Balance Represented in Fabric

Inspiration of a sort hit on late Sunday afternoon just before I was to leave for the capitol.  I thought that if balance in my life was generated by walks in the garden, writing morning pages, working with fiber and textiles, and reading, then I ought to be incorporating those activities into this month's challenge, even if I was reluctant to share my morning pages.

So I quickly went through my limited but growing fabric stash and came up with some flowery English country garden cottons specifically designed by Moda for quilting projects.  I have just completed my first quilt - a 4-patch - and I wanted to try working with tiny blocks.   I cut and stitched with abandon, not really caring if the points met or the blocks were perfectly square or the seams lined up.  I slapped on a border of some scrap fabric, and lo!  the front of the page.  Here's the result of wanting it done, not perfect:

I decided to work some text of my morning pages into the back of the page.  Here's the wrong side of the Moda fabric that coordinates with the 1 inch squares on the quilted side:

And here's the right side:

I'll use the wrong side of the fabric to print the journal text.  I understand there is a technique for this that requires the temporary fusion of the fabric to freezer paper.  You then run the fused fabric through an ink jet printer.  I've never tried this before, but I'm game.  So, that is the next step in the project.

Here's a photo of the two sides of the page with the binding fabric that will frame the piece when it is finished.

For the back of the page, I've selected part of a journal entry I wrote as I was planning my move from New England to the Carolinas.  It deals with stress, taking one thing at a time, dealing with the unexpected, and making the day come out just right in the end.  I think it sums up the way I see balance in my life - more like serenely coping with the day as it unfolds, less like controlling the outcome through scheduling or planning, even though I do try to plan some things.  Here's the text that will be imprinted on the fabric if I can get the technique to work.  If not, I'll have to figure out if it is worth $10 to have the photo store downtown do the printing for me.  The proprietor does this for quilters in our area but will use a prepared fabric sheet instead of my selected fabric.

And for those of you who are trying to squinty-read the text, I promise to provide the words in 12-point Times New Roman if I can get this TIF challenge to come out the way I envision it.