Thinking Ahead... and a Poll

I have put a poll up on the sidebar of my blog and would love to get your input. I am thinking ahead about what I might do with my 2008-2009 BJP pieces when I finally get them finished (embroidered cuff bracelets, like this one) and want some opinions about how to do it. The link I provided is to my blog entry where you can leave comments.

Thanks in advance!

Kassie

November Completed - Double Infinity

Well, my November page was started on the 1st and was done awhile ago, but I'm only now finding time to take a picture and write about it. November - of course - conjures images of Thanksgiving and it is also the month i got married in 9 years ago. So the question was - how can i combine these 2 things in my BJP this month? Well, i had this lovely acrylic 2 1/2 inch 'saying' I'd like to say was made my Heidi Grace or some other embellishment person. I used to move it around my room because i liked what it says (just wait!) but you could barely see it since it's acrylic. So...i went through my fabric stash and found this lovely purple pseudo/silk and - lo and behold - you could read it clearly!!! The saying is this: "to thine own self be true". Very important when giving thanks and in marriage i would say. So i made the acrylic into a flower pot with some purple clusters and went through my flower bead stash and made a lovely bunch of flowers. It just formed itself, and i must say, i like what it did!!! Of course, i'm feeling a bit constrained by my 4x4 squares, but it is also nice trying to fit an 'idea' into the form since we did make a promise to use the same shape throughout the year. December has been brewing in my head - somewhat as a no-brainer for the christians out there - but there is also my daughter's birthday to consider. You'll just have to wait and see how it develops - just like me! Now if i can only get the Flickr link here.....http://www.flickr.com/photos/30235567@N07/2949837196/?addedcomment=1#comment72157608113544654

Thoughts about Size...

As some of you know, my inspiration for our BJP came from the Quilt Journal Project which has been going on for several years now. For the first few years, the participants all worked their journal quilts the size of a sheet of computer paper... 8.5 x 11. Unlike us, the size was a given.


This July, I taught at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, CA. Among other fabulous quilt exhibits (miles of them it seemed!), there were two separate exhibits of journal quilts. One was from the earlier years and the second was from 2007, at which time the required size was doubled to 17 x 22 inches.

I spent all of my free time at the Festival examining the journal quilts in both exhibits. Sorry, I didn't take a camera, so no comparison pictures... However, my general impression is this... the smaller-sized quilts seemed more expressive, spontaneous, precious, compelling and journal-like. The larger-sized quilts seemed to be more about planning, techniques and showing off quilting skills; they were somewhat impersonal and more like quilts you might see in any exhibit. I didn't spend as much time with them as I did with the smaller quilts, even though I'd seen the smaller ones in previous exhibits and the book.

I came away with the conclusion that for journaling purposes, small is good! And, by the way, I put a picture of the smallest 07 BJP pieces (buttons) here on my blog yesterday... in their finished form.

Robin A.