell and the March Journal Quilt

Dorothy Russell’s March Journal Quilt

March brought ‘Cheerful’, a complex little silk painting enhanced with machine quilting beading and one green ‘blob’, also decorated with beads, denoting the fact that, in this kind of mood, even when things don’t go according to plan, it’s ok. For April’s quilt I took a selection of small offcuts from one of the workshops I’m currently teaching and arranged them on fine calico. I machine quilted the layers together then used fabric crayons to colour the background. The quilt is called ‘Loving my Workshops’ and I really am. I love teaching and I’ve got a wonderful group of students.
Dorothy Russell and the April Journal Quilt

Dorothy Russell’s April Journal Quilt

All of my journal quilts will have top and bottom layers fringed all round and the wadding will be visible at the edges. I have coloured the edges of some of the quilts so far but do not wish to be restricted to applying colour where I don’t feel it helps to portray the emotion I’m working with. I’ll add the rest of the months in groups of four as I submit them to the Contemporary Quilt Yahoo group site. Dot Russell 5th May 2010