Gallery 3 Small Quilts

Linda Hall

A Page From My Book: Journal Quilts

The Journal Quilt Project is organized by the International Quilting Association and is open to any quilt artists that want to stretch themselves artistically by tackling a new work for every month of the year. The small quilts can be an experimental exercise of any subject or technique but must conform to the size of a sheet of paper - 8 1/2 x 11 inches. It is like keeping a yearly Journal of ideas in a small format, one per month. I chose to be involved in the Journal Quilt Project for several reasons. I had been studying and experimenting with many new (to me) and untraditional materials and techniques but had not felt confident enough to incorporate them into my work yet. I decided to use the Journal Quilts project to not only experiment but master each idea well enough that I would be showing them to others. This provided the impetus I needed. Instead of tackling a large masterpiece, which may or may not successfully incorporate new ideas, I was only committed to a project the size of a sheet of paper – large enough to master but small enough to finish. Many of these techniques have ended up in my larger Art Quilts and have sold as a result.

Five of these were accepted by the Journal Quilt Project to be exhibited at the International Quilt Festival in Houston and then travelled for a year to different venues around the country. Since I had made two each of the following Journal Quilts I decided to donate one set to the "Art Doing Good" project - which was organized by Laura Cater-Woods to raise funds for the Katrina Disaster Relief. Each quiltlet raised $100 for a total of $500 for the project in the fall of 2005, while the other 5 copies were still traveling with the exhibit.

January – January Sunrise Sold

This quilt was an experiment using Perle cotton embroidery yarn and metallic thread painting on water soluble stabilizer. I used a wide machine embroidery decorative stitch and then free-motion stitched the metallic thread to simulate snow and frost on the branches after an ice storm. I am very pleased with the result and will use this combination in future work.

February – Kessler Highlands Sold

I used a photograph of the Yorkshire Dales, U.K. as a guideline for the background landscape, with its hedgerows and sheep fields. I used actual lambs wool on the bodies of the sheep as I thread painted them. I discovered that thread painting faces is challenging and delicate work. It took 4 experiments with the sheep to finally get them embroidered realistically with their Mona Lisa smiles This quilt was published in the book entitled," Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project" by Karey Patterson Bresenhan, Ed. and Quilting Arts LLC, in 2006.

March – Painted Ponies Sold

I experimented with satin stitch and couched black yarn for a more 3D effect to make the piece look like a real stained glass window. The horses were cut out of printed fabric and fused on to the background before the satin stitching was applied. I used Madeira black core metallic thread and am pleased with the stained glass look this time. It gave me the courage to try a real Tiffany window pattern in the future. This quilt was published in the book entitled," Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project" by Karey Patterson Bresenhan, Ed. and Quilting Arts LLC, in 2006.

April – Saguaro Sunset Sold

After visiting the Southwest for several summers, the saguaro cactus and sunset inspired me. I have also been collecting all types of yarn for embellishing realistic natural vegetation. These cacti are made out of sock yarn using a glue stick and wide zigzag stitch. I added couched thread details for the foreground bushes and beadwork to simulate the sparsely pebbled ground.

January - Dakota

This was a thread painting over a Xerox photo transfer of my dog. I wanted to try to achieve a realistic “face” with thread and yarn. I knew my dog would forgive me if he looked a bit different from his photo. The stiffness of the photo transfer made a hoop or stabilizer unnecessary when free-motion sewing, so I learned that I could thread paint any image this way.

February – Agave

This was an experiment using two different colored threads in the needle to free-motion thread paint the Century Plant. I used an ultra suede background as the night sky and a shimmering sheer over batik for the moon. The stems are made from a couched sock yarn.

March – Coral Reef

I was working on a large project of the same name and wanted to do some small experiments before I commit them to the larger 6’ x 8’ piece. I used fused beads to give the fish some scales and I thread painted the coral. The prickly anemone is made from chenille needlepoint yarn couched on the surface.

April – Jellyfish

The second in the Coral Reef series, this was my trial run of creating a jelly fish out of fabric, beads, yarn and thread. The bell is made from accordion folded crinoline inserted into a white sheer to keep its shape for travel.

May – Confection

After twirling together several different kinds of yarns, threads and ribbons, I twisted them into a circle and sewed them down with invisible thread. I garnet stitched the background and added a few beads to finish it off. It reminded me of a collection of desserts on a tray – hence the name.

June – Fiber Fusion

Using a silk paper recipe, I created “paper” with several different kinds of dyed and unspun fibers, including Silk, mohair, wool and nylon fibers. I painted each with Liquitex Gloss Medium and let dry into a papery form. Some fibers responded better than others but I was able to see which ones I could use this way in the future.

July – Anemones

I learned how to knit in order to be able to produce more realistic animals, landforms and vegetation ( I don't knit anything else either useful or practical!). Inspired by a trip to Monterey, CA, I knitted the tops to these Powder Puff Anemones, and made several more for my larger Coral Reef project.

August - Beach Crab Sold

This was my first project using Sculpy clay to form the crab. The seaweed was cut from various sheers cut on the bias and distressed and sewn down using sulky Solvy on top and then machine stitching with invisible thread.

September – Chinese Lanterns

After machine needle lace lanterns were worked on a heavy water soluble stabilizer in an embroidery hoop, I sewed them on to a fabric background of leaves I have been saving for a special project for about 10 years.

A Day at the Beach 18” x 25”

This Art quilt was started in an online class at Quilt University with Linda Schmidt called, “Waves and Waterfalls”. It was quite a rigorous class and this is only one of the 4 art quilts in the 5 week class session. I love to incorporate mixed media into an art quilt to add texture and dimension and this is the result. I used thread painting, Hand Carved appliqué, painted cellophane, layered organzas, machine quilting, bonding and burning special effects with heat generating tools well as yarn, beads and shells.

Caladium Garden 30” x 16”

This is a small wallhanging featuring a Caladium Garden on a dark velvety background. I used the Hand Carved Appliqué and Free-Motion embroidery techniques for the leaves and stems. I also introduced the magic of Shiva Paintiks for altering fabric for artistic advantage.

Window Box of Tulips 10 ½ ” x 22”

This project was the first one where I experimented until I came up with the Hand Carved Appliqué technique. I loved the way the petals looked so real and I could see potential in producing many other types of flowers with this method. The fabric stores are full of every color of sheer or satin imaginable and as long as the fabrics are synthetic, they will carve evenly and cleanly with a heat tool. Any flower design, or even quilters appliqué designs can be used with this method.

Blooming Flowers 17”x21”

This appliqué project is a further development of the Spring Tulips idea but this time I utilized several layers of beautiful fabrics with Angelina Fibers trapped between layers of sheer to carve a small floral bouquet. I used a small amount of Machine Embroidery and quilting as well. This technique can be adapted for use in quilting or wearable arts, fabric bags, or whatever you would want to embellish.

Three-Dimensional Iris 19 ½” x 14 ½” Sold

I used the Hand Carved Appliqué method to make the leaves and blossoms three – dimensional in order to lift off the surface of the quilt and twist and turn – just as they do in a real garden. I also used machine embroidery to give texture to the leaves.

Whisper Scarf 6”x45”

After creating several of these scarves for myself and receiving so many compliments, I made the project into a sewing class and taught it over and over again in several different places for a couple of years. I have also sold many of them in Art shows. It is quick, easy, stunning and NO ONE ELSE has one like this unless they made it themselves. I used a wide variety of fibers, yarns and threads. Each scarf is designed first, stitched in a grid pattern on wash-away stabilizer, and then becomes a delicate, airy fashion statement for any outfit.