Thursday 31 July 2008

putting my fabric book together - part 1

Last year I was inspired by an article in Quilting Arts magazine featuring Frances Holliday Alford. Creating one square a week, Frances made a journal art quilt for her 57th year. My next birthday was going to be a BIGGIE so I decided to celebrate it with a similar project.

I started what was to be my quilt on my birthday in March 2007, but after about two months of weekly squares, it was obvious that this was going to be one whopping big quilt...I didn't really want it to be a bed quilt and I'd long since run out of wall space.
So the plan changed to creating a fabric journal of the squares.
(now instead of a whopping big quilt, I have a whopping big book!)

Of course the year passed before I'd finished stitching, March turned into May before the pages were finished, then the problem was how to put them all together.

Because of the quilt idea, I'd started with squares which were to be joined together, with the change of plan I needed to place them back to back to form book pages.
The squares were made from hand painted cotton with quilting fibre backing.

#209/366 fabric book

I decided to attached them to fabric backing - which meant more hand stitching on top of the work I'd already done:

putting the fabric book together

The fabric was folded wrong side out, so the two pages were facing each other inside, then stitched top and bottom to make a pocket:

putting the fabric book together

The pocket was then turned right sides out:

putting the fabric book together

I made a border to cover the raw edge
putting the fabric book together

This was turned and the raw edge of the pocket placed inside and stitched

putting the fabric book together

I still had no firm idea of how all this was going to be joined together...
to be continued...

8 comments:

arlee said...

Erica, this is WONDERFUL!!! What an accomplishment! I admire the work and the commitment you put into this.

Could you perhaps "bind" it by putting eyelets/grommets/reinforced buttonholes in the edge and lacing them together???

Jackie said...

What a great idea..I was 57 two weeks ago...nop journal though!

arlee said...

Ps Also meant to say that i like the way you mounted the pieces and turned them into bindable pages.

Erica said...

Arlee - thank you, I'm pleased I did it but it was a big commitment to do it for a whole year - especially with my attention span!

Jackie - you've got 3 years to psyche yourself up to making one for your 60th!

Tally said...

thanks for sharing your process

So you didn't put any cardboard inside or any other to stable, I figure

wow, what a book!
What a present to yourself

Erica said...

Hi Tally - No there isn't any cardboard, the original square page was backed with very thin quilt backing, then after I'd worked on it I attached it to the front of the folded fabric page then put another worked square on the back of the page - so each completed page has 6 layers - 2 of the page backing fabric / 2 worked squares / 2 thin quilt backing - does that make sense?? LOL
Even with all those layers, it is still very soft and floppy
glad you enjoyed seeing it

Anonymous said...

This is an inspiring creation (I followed the lik from your recent MSH post).
I started a photo journal for my 40th birthda, and am now just nine weeks off finishing it, so know what an achievemnet it must have been to create this.
Fantastic work!

Anonymous said...

Oh wow!

Just wonderful...truly!

I have been wanting to try this myself (that's how I found your blog actually)

Now I know that grommets will work and I will use caution in their application thanks to what I have read here today,thank you so much for posting pictures of your beautiful work.

Laureena.

Related Posts with Thumbnails