I decided that it is MY project, and if I want to change my mind, I surely can.  So, I have abandoned my tree idea for the time being, and just picked another letter of the alphabet for my February Journal quilt.

I made a postcard a couple of days ago that was black with pink and green charms on it.  I decided to expand that into a larger piece and this is what I came up with:

I quilted the background fabric on my longarm.  The four charms were made individually and then I attached them with invisible nylon thread.  It had originally intended that the "O"s would both be buttons, and the "X"s would be beads, but I realized that i would be more interesting to try to come up with different ways to represent the hugs and kisses.  The bottom "O" is actually a tiny mirror that I glued in place and then surrounded with beads.  What I really should have done was used beads to create a "cage" for the mirror, but I wasn’t up to that today.

Both photos are clickable, so you can view them in a larger size.  The charms on this piece are about 1 3/4 inches square.

I think I’m supposed to post my reveal of my February 12×12 journal quilt tomorrow.

Considering I still have no clue what I’m doing for February’s journal quilt that’s going to be tough.  I have a sketch or 10, but I just haven’t been able to make up my mind and DO something.

Phooey.  So much for that goal (i.e. getting these done on time each month…).  Well, I’ll pick myself up, dust myself off, and see what I can accomplish tomorrow.  Depends on the weather.  It may or may not snow, and if it doesn’t snow, I’ll be heading out of town for part of the day.

Speaking of journal quilts, my mom has started making them, and one of these days I’m going to help her start a blog so she can show them off.  Her first one was cool, and the second involves some freeform knitting, which I’m anxious to see….

It seems that the shower is the place in which I do some of my best thinking.

I figured out what I’m going to to about my journal quilts for the year.  Of course, it is subject to change, but I have a plan and I am very pleased with myself!

T is for Tree
A is for Apple
L is for Leaf
B is for branch (or bark?)
W is for Winter (with snow covered branches)
N is for Nest
O is for Orchard
F is for Flower
S is for Seed
P is for Picnic (under the tree)
C is for Creatures (in or around the tree)
V is for View from the top

That’s 12, I’m still thinking to see if I can come up with any better ideas for some of the months.   I’m working on the details, but the basic plan is to continue working with the tree, but to combine the variations on a tree with my original alphabet theme.  Thanks for all of the advice and encouragement.  I’ve really appreciated all of the comments both here on my blog as well as on the main Quilt Studio blog.

Stay tuned!

Yesterday was supposed to be my "reveal" day, but I didn’t quite make it.  As I attempted to say in yesterday’s post, it’s not completely done, because I’m not sure where I’m going with it. 

My theme is supposed to be the Alphabet.  For no real reason, I decided to start with T — for Tree.  I drew some sketches in my altered book (you can see those here).   I used a piece of 12×12 paper to play a little with the layout, and drew/colored a tree that you can see here.

It then dawned on me that I could bring in another "T" word and decided to use Threadpainting for my tree.  My first experiment involved my longarm, some cotton and poly threads, and some dissolvable stabilizer.  It wasn’t a disaster, but it didn’t turn out like I expected.  I know what I did wrong, and if I ever try it again, I have some ideas of what to do differently.

From there, I decided to load up a layer of batting, a layer of Vilene stabilizer, and some background fabric to which I had fused a tree.  I used a variety of my brand-new ARC Poly thread to do the thread-painting.  I forgot to take a picture before I started stitching, but here it is in progress.  You’ll note that the tree is flipped from previous pictures.  Fusible web appliqué will do that to you if you don’t think ahead…

Once I all of the threadpainting was done, I blocked it, added the black frame and did some outline quilting with clear thread:

And then I started to bead.  And while I was beading I contemplated.  For one thing, both my husband and my mother said they thought it looked like a window.  That wasn’t my plan, but, yeah — it does, and I really like it.   So the internal debate was — do I go with my original plan — the upper sections are supposed to be where I put the lettering — Big T little t, etc…(and how was I going to implement the lettering….) or do I do something different.

And then I thought some more.  I thought about other ways I could use this same layout and do trees.  Maybe trees with fabric leaves, instead of beads, maybe focus in on a branch.  Maybe, experiment with different ways of creating the same tree (i.e. start with the same shape, but try out paints, or ink, or silk fusion, or, or, or….).    I’m also undecided about how to finish it off — will they be individual 12×12 quiltlets, or will they be pages in a book, or will they be put together into one larger piece?

Last night I did end up finishing my beading.  I might add another 1 or 10 here or there, but for now, it’s done.  I don’t have a lot of time to decide how I’m going to tackle February’s piece, but the wheels are turning.  As I said yesterday, I have found myself thinking about this in terms of "the trouble is…."  I realized, though, that I have no TROUBLES — just OPPORTUNITIES.

Very shortly, I’m going to create a photo album to put all of these pictures in, so you can see all of the steps/progress in one place.  I’ll plan on adding to that album as the year progresses.