Appliquilt Journal - My Work

One of the many peaks of my job is to get to be able to create right along with the kids, only I have to keep one day ahead of them so I have a piece to demo. on.  This is the Appliquilt Journal I got to build this year, and it was a blast.  I got to start with two tye-dye pieces for the out and inside foundations that I thought looked really good together.  I also forced myself to work in colors that I wouldn't normally choose, I find it's good to push yourself every now and then.  I bought the great butterfly button years ago, knowing that one day I'd find a place for it.

I'm loving cheesecloth right now so I incorporated a bit on it on the front and back side.  And I wanted to balance the butterfly on the front with one on the back so I found a handmade piece of paper that I ripped into butterfly shaped pieces and collaged them onto a piece of posterboard to strengthen them so I could sew it on onto the backside.  That beautiful paper bead was a gift from mixed media artist Kelli Nina Perkins, again, a special piece I've been saving for the perfect art piece.  I put in a lot of quilting stitches for additional interest...

and added a bit of donated lace to extend the journal edges because I accidentally made the journal pages too wide :)  I added a lace pocket on the inside jacket and slipped in an older picture of my daughter and her best friend Hope when they were 5 years old, something else I've been saving forever.  A little hand tie to keep the journal pages organized.

Then on the inside back jacket I cut off and saved pieces from each of this years 3-D students tye-dye pieces so that they could be together in my journal, a piece of each of them.  I like that. They were a very special group of kids with great chemistry.  A remembrance.