Linda Salitrynski Journal Quilts 2003 and 2004

January, 2003

I live in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania and we definitely had our share of snow. Looking out my window, all the bare trees created shadows in the snow. The background was pieced and machine quilted first in rayon thread. Various values of gray had fusible applied. I free form cut shapes, then fused them to the background, lightest values first and darkest values last.

February, 2003

Still more SNOW and ICICLES!  I improvisationally pieced new “fabric”, and then created a background. The long triangles (icicles) were cut through the background – no templates. I machine quilted with rayon thread mimicking the triangular shapes.

April, 2003

More SNOW – a foot eight days after Easter. I need some color because no flowers will be blooming until May. The red background was pieced first and the turquoise wedges were cut through. Again I machine quilted in rayon thread.

May, 2003

The flowers are here. This quilt was made from torn strips, some placed flat and others twisted, and then stitched down. The center of the flower is a pile of threads with a piece of fuchsia netting over top to contain the threads. The quilt is machine quilted with rayon threads.

June, 2003

I dye several thousand yards of fabric each year for my business, but hardly ever personally use any. I used leftover scraps from a skirt for the background, and then inserted improvisationally pieced fabrics. The quilting is by machine with rayon threads.

July, 2003

Well, I am hooked on my hand-dyed fabrics after making last month’s quilt. Almost all my work involves curves. This quilt was made by traditional methods; drafted full size pattern and made templates. All the fabrics are my hand-dyed fabrics and I machine quilted with rayon threads following each individual shape.

August, 2003

I fell in love with the quilting on the back of July’s quilt. It reminded me somewhat of Hmong quilts. Since following the pieced shapes created the quilting, I used a hand-dyed fabric and quilted this month’s quilt following the colors and shapes of the fabric. This whole cloth quilt was quilted with rayon and cotton threads.

January, 2004

After taking a class with Esterita Austin, I decided I needed to take a step back before finishing my class project and practice painting with textile paints on something smaller.  This is a small design I worked up several years ago.  It is fused, painted and then machine quilted.

February, 2004

Several of the journal quilts from last year were “whole cloth” quilts done from my hand-dyed fabrics.  I enjoyed doing them so much; I decided to four of them this year.  This and the next three months all connect together, hopefully having your eyes travel horizontally across all four.

March, 2004

This is a continuation of last month’s journal quilt.  Each “colored” section is machine quilted in three different colors of rayon thread.