When I Grow Up…

This fabric book has big dreams of someday growing to  become even better than it is now. And I like it as it is. I saw this style of “quilt-lets” used to fashion a journal cover on artist Teesha Moore’s You Tube channel. There are four parts in the series, and the link will take you to part one. The appeal was instantaneous and I got pulling together fabrics and floss right away. I modified the method a little to make use of fusible batting and some machine stitching, but overall Teesha’s project suited me and all the small bits of fabrics in my stash. This is the front cover which is likely to get more embellishing over time.





The view from the back in all its fiber-liciousness. There is something very soothing about hand stitching these small rectangles of fabric and it didn’t take long until I had enough to whipstitch together into the cover.




Inside the book I made signatures (groups of pages) from watercolor paper and sewed various stamped, painted, and cut out elements to some of them. The photo collage above shows several of the trimmed pages. This may be a journal I’ll actually use. I have a problem that way- love to make them, find I have nothing to say when it comes time to write in them! But the watercolor paper will allow me to paint or add mixed media to it. So when the journal does grow up into its final version, it will be thoroughly colorful.



At our recent meeting of the Alachua County Day Guild, the Fiber Arts Bee (a small group of the guild to which I also belong) did a presentation on fiber arts. The members, led by Celeste Beck of Goatfeathers Studio, all brought examples of their projects. And there I saw it- the big beautiful version of my small journal. My little book suffered immediate journal envy. This is what it can look like when it grows up-tons more embellishments and a wonderful spine made from yarns and ribbons. This book was made by Celeste and it contains her journal quilts from various challenges. She used fiberfill for the “quiltlets” so there’s a lot more texture on the cover. I had to chuckle as I noted that with all the wild and wondeful fabrics available to use, both Celeste and I placed the same pink batik in the lower left corner of the front cover. What are the chances of that??




I had already started the decorative spine for my journal, using a latch hook and grid-style slip-proof rug material. Celeste used the actual firm rug hooking material which gave her journal spine a bit more body. So this is not the end for my fabric journal- it’s going to keep on growing. It was so much fun to make, there could even be another companion journal in the future. Stay tuned!