Musings on the Road

My journal quilt this week was created in response to my shock that, at the end of the day on Monday, I had driven over 130 miles. All my driving here and there, attending to my daily business (let me point out that commuting is not part of my day), added up to more miles than I had imagined. I was so surprised that I started writing about my day, venting about the fact I spent so much time in the car, wondering how this impacted the environment and, more selfishly, my ability to get things done.

These musings ended up being the basis for this journal piece. First I printed the text onto fabric. Then I copied a photo of highway traffic into Microsoft Word and changed the color photo into a graphic black and white one. I printed this out onto Extravorganza which I then layered over the fabric. I decided not to quilt inside the square because I didn't want to detract from the text inside.

I like the piece, but I think it would be stronger if I could find a way to get the Extravorganza to lie more closely to the fabric behind it. I think both the text and the picture would be clearer images if I could do that. Any suggestions on how I can achieve this without a lot of stitching?

Here's a closeup of the piece so you can see the writing better. I found this difficult to photograph. It was hard to keep it from looking washed out although, admittedly, the Extravorganza mutes the black images.