This is the last Journal Quilt of 2012 - actually finished today in my new shed. It is a mixed media piece. The background is emulsion paint, scrim and tissue - painted and  machine stitched.
The inset panel is a digital print with text and hand stitched.
The quotation is the reason I made the piece.
It is a quotation by Edith Sitwell that I was sent recently and particularly like.
"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand
and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home."

This is a view of the interior of my new studio/shed. We braved IKEA for a table yesterday and I have moved in my sewing machine. There is still lots to do - the plumbing needs finishing, electrics tweaking and the shelves and storage cupboard to kit out. It has been lovely working in there today.

This is the November Journal quilt, still on the theme "blue".
Last March I spent a week at a farm in Mevagissey, Bodrugan Barton, taking a workshop. This design is taken from a photograph of reflections in a swimming pool there. They reminded me of those swimming pool paintings that David Hockney painted. The technique is machine reverse appliqué. I used some of my hand dyed  cotton fabric and used the microwave and a jar to over dye a small quantity of grey sheeting to get the dark blue.
I have a mind to make a large piece like this, but with turned edges to get a smoother line.

The original photograph with the swimming pool windows reflected in the water.

This is a print of the original collagraph on paper. I used polyfilla and pva glue drawn into and an imprint of some lace.
The original has a cut out and is 8cm x 12 cm.

To get more blue in the design design I added a border and more blue to the design then printed onto recycled cotton.

This is the finished Journal Quilt.
I machine stitched and hand stitched the background and stitched a sentence in the background.
I had recently been to a lecture, given by Nancy Crow at the V and A. She was a very inspiring speaker. One thing she said really resonated with me. It is why I love fabric too, and why I particularly love stitching cloth.

"The feel of cotton sliding between my fingers calms me down."

The next four journal quilts for the rest of the year have blue as their theme. I recently did a weekend collograph course with Sue Brown and the centre panel of this design is a scan of my small original card and tape print. I thought the shapes looked a bit like the ears of corn. The borders were added by using the pattern maker facility on Photoshop and then the whole printed onto recycled cotton and machine stitched.

My own gold medal, stitched with the Olympics on in the background!
This is a mixed media piece based on the glorious lichen caloplaca aurea. John had got a slide of it which he kindly printed out.
I've used paper, cotton and silk in this and textured the background with flour and water paste. The paper is my wonderful rag paper that I brought back from India. I stitched over it with a blunt needle to get a texture and then stitched black "dots" on top. I like the way the fibres show on the edge when its torn. The leaf- shaped caloplaca is cotton with silk and stitched with layers of wadding underneath the layers. It was appliquéd on as a separate piece. Tiny cotton circles representing the fruiting bodies were also appliquéd to the surface and then machine stitched. I had just the right piece of hand dyed fabric for these.

Here you can see detail of the flour and water paste texture which I coloured with Inktense blocks. I was surprised how easily it stitched and expected to lose a few needles, but thankfully didn't.
The surface was coated  with acrylic wax which makes it surprisingly pliable.
I like this one and its the last of the yellow Journal Quilts. The last four will be blue.

I used hand dyed cotton and scrim for this one. The technique was reverse appliqué. I wish now I had used a solid black.I took a shortcut with the stitching and confused a reversed 3 for 5 so got the colours in the wrong order - ah well!
I decided to add some text from The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill. "The giant crows were circling over the cornfields below." There have been so many rooks and cows in the fields this year. It is such a lovely book and great to re- read it.

This is a photo I took of the cottage on a walk between showers the other day.The field is so wet at the moment but the rabbits have been busy and you can just see a hole. There are more than ever - holes and rabbits - which pleases
the dog.
I've been playing with colour and effects to come up with some ideas for the design of the July journal quilt.

Just added some yellow, then zoomed in and used the cut out filter and reduced the colours to just six. I printed it on to some bjs treated cotton and will probably quilt it, but fancy doing a reverse applique piece as well so have just traced out the shapes and sorted out some fabric to use.

I think this has a kind of basic, block printed, fifties look. By the time its stitched I expect it won't look like a house at all.

This is the second of the yellow series of JQ's. I find this a difficult colour, so it was quite a challenge. I love yellow in the garden best!
However, after a long conversation with  friend outside the supermarket about life and our difficulty getting on with things sometimes( to be fair, it was raining again), I came home and started looking at some photos I'd taken on a boat trip around Bristol docks. I had a photo of office blocks which had some interesting reflections, so played with the colour and layered an image of a butterfly over the surface. I printed this on to BJS treated recycled cotton sheeting and was very surprised with the sharp print that I got. I also printed it on to transparent film - maybe another project.

I'm a bit behind with these Journal Quilts, but I resurrected a sample of textures and added some piping and more stitching. I've used stitched tucks, stuffed eyelets, threaded buttonholes, twin needling, couched threads, piping and torn fabric strips. Looking out of my kitchen window this piece is rather like the view of the fields and planting patterns - also the flattened wheat!
I've just finished the June Quilt so will publish soon - when it stops raining and I can get a good photo in daylight.