journal quilt x 2

Thanks to my friend Jane, I can finally post a picture of my journal quilt that went to Houston recently. Somehow I neglected to get a finished picture of it before I sent it. Thank you Jane!

So here it is - Mokoscha......and here's the statement that went with her:

"A Page from My Book: Journal Quilts 2007 - Journal Quilt Project

I found out about the QuiltArt List too late. I wish I had known about the Journal Quilts Project, that's reason enough to have joined years ago. Alas that's not to be, and so I am here making up for lost time.

Although I was happy with the rules of this project and really loved pouring over the book and reading all the techniques available to me, this quilt was a struggle to make. It was rather overwhelming - all the choices.

I finally started on it by choosing a base cloth. I thought that if I started with something that held a lot of meaning to me, the quilt would speak to me and tell me what to do. The base cloth is a very old holey linen shaving towel that my father used for many years and then I had used as a blotter in my art school days. Then I thought that this would be a perfect place to start toying with a subject that has been increasingly more interesting to me over the last few years. It's been brewing in my head, but nothing had yet come of it in cloth - might as well start now. That subject is Russian paganism; it has always been fascinating to me to see glimpses of it in Russian culture and Russian Orthodox Christianity. I had been researching it for a while, and decided to start with the only known female deity from ancient Russian mythology. Mokoscha is the goddess of woman's work, childbearing, darkness, water, and spinning. She might even be a representation of Mother Earth. And this is how she appeared to me..."

Creative Quilting techniques that were used: free-motion machine work (p.23); used scrap that had been used as a blotter while painting (p.101); rubbed with Shiva Paintstiks® (p.201); layered sheers (p.251)

So what you see above is my first foray into Paganism, as you know I am working on my other piece now. She is also Mokoscha, just a different view of her, and I have to admit she'd haunting me, a third view of her has already appeared in my head.

Oh while we are on the journal subject - here's 45/52 my journal quilt for this week. This is recycling in a major way for me: a paper towel that I used as a blotter for painting, a shimmery clear wrapping plastic and fabric scraps from the girls head bands with a little silk thread thrown in for good measure. This was hard to photograph head on, thus a an angled view which in my opinion lets one see the texture better anyway...