It’s funny how these tree ideas come to me… I was walking thru a high end specialty store in May and I saw this fabulous tee-shirt on the rack – based on my tree journals this year I was set to buy it… the price was high which made me think twice and then they did not have my size – so it was a message that I was not meant to have the tee-shirt. So instead I decided to use it as inspiration for my June Journal Quilt… I loved the simple lines and the freedom of spirit in this skinny little tree. The tee-shirt was a good start but the idea was not complete… until I went to one of my guild meetings this week and Karen Kay Buckley presented her lecture on Borders. Right there in the middle of her talk one of her pieces with a very simple border technique opened the flood gates. I decided to make this piece look more like a quilt – so I grid quilted the background for interest. I used my trash collage background again on this piece, but do not like it as much with the grid quilting as the doodle quilting I have done before. It left some raw edges that needed to be glued down. I think a solid piece would have been better for the background. The tree is thread painted using a twisted brown thread which gives nice shading using this technique. I continue to experiment with thread painting and find I like it very much. The border is jute twine applied with a couching foot and the same thread. I love the clean lines of this piece and the simplistic result from use of only 2 colors…
I wrote the poem again this month - it did not come as easily to me as the May poem, but I continued my quest to try to write a poem to reflect the tree in the journal.
Simplify
By Pam Patton
We all should live life like a tree
Standing proudly for all to see
Independently strong adapting to change
Beauty which radiates from sun, wind and rain
If we all could live life like a tree
Our world would be simple, calm and free
By Pam Patton
We all should live life like a tree
Standing proudly for all to see
Independently strong adapting to change
Beauty which radiates from sun, wind and rain
If we all could live life like a tree
Our world would be simple, calm and free
On to thoughts for July... I will be on vacation with my family in OHIO the week before the reveal - Ohio is my home state - so I suspect there may be a Buckeye Tree in my Journal Quilt future...
8 comments:
I like it a LOT! Both the tree & the poem!
I think this is the essence of treeness! It makes a definite statement. I like the pieced background, it is simple but interesting, the differences are very
subtle. The poem is quite good, also.
I like the rich white quilted fabric set against the simplicity of the tree. It gives it an elegant look. And your poem is very nice.
I'm with Sande...the richness of the whites in the background offset the simple tree beautifully. The border is perfect, too....
It is beautiful, Pam!! It is so simple and clean. I like the way you grid quilted the background and I like the different fabrics in the background. The border adds a lot but follows the simple design.
The simplicity of this piece is stunning. And your poem is lovely.
I like the spareness of this one. Kind of like the promise of a tree...
Simple, but beautiful, both in the design and the technqiue! Tree silhouettes are endlessly fascinating to me too.
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