Quilts for May, June, July and August are all complete! Having struggled a bit for inspiration, once I started the ideas flowed quite freely and I got them finished in the little time I had available, with just the hand stitching of the binding to complete.
As I've already posted, this year my Journal Quilts show the course of the River Arun which gives the line that must pass through each quilt.
For the May quilt, I chose to feature the Toat Monument which is a structure that sits on top of a hill in this section of the journey. The monument was applied and then machine embroidered with the detail. I also free machine quilted the contours to show the landscape.
The next place the river runs through is Pulborough. I wanted to try out a technique used by Valerie Goodwin in her map quilts so I randomly pieced a background, machining and then hand stitching raw edged with simple straight stitches. The river and roads were applied and machine quilted. I then printed shapes for the buildings using a piece of foam packaging which were also machine quilted.
Close to the river at this point is the RSPB Pulborough Brooks. The whole area is very watery with many drainage ditches so I used a randomly dyed fabric in blue and green to reflect the landscape. After bonding the river and machine quilting it, I free machine quilted a random design which included a bird's foot motif.
The River Arun runs through Amberley in the next section so I have included photos of various landmarks in the area - Amberley Castle, Amberley Church, South Downs Way and Amberley Museum. The river was again applied and machine quilted and I also machine quilted in straight lines to reflect the drainage ditches that was me seen on the OS maps.
Onwards with the final four quilts.
