Making a journal cover with practice piece

Don't you love practicing on something and then being able to use that practice piece to make a finished, usable project? That's what happened to my practice piece from last week's Free Motion Mavericks.

FMQ my practice piece

My piece went from this very bright poinsettia fabric to these "cat's eye" shapes with different types of feathers within and outside of the shapes.

FMQ using the leaves as templates

The pink bobbin thread produced this flower.

Finally, adding FMQ filler between the flowers, in white thread, resulted in this!

Adding swirls, paisleys and
echoes between the flowers

A close up of the free motion quitling

It was really great to be adding this filler FMQ between the flowers because I hadn't really done that in a very long time. It's so fun to just stitch and let the quilting do what it wants. 😊

Making a journal cover with the FMQ fabric

When I showed a friend what the quilted fabric looked like, I got such a great response that I decided to make her a journal cover!

I used Christina Cameli's Free-Motion Quilted Gifts course to make the journal cover. This is the same BluPrint (Craftsy) course that I used to make the fabric basket a couple of weeks ago.

This is the front of the journal, with the elastic keeping it closed

Back of the FMQ journal cover

The FMQ journal - front and back

Journal with replaceable booklets

Inside the journal

 What I learned

• As usual, Christina's instructions and explanations were great. I had to re-do a part, but that was my mistake. 
• I should have measured where to stitch the elastic - I was able to "fix" it but next time I'll measure!
• I discovered fold-over elastics. I didn't have any, so I used a plain white elastic, but I'll be looking out for these.😊
• I really want to make more of these journal covers. I bought a package of three booklets at Winners and will send my friend the replacement booklets with her journal cover. Now I have to go stock up on these.
• This course has been amazing. I haven't made the zipper bag yet, but it's definitely going to get done...eventually. It's so hard to not get sidetracked from the stuff that I've actually committed to making! So many squirrels - so little time!

Related links

• More practice at Free Motion Mavericks, December 5, 2019
• BluPrint (Craftsy) Free Motion Quilted Gifts with Christina Cameli

Linking parties
I'll be linking up to Free Motion Mavericks with Muv this week, as well as many other fun linky parties. Let's see what everyone is making! Colour and Inspiration Tuesday, Put your foot down, Off the Wall Friday, Friday Foto Fun, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Peacock Party, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, What I Made Monday, 

Project details

Free Motion Quilted Journal Cover
8½" x 6"
Techniques: free motion quilting, Large Print Wholecloth Quilt,
Materials: cotton, elastic, journal