April Journal Quilt

I have got there by the 30 April deadline and finished all four journal quilts in rapid concentrated time.  My April one is all hand stitched as I wanted something I could do on two six hour train journeys.  The inspiration is another photo of canal reflections I took in Venice.

The sun had disappeared and we had some free time so I went for a walk off the tourist trail.  I got lost in true Venetian style as I ultimately found myself back where I had started but I really like the soft colours in this photo.  I may well do something larger than a journal quilt if I can sort out some fabric.

I kept to my resolution to recycle/use only things I already have by making this one in silks from my 'bridal box'.  Ten years ago someone in the village where we lived retired from her business making wedding dresses and gave me one of those removal men's packing cases full of fabric off-cuts.  The fabric included loads of polyester satin, silk dupion, velvet, wedding veil netting and various odd bits of printed silk.  I have gradually used up most of the coloured silks which are an interesting statement of the colours that were fashionable for weddings in the 1990s.  I have given some away and I could go into business making small bags.  A couple of months ago I decided the supplies had shrunk enough for me to remove them from the box which had to live in my bedroom and they are now in something a little smaller in the studio.

This quilt is simply raw edged pieces layered direct onto the wadding.  The raw edges become part of the design.  Apart from the colours, the main thing that hit me about the photo was all the vertical lines so I stitched it closely in Kanta style.  I used Stef Francis variegated threads that I already had.  Some of them contained both dull pinks and turquoise which I thought might be a problem but actually worked really well.