Journal Quilt 2007

Today is the opening of the International Quilt Festival in Houston - THE quilt show. For the past 5 years or so one of the special exhibits is of Journal Quilts. Members of the QuiltArt email list were invited by Karey Bresenhan, the force behind the show, to create a monthly series of small 8 1/2" x 11" works which would be shown in Houston each year. The hope was that participants would use these small works to try out new techniques or ideas without having to commit large chunks of time or materials. It was a highly successful project that resulted in a book being published last year with photographs of many of the journal quilts.

This year Karey decided that the project had run its course and that for the finale participants would create one 17" x 22" quilt that used at least 3 different techniques found in the journals pictured in the book.

This is my quilt entitled Celebration. Last year I had a quilt juried into the Houston show that paid tribute to the old Cooper River Bridges in Charleston, SC. (the quilt pictured in my header - which can also be seen here) Those old bridges were town down and replaced by a modern new bridge. Included in the big opening celebration for the new bridge was a spectacular fireworks display, which was the inspiration for this work. This was my class project for a class taken on Quilt University from Helen Marshall.

Here are a couple of detail photos. I won't get to Houston this year to see the journal quilt display, but many people from QuiltArt have promised to take photos of the display to share.