I have been busy making more Inspiration Journals. This time I was asked to make a tropical one. I checked my fabric stash to see what I could come up with. I had some nice fabric with tropical scenes on it that I picked up in Hawaii a few years back and another with a Hawaiian sunset scene and some classic cars but it didn’t really do it for me. I finally dug up some fabric that had hibiscus flowers on it that I had picked up in Papeete  Tahiti. This was more like it. I only had one issue with it and that was the flowers were spaced quite far apart. I fixed that by cutting out individual flowers and used raw edge applique to fill out the flowers.

I then thread painted the flowers and the leaves. I do this before I put the backing on the journals as I don’t want all of the thread to show. I really enjoy thread painting. It is very relaxing as you just move the piece back and forth. When I am thread painting I use up lots of old bobbin thread. I am normally a very organized person but not so when it comes to bobbins. My bobbins are all in nice bobbin cases but I have no idea what thread is wound on which bobbin. When thread painting it doesn’t really matter if the thread is the exact same as the top especially if you are using variegated thread which I am usually using.

I like the way the journal turned out. I sewed seed beads onto the hibiscus stamens as an embellishment. The journals have plain paper inside and also some pockets made from scrapbook paper so you can add pictures cut out from magazines or maybe drawn or doodled on other paper.

I took more pictures this time as I was assembling this one so I will be writing a pattern soon. Well onto complete more sunflower ones.

Happy Quilting