Reasons For Keeping A Visual Journal

Why keeping a visual journal is so important, with thanks to Ricë Freeman-Zachery:

Kept Under Wraps

 Ta-dah! Here it is....the 52nd and final weekly six-word memoir (from last year).   And of course the last one has to be rather complicated and will take a lot of pictures to show it to you in its entirety.

 The entire thing is comprised of various mesh type materials I've gotten over the last year or so from Fabmo.  Each layer has one of the six words written on white ribbon which is sewn on to the grid of the mesh.  So here is the first layer that has the word: Kept.

 Turn the first layer back and you get to the second layer which says: Under

 
 Here is how it looks so you can see the third layer where the word is:Wraps

 All opened up to the fourth layer where the word is: Night

 The last layer which says: Day

 Extreme closeups of the words on each layer.

The words say: "Kept Under Wraps. Night And Day."  There you go, now you've seen all 52 of these weekly quiltlets.  Tomorrow I'll show you what they all look like up on the wall.

Fields Of Gold

 Here's the 51st in a year-long, weekly six-word memoir quiltlet series from (last year).  This one is yet another crazy/organic shape, made with yellow cottons that were on my worktable from making an additional border for the yellow/purple quilt top from last year.
Gold lame' and gold stretch netting are also used here.

 Yet another one with the words of the week covered up somehow.  Am I bashful with some of these, wanting to hide them away? (probably, this week's is pretty gooshy and emotional).   Or am I just still struggling with making the writing look good with the rest of the quiltlet and still be legible?

Words say: "Fields Of Gold. In My Heart."
Gee, only one more left to show you....

Loveliness Hidden

 For the 50th in the year long weekly six-word memoir series (from last year that is, ahem) I started out with a fairly boring background with colorful silk waste on top.

 Addition of a chenille-ish yarn on top in a vaguely spirally shape.

 The fibers were stretched and combined until they covered the top.  Hard to do if your hands are at all rough, as silk waste is really really fine and floaty.  I had to keep stopping and putting hand lotion on!
Next, I sandwiched and contained everything by placing on top this white cotton netting (a Fabmo piece I was thinking of dyeing at some point).  Stitched in channels and then around the edge of the piece.

 Here is the whole piece completed.  I pulled out the threads on the edges to make a fringe.  This is one of those that will never be completely flat because of the stretchiness of the white netting.  That's ok, it reminds me of one of those woven cotton blankets, all fluffy and cozy.

 The words for the week are in the corner under a flap of the white netting.  I didn't want to take away too much from the overall look of the piece, so this was an attempt at camoflauge.

 Words say:
"Loveliness Hidden, Contained, Kept For Myself". 
They were written on a scrap of hand-dye in blue pen which didn't show up too well, so I wrote over in black.  I like that double lettered, hazy look.

A horizon shot so you can see the dimensionality of the fibers pushing against the stitching and white netting.

Hey! Only two more of these to show you!

Not Interested

Here is number 48 in the weekly six-word memoir quiltlet series. 
 Well this one is pretty negative isn't it?
The words say: "Not Interested In Doing The Holidays", from the first week of December.  
And I really, truly was not. I had to force myself to get into the holiday spirit this year and get all the holiday stuff going.  Understandable I suppose with what was going on for me, but still, unlike my usual M.O.

 I used the striped packaging and red satin ribbons from the Ghirardelli holiday chocolates I bought to "get into the mood" for celebrating the holidays.  The jaggedy edges came about when I was cutting away the product name and information and I liked how the spiky-ness echoed how I was feeling at the time.

 I used a white flannel-ish fabric (actually one of those shoe polishing cloths you get free at some hotels) to stitch the words on with the embroidery stitches on my machine.  The words came out jaggedy and a bit strange looking because I was moving them around to try and get a discombobulated look instead of pretty perfection.

Also used some repeated star embroidery stitching to pretty up the corner.

Puddles Filling, Emptying

 Here's one of my favorites of the whole year-long project of making a weekly six-word memoir quiltlet.  It is number 47.  It may be my favorite even.  (Please don't make me choose).  But honestly, I think I like it so much because the words are not immediately visible, the 3-d-ness of it, the machine embroidery, the fabrics I used and the beading.

 The words say: "Leaves Turning, Falling. Puddles Filling, Emptying."  Sums up late November around here.

 The words are written with fabric marker on a leftover piece of a t-shirt my son was using to patch his pants (don't ask, he wanted a stretchy knee patch) which was on my worktable.  I folded the piece in half and stitched the bottom part down making it stand up.

 The beads function as a bit of a physical prop for the knit material to stand up.

 I had several colors of these leaf shaped glass beads which I thought suited the words of the week really well.

 More gratuitous close-ups of the beading.

I used several of the special embroidery stitches on my machine that had leaves, I think they show up really well on these almost solid brown fabrics.

Fiercely Fighting Forward

 Here's the 46th in the year-long series of weekly six-word memoir quiltlets.  Almost to the end!  This one is made with the plastic leftover after you've peeled off and used a SalonPas pain patch.  I found they really helped with the post-hip surgery pain.  There were so many of these oddly textured (ridged stripes!) thin, flexible, strangely colored, plastic pieces lying around, I of course had to use them in one of these quiltlets.

 The words say: "Struggle For Recovery, Fiercely Fighting Forward."  Sounds way too dramatic to me now, but I suppose it is probably pretty accurate.

 The stamping was done with a dye ink which took a while to dry.  I used one of my largest sized fonts because I wanted to fill up all the blank space with the words.

 I really like how some of the letters are on the fabric and thus are very dark.  It looks so random when you look at the overall piece before you see the rest of the words.

This particular plastic was really easy to sew through on my machine and I like how the thread lies on top so nicely.

Give Thanks

Here is the 45th six-word memoir from last year (this one was mid-November).  I keep trying to get back into the habit of posting daily here and failing utterly, but here I am "try, trying once again."  Yes, stubborn would be a word I would use to describe myself.

Words say: "Give Thanks, Thankful Banner Is Done".  What is a Thankful Banner you may ask? Tune in tomorrow for an actual how-to post from me.

 This quiltlet was made with the scraps from the mysterious Thankful Banner.  Which involves triangles. Of fall themed fabrics.

 The words were hand-stamped onto a very light yellow solid-ish fabric so they'd be mostly legible.

I like how greyed-out and subtle the letters are, suits the fall colors well instead of a deeper ink black lettering.

That Was Some Week

Here is number 41 in the weekly series of six-word memoir quiltlets from last year.  Yes, it was surgery week, middle of October.  And no, I didn't complete this quiltlet actually in that week (obviously!), but soon thereafter.   This one is not too exciting or innovative, as far as materials go, the hospital bracelets are some type of Tyvek-ish material, easy to sew through, and the three circular metallic snap/plastic things are from the EKG. 

I wish I'd stolen one of my hospital gowns to use as the background, but I didn't think of it at the time (gee I wonder why?!).  The gowns were actually quite raggedy with a lot of fraying and holes which really surprised me. (so were the sheets now that I recall.)  I almost used red thread for the stitching, but thought that would be a bit too much since there was already the red-orange allergy tags.

Words say: "Surgery Over Quickly. Sent Home Fast".  And thank goodness for that.  As anyone knows who has ever spent the night in hospital, it is really hard to get any rest.  Even though they've got you on these great mind-wiping drugs, the nurses have to keep waking you up to take your blood pressure, etc.  I know, I know that it is necessary and all, but it is really irritating, and a good indicator of when it is time for me to get out of there and get home.  I was glad I ended up being there for only two nights, especially since it meant that the biopsy was normal, pshew!).  Guess this was a celebration quiltlet in a way.

The sewing machine needle got pretty gummed up as I sewed around the EKG discs, that glue that sticks the disc to your skin is really something.  I had to keep stopping and wiping the needle off with some rubbing alcohol.  It probably didn't have to be stitched as that glue wasn't going anywhere, but just in case...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Hope your year is off to a great start. 

Here is number 40 of last year's weekly six-word memoir quiltlets.

This quiltlet was made with mostly commercial scraps from a Thanksgiving/fall project I was working on, as well as a piece of metallic fabric and some of my hand-dyed scraps.  I threw in some glass beads at the top as well. 

I made this piece the week before my hip surgery was to take place and found that I wasn't comfortable having the words plainly spelled out.  Too hard to confront that closely I suppose, so I hid them with the metallic flocked fabric.

The words read: "Paralyzed By Fear Of What's Ahead". And so I was.  Hard to be that honest with yourself really, but I will say that I felt a lot better after I made this piece.  Somehow getting it down on the fabric and out of my head was a useful exercise.  Looking back a few months now, I'm sure glad to have gotten past the fear I was experiencing.

Just twelve more to show you now!

Trying To Be Sunny Tangled Instead

 To close out this year, here is number 39 in the year-long series of six-word memoir quiltlets.  Hope your celebrations are as fun as possible tonight!

This one used the most ravely pieces of upholstery weight fabric (the light yellow), and I kept all those tangled pieces on the edge and even ended up referring to them in the six words chosen for the piece.  The two crossing pieces on top the blue and yellow are my hand-dyes, the rest commercial cottons.

 Words say: "Trying To Be Sunny

Tangled Instead"    Funny how these words kind of sum up the past year in a way...