I found a piece of pieced fabric when I was rummaging through stuff recently. The piece was about the right size for a journal cover. Over the weekend, last weekend, I did a bunch of small projects. Making this journal cover was one of them.
I am not sure for what this piece of made fabric was intended. I hope I don’t come across a note saying I needed it for X project or Y quilt. C’est la vie.
SIL #2 observed that the fabric combination looked like an adult coloring book. It does, but a mad version!
B/W Journal Cover Open
The strips were relatively even and bordered with the jester’s diamond check. I had to cut most of the diamond check off to make the journal fit. As it was I cut off a bit too much and the fit is snug. Fortunately, with cotton, it will stretch a bit.
I was working on something else at the same time and had magenta thread in the machine. I thought it would be great to use for this, because the piece is so stark. I thought a little color would enhance the whole project.
B/W Journal Cover Open – thread nest
What the bold color choice highlights is the big wad of thread that happened as I was trying to sew over several seams. Bleah. I unsnarled the thread nest at Craft Night. The journal cover is finished and will be ready when I finish the dot journal.
B/W Journal Cover – Open
You can see a little bit of the tightness on the inside cover. Still, this journal cover, even with its ridgy bump on the front will be an interesting change from my current journal.
I was working on another project that required a different foot than the quarter inch foot. This made my ability to sew donation patches together with any precision limited. I turned to an idea I had since I made my last journal cover. I had hoped that the CVZ/Paris Journal cover would be more of an exploration of low volume prints with just one bright spot. It didn’t quite work out as I intended. I kept thinking on how to do it differently.
Dot Journal Cover
With these two constraints, I started sewing dot fabrics together. I was very strict with myself on the background and the fabric. I stuck to dots on bright white. I think I avoided any creams or ivory backgrounds.
Dot Journal Cover and Back
I was also very strict with myself on getting to the right size (top to bottom)- remember I use the Miquelrius journal #4— and then not being sentimental about cutting off nice bits of piecing. There is always more fabric, right?
Dot Journal inside
Finally, I used a fun print, that I probably won’t use for anything else, for the inside.
I am pleased to have finished something after so much work on the Food Quilt. This project is also very cheerful and I will need a new journal soon, so I am looking forward to using it.
Karen issued a challenge to use a piece of Carol Van Zandt fabric a few months ago. She gave out the FQs at a meeting and there were so many that almost everyone got one, even those of us who had no intention of doing the challenge. Fortunately, I received a color that I liked. As the weeks wore on, I decided that the least I could do was make a journal cover. I needed a new one anyway. I wanted to explore the low volume concept some more so I decided to use low volume fabrics with the CVZ fabric to make a journal cover. I did it as part of the sewing frenzy over New Year’s weekend.
CVZ / Paris Journal Cover
I like the journal cover, but am not as happy with it as I am with the Carpenter’s Wheel effort in low volume. Somehow I got derailed and the journal cover looks like I am trying too hard. Or something. I think I should have stayed with black and white rather than straying into grey and colors.
I used some of the leftover strips from the Paris One Hour Baskets, most markedly to fill in the space at the bottom. What do you think of the addition?
Still, I am resolved to make a lot of work and just have a few good pieces come out. This will function quite well.
CVZ / Paris Journal Cover – front cover
I tried adding in some other purple, but should have stuck to the Carol Van Zandt fabric to highlight it. Fortunately, it is bold enough that it does stand out.
CVZ / Paris Journal Cover – back cover
I tried to add interest here by turning one of the strips sets sideways.
CVZ / Paris Journal Cover – open
You can see the whole cover. The colorful ribbon fabric really doesn’t go and I wish I hadn’t added it. I have some CVZ fabric left and will try again with that.
I have been working with a lot of grey lately for the Carpenter’s Wheel experiments and for the Flying Geese exchange, so I have bits and bobs of scraps around. After making Henry IV, I thought I should make a snowy owl version. That led to me starting to piece leftover bits of grey and white together.
LV Journal Cover in progress
Somehow making a snowy owl was put on the back burner and I decided to make a journal cover instead. I have made some headway, but am not finished. I like the calm look of what I have, but also think it might need a bit of color.
I have to make the piece long enough, but I am thinking of making a strip of 1.5″ squares alternating a grey and a color and inserting it into the journal cover somewhere.
As I have mentioned before, the greys are very different in the way they look. Those Bonnie and Camille strips look positively beige next to some of the other greys. The Paris writing fabric looks dirty, or something. I still like this piece so far and these observations are just noting thoughts of interest.
I finally finished Pinkalicious over the weekend. I am happy with the front cover and the overall look of the piece. I am not happy overall. There are small seams close to the edges and that makes pressing the edges into a crisp line. It also makes it hard to sew the edges closed.
I tried a lot of things when I made the Orange Crush Journal Cover and I guess I wasn’t thinking about the things I learned. I drifted back to small pieces and put them too close to the edge.
Sewing is like that. It takes awhile to get things down and in the case of mosaic piecing there is some reliance on the size of the available scraps.
Pinkalicious Open Back
Fortunately, these journal covers are a good way to practice mosaic piecing and a great leaders and enders project.
I don’t know what the perfect mosaic pieced journal cover is. I don’t if there is such a thing, but I will keep looking.
After I wrote about this journal in the a blog post, this piece got lost in a big cleanup I did and I didn’t find it again for several weeks after another mini-cleanup. The other morning I decided I needed to make progress and decided that I could finish this journal cover in a short amount of time.
I set to it, getting as far as the second to last step. Then I realized I was out of journals. This would create a panic except that I just started a new journal so I have some time get another. I sewed as much as I could without a journal and will finish when I get one.
There are some pieces I like about this cover. I am finding that I am still learning about what fabrics I like and what fabrics I don’t. Or perhaps that is constantly changing?
I used a piece of Philip Jacobs fabric for the back. I won’t see it all the time, but I will get glimpses of it when I use the journal. I might as well use my good fabric and I only had a small piece of it so it wouldn’t have worked for a backing.
Once again it was time for a new journal cover. Sadly, I finished the journal with the Orange Crush Journal cover. So, over the weekend I sat down and made a quick new cover.
Quick means one piece of fabric and little piecing.
I chose to use the Martha Negley fabric I used for one of the Grand Parlor dresses. I had a bit leftover and it is such pretty fabric that I thought I wouldn’t mind carrying it around for a couple of months. I also thought that it would be a good break between pieced journal covers. I loved Loved LOVED the Orange Crush journal cover so much that I am not yet sure another journal can live up to the wonderfulness.
Using the tutorial I posted some time ago, this journal cover didn’t take long at all. The most time consuming part was piecing the inside. I used an old Pat Sloan fabric that was just a wee bit too small so I added a piece, which still didn’t make it large enough, so I added another. And so on for a frustrating half hour.
Fine Spring Day Journal cover – open
Eventually I succeeded and the journal cover came out fine.
You may be wondering what happened to the pink journal cover I started? Yeah, me, too. 😉 I knew it was close to done so I looked everywhere for it. No joy. It will turn up and there will always be a need for a new journal cover.
I mentioned my new pink journal cover recently with very little detail. Somewhere I also mentioned I was naming it after Pam’s pink mosaic pieced donation quilt. Twitter? Instagram? I lost a week and I don’t think what happened before that is coming back.
New Pink Journal Cover – June 2015
What you see above is a journal cover in process. It is long enough and I either need to cut it off or square it off. I want to square it off, but then it will be a little too long. I like the piecing I will have to cut off, though, so I haven’t cut it yet. I have to think about the direction.
In between other projects, I started another pink journal cover.
Yes, pink. Are you surprised?
I have a lot of pink scraps. 😉
And, due to a lot of complicated reasons, I needed a quick leaders and enders project. Since I will need a new journal cover in the next month or so, it seemed logical.
I considered the size of the pieces when I made the Orange Crush journal cover. I am using that cover and I really like it. I really like the size of the pieces, the flatness, everything. I want this journal and the others I make in the future to be just as good. I am concerned that I am making the pieces too small and going back to being frustrated by the lumpiness of the final product. I have about 10″ of mosaic piecing left to make the journal cover. We’ll see.
I started another journal cover using oranges pretty soon after I realized I wasn’t happy with the Pink Mermaid Tail Journal Cover. Last week I finished it and I didn’t even really realize that it was almost done. I really just had to put on one piece and had the top done. Gotta love those leaders and enders.
I went for larger pieces this time, so I wouldn’t have to deal with the seams that were so problematic last time. I still wanted to get small enough pieces so the piece wouldn’t be boring. In some way making these journal covers using mosaic quilting is a process of piece size, color, number of pieces, pattern, size of motifs. It may seem stupid, but somehow it feeds something inside of me. I can piece any way I want. I don’t have to worry about a block pattern; I can just piece and focus on color. Because I do these monochromatic – mostly – pieces I can also get rid of the worry about the combination of colors. All of these things boil the process down as far as I can right now.
Cover closed
Looking at the photo above, the cover looks like a bit of a mess, but once the journal cover is put together, it looks a lot better. The piecing is moved into visually manageable bites.
A lot of these fabric motifs are large prints or bold prints. I used a number of different Philip Jacobs prints. Lots of modern dots and other modern prints. I also added a few fruit and veg prints from the Food Quilt.
All Outside
I never know how orange will act and I am always a little scared when I do a project with a lot of orange, then I am pleasantly surprised at how it turns out. I like this journal cover. It is bright and cheerful. It uses some of my favorite fabrics and the seams don’t bug me.
You can see how different the piece looks when it is sewn (left). It is still a little visually crazy, but much more contained than the very top photo.
Inside Cover
You’ll have to click on the photos above to see the actual insides of the journal cover. I don’t have control over the thumbnails.
I feel like this is one of my most successful journal covers.
I bought this fabric at the BAMQG Retreat last year. I really bought it off Amazon, but Cheryl and I were comparing notes on the Michael Miller Portfolio series. When I saw this fabric, I needed it. It is By The Sea by Gillian Fullard/ London Portfolio Series by Michael Miller. I have a number of these fabrics and something about them is very appealing.
The colors are mine that motifs are such that I won’t get bored carrying the journal around for a long time. They key was to fussy cut some of the cool motifs without taking a big hole out of the middle of the fabric.
Front cover
I decided to make a fast journal cover this time. I started some mosaic piecing, but remembered how unhappy I was with the Mermaid Tail Journal Cover and decided to use one piece of this fabric, which was washed, but had been sitting around for awhile.
One end had a good piece with some interesting motifs. I thought I would make it so the school of fish was on the front cover.
Inside front cover
Sadly, that did not work out that well. The fish ended up on the inside of the journal. 🙁
I forgot about the cover pocket. I forgot that the something had to hold on to the journal’s covers to keep the cover on. It is not a disaster, but it doesn’t make the cover very interesting.
Now I have to decide what to do. I could just live with it like it is, but the front cover is boring.
I could remake the cover so that motifs were where I wanted them. Not gonna happen.
Lobster (??) back
I am seriously thinking about turning the cover around putting the lobster (??- is that a lobster??) on the front cover. That means he would have his head at the bottom. Can I stand his beady little eyes watching me all the time?
The shell would be upside down, the school of fish would be upside down and the blue crab would be on the inside front cover.
Regardless, I like the fabric and am glad to already have a journal cover ready to go. There is potential for a couple more journal covers out of the same fabric, but with different motifs highlighted.
I finished filling another journal – the one which wore (??) the Blue Tree Journal Cover – and then finished a new journal cover. It is pink, as you can see, and it is the perfect color to make me happy on cold, wet days. <I am not complaining about the rain, because we desperately need it, but it still is cold and wet outside>
Inside Front Cover
I used the mosaic piecing technique again (great for scraps) and really have some nice looking abstract motifs on the cover. It took me a long time to make the fabric for this journal cover, which was odd. Perhaps I used many, many more small pieces than I have in the recent past. the whole process is a good use of scraps, though.
I am not as happy with this cover as I was with the Blue Tree Journal Cover, but not because of the piecing. It has more to do with the filling. I put flannel on the inside, as I have with recent journal covers. I am beginning to think is my preferred filling for these journal covers. In this cover I put the flannel a little too close to the edges. It made the edges, coupled with all the piecing, really thick. I forgot to keep the flannel out of the seam allowances. The edges feel odd.
Inside Back Cover
Last time I am pretty sure I quilted the Blue Tree Journal Cover to keep the flannel in place and kept the flannel out of the seam allowances. I need to remember to do that, which may mean I need to rewrite the tutorial.
One thing I may do is make a new cover and put this one on an older journal. I haven’t had a chance, but stay tuned.
I have two blue journal covers in process. One is finished (read on!) and the other is still in the piecing stage. When I wrote the previous post, I thought I used a picture of the other journal cover, but I actually used the picture of this Blue Tree journal cover, which is, happily, also the one I finished. For once I was organized even though I thought I wasn’t. 😉
Anyway, I was about to finish all the pages in a journal and I needed to finish a new journal cover. I buckled down last weekend and put the finishing touches on this one. I finished just in the nick of time.
This journal cover is named after the fabric in the middle, which is a slice from a back I made some months ago with trees, White Birch trees, I think, printed on it.
Surprisingly, to me, at least, I started off with the front cover being the part of the journal cover you see on the left. It is ok in terms of interesting-ness, but nothing special. What was preventing me from using the other side, which I really liked, as the front was the Wizard of Oz fabric, which ended up smack dab in the middle of the part that was the most interesting.
I kept looking at the back and since the front and back are interchangeable, I just switched the cover around and am now using a new front. I like it and don’t even see the Wizard of Oz fabric.
Shockingly, I am almost done with another journal. I ordered a new one so I will be ready and it took forever to arrive. I have been waiting to finish this journal cover so I could measure using the actual journal. It isn’t like I don’t have 30 around, but most have covers on them and I was being lazy with the knowledge that a new journal was imminent.
This mosaic quilting piece came together so easily that I almost didn’t realize I was finished with the top. That is what leaders and enders will do for you.
I thought I would finish it this past weekend, but I worked on the Russian Rubix instead and also put the black and grey donation pieces through the machine.
Like the Pink Rose Journal cover, I made an effort to piece smaller pieces. It is so much more interesting when there is more piecing. I still have to back it (have a piece of fabric already picked) and add the interfacing then I should be ready to use it. Stay tuned!
As you know I like to make journal covers for my journals. I have been using the Yellow Flower Journal journal cover on my most recent journal. Since I have been off a lot I am carrying my journal around more and spending more time with it. That means I have to look at the cover more often.
I don’t like it.
I like the fabric, but the cover itself is boring. So, I decided to make another one. I probably have at least two months of life left in this journal and I didn’t want to look at a boring cover.
Don’t worry, I don’t hate this journal cover. The Yellow Flower Journal Cover isn’t going waste. I will put it on one of the older journals that has not yet been covered.
I had a piece of Mosaic Piecing to which I had been adding bits of pink and I decided that was a good start. I made sure to add pieces on all different sides and to sew various pieces together before I sewed them to the main piece that would become the journal cover.
The Good
Inside Back Cover
First, there is a lot of piecing, including some of the yellow rose fabric from the Yellow Flower Journal Cover. The piecing is not just all strips added on to the ends of the piecing which makes it a little more interesting. I was even able to add a few diagonal lines, which adds interest in terms of piecing.
Next, there are bits of pink that I really like. Some from Joel Dewberry’s Notting Hill line, various Philip Jacobs, a few batiks and some random pieces that make me happy.
Third, though I had some trouble with the interfacing and flannel, the feel of the journal cover isn’t too puffy, which I like.
Last, it is PINK! Pink makes me happy.
The Bad
I was lazy with the flannel and just eyeballed the size instead of measuring. This caused other problems later.
I had some trouble with the stitching as a result of my laziness with the flannel. If you remember, you have to stitch very close to the edge to make the journal cover fit really snugly and not floop around. By not measuring the flannel, it was too small, so I had to sew it to the seam allowance when I put the back and front together. That means that a bit of the flannel was in the seam allowance where I had to sew when I was sewing the final step. That made it really thick and hard to sew on the corners.
The Unknown
I am not sure if this is the Good, Bad or Ugly.
Inside Front Cover
There was so much piecing that it was kind of a waste to try and put ShapeFlex on to the pieced side of the cover. That means that only the inside has interfacing on it. As I said, above, the cover feels ok, so I guess it is fine.
The other factor was that there were a lot of seam allowances, because of all the piecing. That made the whole piece a bit thicker, including in the seam allowances.
Finally…
Back Cover
Clearly, this project offers continuous learning for me. I guess I haven’t perfected the process yet and will just keep trying.
