Thursday, November 6, 2008

A Favorite Journal Accompanied Me To Festival

Although some folks might think it odd ; I generally travel with two journals. One that is strictly my written (and sometimes illustrated) personal journal & one that I bring along for taking notes on things that catch my eye, observations, thoughts to develop for quilts or felted pieces - that sort of thing. For the Houston trip this was the little beauty that I used to capture those scattered thoughts, and to hold all of the information I needed for the trip. It's a lovely notebook that's available in two colorways from Exaclair. Called the Quo Vadis Robert Le Heros this journal definitely has a lovely European flair. I love the Clairfontaine paper - works great with just about any ink I use in it - including some watercolor washes. Here I am holding up this great journal in front of one of my more traditional quilts at the Houston Quilt Festival 2008.

The other two pieces that I had in the show were art quilts. This quilts, called "Butterflies & Cream" was in an exhibit called In The American Tradition. I can't think of a more quintessential traditional American Quilt pattern that these butterflies that were so popular during the last great depression. I bought the beginnings of these blocks as orphans from Ebay. There were certainly not enought to make the large quilt I wanted from them so I had to dig into my stash of vintage fabrics and construct the new-old butterflies to match the original blocks. Now, I can no longer remember which blocks I made and which were the ones I purchased. I used a bright cheerful yellow for the setting blocks. The batting is an 80/20 cotton batt and the backing is plush fleece. Warm, cheerful and traditional. This quilts is actually my hisband's. I was once offered $1200. for it, but he loved it so much that he "bought" it for that same amount so that we could keep it at home - ans till give me the money I needed at the time. Although I make a lot of art quilts now , it is traditional quilts that I always seem to return to. They brings me peace and make me happy - and there is nothing better to sleep under IMHO!

I think my lovely Quo Vadis journal goes quite well with my beautiful quilt ! Don't you agree?!

2 comments:

Guzzisue said...

must admit I've not seen a butterfly pattern before :-)

La Tea Dah said...

Your quilt is beautiful, Marie. I love it's cheer and vibrance. It reminds me that I have an old quilt made by my grandmother. She's 99 years old now, and she used butterflies like yours in her design. Unfortunately she was aging and her workmanship shows it, but I still treasure the quilt. It looks like you had a lovely trip.

LaTeaDah

PS: You are as pretty as the quilt!

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