Oct. Journal page finished

I decided to finish the edge with a satin stitch with a multicolor thread. I thought a binding would look too bulky. When I look at it now it looks like leaves floating down with trees in the background. If I had tried to achieve that effect I doubt that I would have been able to. I like it when things just fall together and seem right. I put a batik with some similar colors in it on the back. I hadn't thought about a label yet. Sometimes I just write with permanent marker on the backs, my name and the year. These journal pages are going to be visual, not wordy. I may start another series of them with words if I feel it is necessary.
For those of you who don't know the story about journal pages, here is how it got started. Jeanne Williamson decided to make one small quilt each week in 1999. They were all 8" x 10" and she continued doing this for seven years. In 2002 Karey B. organized the Journal Quilt Project in which each piece should be 8.5" x 11", the size of a piece of copy paper in the US. So Jeanne was the pioneer and then it became a world wide project for many people. Most people make a piece for each month and a lot of them have themes. Many of you have seen them on display at the big quilt shows such as Quilt Festival in Chicago in April each year.

Making small pieces gets you really in touch with each stitch. You may try new ideas that you don't want to jump into on a large piece. The piece is done in a shorter length of time so there is some instant gratification, something most of us need when we see our many unfinished projects stashed away. I think they need to be made impulsively, not as if it is a chore.

Journal pages - October

I have been wanting to do the journal pages that so many others have done but I just couldn't seem to get started on it. I have seen them done in 9" x 12" and 8.5" x 11". I decided on the latter. I have fused the leaves in place, layered with fusible batting, a layer of canvas, and a back. I put the canvas in there for a little stiffness so the piece won't curl or wrinkle. I have stitched the leaves with a straight stitch, 2.0 in length along the outside edges and along the veins. I haven't decided on my edge finish for the page yet. Click on the picture for a closer look at the stitching.

This page is for October, when the yards are still green, but the weeds and cornfields are turning brown, and the leaves will begin turning and falling. I think I will go backwards and do a September page with one of my photos of asters and butterflies too.
How do you know if your house is cold? Yesterday I was pressing the strip piecing and my glasses were so cold they steamed up. It is cool again this morning but it is supposed to heat up by afternoon.

Driving myself crazy looking for them

This is what I was looking for. Remember last year I scanned real leaves, printed them on fabric and put fusible web on the back of them? I looked where I thought they should be. I looked there again and again. Finally I decided maybe they were in the piles on my cutting table. This is what the cutting table looked like AFTER I had already gone through 2 piles on the end.
Two hours later this is what it looks like, and yes I did find the leaves
for this idea that I had

when I made this piece of strip pieced fabric Thursday night.
The bonus is that I found the folder with all of the little sketches I had made for the last 15 years.
It is cold and rainy this morning. The heat came on because the house was colder than 63 degrees. It's time to get out the sweaters and sweatshirts.

I can't seem to stop

I had to put all of the green strip sets up on the wall to see how they were working together. There were a couple gaps so I put in a couple little blue sets. Here are 2 of my design walls in the basement. I can't seem to take any of them down and use them for their original purpose. I guess I will have to make some more sets and finally make a decision if I am going to sew any of these together or just let them live in photos.
I think this is my version of painting. The strip sets are kind of like big brushstrokes.

The older I get the harder it is for me to make frivolous art and quilts. I see this huge pile of quilts that my family will need to divide up and I feel like they have to be useful quilts more than art hangings. I know I need to just remember my motto "to thine own self be true" and make what my heart says to make.

cutting strips

Last night I was doing clean up cuts on some batiks and then cutting my regular variety of strips for my bins. Here are the 2 bins of 1.5" batik strips, double layer in both boxes. Every time I open these boxes I want to start another log cabin quilt. This is that LAST painted lady photo that I took a few days ago. I love the spiky flowers in the lower left portion.
Yesterday there was a different butterfly, smaller than the yellow ones.
I wanted one more picture of the 2 colors of asters together. I saw a lot of volunteer plants along the edge of the garden by the sidewalk but I wasn't sure if they were balloon flowers until yesterday. I think it will get warm enough today for it to open.
They are promising us some 70 degree temperatures all next week. I'm glad because I'm not ready to pay a heating bill yet.

Nature and strips

The painted ladies seem to be gone. I guess they don't like our colder nights and cool days. The yellow butterflies are still here though. And the bees, there are so many of them. Here a bee and butterfly fight over the same flower.
I made this strip set last night.
Then I checked to see if two 4"x6" postcards would fit on it.
I just folded the edges back to see how they would look. Number one and

number 2. I don't know if I will use it for that; I am just playing at this point.
I got a phone call just as I was starting this post, a cousin wanting to talk about the family reunion. I know the time it says I posted is the time I actually started it, not when it is posted.

The entry on Sept. 19th in the 2008 Farmers Almanac engagement calendar says "If you draw squares or rectangles when you doodle, it indicates an organized and efficient mind". Now I do draw squares and rectangles most of the time, so do I have a partly organized and efficient mind?

This and That

My homecoming/reunion flower is on its last day. If I post another butterfly picture maybe I won't feel so cold this morning. It's in the 40's here this morning. The sun is shining so I hope we get up to at least 60 degrees today.
Last night I quilted the collaborative project that Julie and I are doing. She has been donating little 9" x 12" quilts to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative for quite awhile. I sent her some blocks I didn't need (green prints) and she cut them up to use for the background in her Priority Hope Challenge hosted by Tonya. If you click on either link (Julie or Tonya) they both have the link to the challenge page if you want to participate.

It will be back in the mail to Julie today so she can finish it.