Sunday, January 26, 2020

The colours of books

To an avid reader, there is nothing more lovely and colourful that a library full of books.

Colours of books

I'm not a team kind of person, so when Challenge 11.2 of Team Colours came out for the Quilting Project on Sunday, I was stumped. My two favourite things, other than my family, are quilting and reading. These are things that I usually do by myself, but they are my teams - I love being in a library or a book store and talking about books. I feel the same way about quilts - which I share with my team of virtual and real friends. It's a lot like going to a sporting event to cheer for your team, but much quieter. 😍

My Team Colours - books of all colours 😊
I have to admit that I've been looking at making a bookcase quilt for a while. I've made mini book quilts, but never a full library of books - how exciting, and scary to do this in a week! For anyone who is interested, I've included a link to my favourite site in the Related links below.

I started by making a quick sketch of what I might make. I needed to figure out if this thing would be a mini or a medium sized wall quilt. Since I wanted to play with my free motion quilting (FMQ) I opted for medium size.
One of the many bookcases in the house

Then I went around the house taking pictures of the many bookcases that we have. I didn't even bother going into the basement and at the bottom of my closet, where most of the books I own are!
This gave me some ideas for the bookcase itself, the books in it as well as the objects that I could include in the bookcase.
Stitching books together














By Tuesday evening, I was starting to cut and stitch books on shelves.

I kept at it for two evenings and most of Saturday. It was officially finished last night!  😊 Of course, there were pictures to take and a post to write...but I'm almost ready to publish and link up....can you feel the excitement!

So without further ado, here are the finished pictures of My Team Colours Challenge: The colours of a library.

My team colours: The colours of a library
Here are some details.
Plants go so well with books, when there's enough light!

The middle shelf has my favourite bookend.
The real bookend















There's always a travel memento somewhere on a bookshelf!
What I learned 
  • Although it was a large project to make in one week, it was very straight forward with little un-stitching to do!
  • I was very careful in my measurements for the bookcase, so even that went well. 😊 
  • The best part was, of course, the FMQ. That was a real treat to decide on the thread colours, the designs and then doing it!
  • I put on the binding with the walking foot again...it's now ingrained in my quilting brain. I love it!
  • I am really happy with this quilt. My only indecision was to FMQ the wood grain onto the bookshelf. The only reason that I didn't is because this would have to be done all over the bookshelf and I like the way that the bookcase lets the eyes rest. What do you think? I would really value your opinion.
Great News! I won prize #13 for Challenge 11-2. It's a Harper’s Garden Charms by Sherri & Chelsi and the Cupcake Mix Recipe 3 from Moda Fabrics! Thanks Kim and Moda!

Related links
Linking parties
I am linking up to Project Quilting, Challenge 11.2 - Team Colors, as well as other fun link-ups. Let's see what going on. TGIFFOff The Wall FridayFriday Foto FunCan I Get A Whoop Whoop?Monday Making, What I Made Monday, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2020, Free Motion Mavericks with Muv, Midweek Makers, Colour and Inspiration Tuesday, Put Your Foot DownNeedle & Thread Thursday,


16 comments:

  1. Great job on adding all the special details that captures your love of reading and books!

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  2. Let's hear it for Team Library!!! :o))

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  3. This is wonderful! I think you made a good decision on the quilting. It's good not to go "too far" sometimes!

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    1. Thanks Kim. it is hard to decide when to stop. Thanks again for hosting this - it's so much fun :-)

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  4. Love your book case. Love your blog. Congratulations on another beautiful finish.

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  5. Very cool book case! Congrats on the finish.

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  6. And just when I thought I could not be amazed more by your journal cover I see this. What a fabulous finish.

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  7. A very fun quilt! Congrats on the finish.

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    1. Thank you Kate. It was a lot of fun to make :-)

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  8. Love this bookshelf quilt, well done. I think having the bookshelf plain is a great rest for the eyes.

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