A Journal and More Notepad Cases

Welcome to week 451 of Free Motion Mavericks. There hasn't been any FMQ here but I have been busy making journals, refillable notepad cases and cards. 

Fabric journal with long and link stitches

My brother and sister-in-law are here from Denmark and I made them some birthday gifts. For my brother's 60th birthday party, I made him a plaid fabric journal. Here it is!

Fabric journal with long and link stitches

I'm so happy when I can add fabric to a journal.😊

At my local quilt shop, I found this perfect plaid fat quarter for the journal covers. The cover fabric is cut and a layer of Heat & Bond iron-on adhesive is added to the back. From there, I ironed-on a sheet of thin paper, in this case grid paper, to the other side of the adhesive. This allows me to glue the fabric to the book board without the glue going through the fabric. 

Fabric cover with iron-on adhesive and grid paper

Once the cover was made, I then stitched the cover to the first signature pages. Then each signature (package of pages) is stitched to the next, until it's time to stitch everything to the back cover. It's a long enough process and it's important to keep the tension even. The stitches include: 

• beginning with a row of kettle stitches that keeps everything together, 
• then a row of link stitches, 
• the long stitches,
• a row of link stitches,
• one more row of long stitches,
• and finally the last row of kettle stitches. 

Rows of kettle stitches, link stitches and long stitches

This is the inside of the journal. I added a little sticky to indicate the front of the journal.

The inside of the journal

More Refillable Notepad Cases

Since my niece's and sister-in-law's birthdays are also coming up, I decided to make them each a notepad case. I also made one for my brother since that's probably more useful than a journal 😁 Here is the production line. I cut out all of the paper and paper fabric needed for the three cases. I kept all of the measurements and notes in my own journal at the right. This time, I also learned from my past experience and added my labels by sewing machine before putting everything together!
 

Paper and paper fabric ready for the making of the cases

Refillable notepad case with pen

The inside

This is my niece's notepad case. It only had one refillable notepad but came with a pen. I added a pen holder to the case. Isn't it sweet?

This case is for my sister-in-law. It included two pads. Since the theme of the paper is cocktails, I found a fun bubbly paper for the inside. 

Another refillable notepad case

A bubbly inside!

The third notepad case is for my brother. I used different paper for the front and back. I also used these papers for the insides of the case.

Third notepad case

Front of the case

 

A different paper for the back 

What I learned

• I always love adding fabric to a journal. In this case, I didn't pre-wash my fat quarter, but I will wash the left over fabric so that everything that I quilt with is pre-washed.
• It was interesting working with so many different stitches on the journal. Ali Manning's instructions were excellent so that it wasn't as difficult as it could have been.
• The next time though, I will watch the tension of my long stitches more carefully.
• Using a production line style for making the refillable notepad cases worked out very well.
• I'm glad that I remembered to stitch my labels by machine, before gluing them onto the case. They are attached to the sleeve, so are not visible unless you take the notepad out of its case.
• For these cases, I solved my gluing problems by using a heavier card stock on the inside. No wrinkles there. However Frédérique had an excellent idea to sketch over the paper or to glue flowers or other designs to hide the wrinkles. Thanks!
• You may be wondering what's happened to the quilting of the t-shirt quilt. My nephew, who is going to Denmark for Christmas, has agreed to bring it with him. Otherwise I only had one week to quilt it - which was not going to happen! I'm re-defining my October OMG to have the quilt sandwiched by the end of the month.

Related links

• Refillable Notepads Cases, October 09, 2023
• Refillable Notepad Cases on YouTube
• Vintage Paper Designs

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. I hope that you'll consider linking up below. Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Beauties Pageant, Peacock Party, TGIFF, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2023, Patchwork & Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

Free Motion Mavericks

Gail of Quilting Gail, made a beautiful Caroline Star using the Accuquilt die and the Island Batik “Autumn Wings” collection. It was for the Falling for Accuquilt Blog Hop. What a complex but lovely quilt! Gail quilted in-the-ditch. The quilt really didn't need anything more.

A wonderful Autumn quilt by Quilting Gail

 It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter