Monday, May 3, 2010

April Journal Quilt


April Journal Quilt
Originally uploaded by
Pictures by Ann
This is the journal quilt I made to remember activities and special holidays in April. It's about 9" x 12".

The entire quilt top is hand-embroidered using the blanket stitch and back stitch. Around the clouds and above the top layer of grass, I machine-sewed a single line through all layers of the quilt to hold the filling in place.

I'm doing one journal quilt per month as a personal challenge as well as for a swap on Swap-Bot.

The journal quilt includes fabric from a quilt that I made for my mom this month that celebrates her 80th birthday.

The clouds were the first version of two words that describe her, but I ended up not using because the white embroidery floss against the light blue flannel didn't create enough of a visual contrast (she has macular degeneration).

The bunny represents Easter which was on April 4th.

The tree represents my favorite oak tree in the west pasture. I hand-sewed 80 beads on it to represent my mom turning 80 on April 24th. The beads are in colors that are representative of buds, blossoms, and new leaves on the trees.

The tree swing represents my daughters who love to swing on their tree swing in the apple tree in the backyard. It also reminds me of the night when the girls and I were swinging on the swings in the backyard and having a lot of fun.

The lime-green grass reminds me of a tiny lime-green frog the girls and I spotted in the pasture. It sat in our hands and on our fingers so we could get a closer look at it.

The swirls in the green fabric represent the long vines that the girls found in the pasture that they pullled up so the horses wouldn't trip when they gallop.

The 2 flowers represent the 40 wild irises that the girls and I transplanted from the pasture next to the house.

2 comments:

Brynn said...

I love this idea of a quilt journal. Yours is turning out beautiful.

Julie said...

I really love this quilt in particular - I think it is the color of the tree. Just beautiful.