Saturday, December 14, 2019

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
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



7 comments:

  1. Great idea for a quilt! Plus it used up a practice piece! Beautiful work.

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  2. I love the petal shapes. Makes an eye-catching quilting design. I also like the way you've used the different colored threads. The quilting is beautiful as usual and making it a journal cover is a great idea.

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  3. It turned out great and such a great gift idea. Thank you for linking up to Put your foot down.

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  4. How nice of you to take the time to turn this into a journal cover for your friend. And how lovely for you that you could be sure she would like it! It is very subtle and feminine without being too girly. Thanks for linking to Clever Chameleon.

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  5. I'm with Alycia: This is a great gift idea! I'll have to tuck it away for Christmas 2020. : )

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  6. That is a wonderful idea and your "practice" piece looks amazing :)

    Thank you so much for linking up on Wandering Camera! Happy Holidays :)

    -Soma

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