Journal Covers @ Pat's

Six creative people met at Pat's house for a play day on Tuesday. We made journal covers for the black and white composition books, and smaller ones for spiral notebooks. We tried a technique called "skinny strips" which we found on the blog andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com unfortunately "Skinny" is not in our vocabulary, and our strips were wider, from 1/2" to 2" but the effect was very nice. We started with pieces of hand dyed or printed fabric and inserted several colors of strips into the piece. After we had the effect that we wanted, we trimmed them down into 11" x 17" rectangles, cut a lining and pockets flaps, and batting, and puzzled out how to sew them together. Pat was very helpful in figuring it all out, once we got the concept they went together quickly. The journal covers can have an elastic strip for holding them closed, or a loop of hair scrunchy and a button. Quilting the top to the batting before assemble helped to stabilize them, but also shrunk them, so trimming after quilting is recommended. We had a great time dancing around each other in close quarters, and sneaking down the hall to use the iron in the sewing room. Tip of the day - when traveling to workshops always remember to take extension cords! Six sewing machines in one room, was cord nightmare, don't trip!

Photos: 1. Amy's spiral notebooks 2. Corienne sewing 3. Corienne's fabric 4. All journal covers, some in progress 5. Amy's journal cover 6. Peggy sewing & Maureen 7. Kay's journal cover 8. Maureen's journal cover 9. Pat's journal cover 10. Peggy's journal cover