Irish Patchwork Fabric Journal

 

 

After seeing a patchwork jacket in a Yuletide catalog, I could not get patchwork off my mind. The idea of using scrap bits of fabric and making a whole piece of clothing appealed to the recycler in me.

 

This gradually morphed into making a fabric journal cover, using remnants and embroidery thread. Teesha Moore has a lovely patchwork journal tutorial using two-sided fabric. I decided to try something a little different. Using a piece of primed canvas as a base, I hand sewed various swatches on and added a bit of poly fiberfill.

 

 

Experimenting with some Jacquard cotton ink jet sheets, I printed my photograph of cows near Doolin, Ireland. With an Emerald Island theme, I was off. I recruited a faded old linen tea towel with the Book of Kells animal imagery, some Celtic knot fabric, a Celtic button, along with colors and textures I associate with Ireland.

 

 

 

Soon I’ll sew in watercolor pages with a long stitch, possibly with lime green eyelets on the spine…I haven’t quite figured that part out yet.

Travel Journal

This leather wrap journal is for my BFF, who is going to Germany this month.

It is a long stitched to a leather cover with Strathmore 400 80 lb. drawing paper, 6 pockets of dark blue Canson Mi Teintes pockets, and more dark blue pages with pockets.

On the front cover, I glued a present day map of united Germany. On the back, is an old map of divided Germany.






There are a few half-pages for adding ticket stubs or other paper memories.








Dark blue Canson Mi Teintes pages and pockets.







Grace picked out the elements she wanted and had the great idea of using a curved rather than a straight leather flap. She also wanted to keep the rough inside edge and have it show on the first map page. I think she likes her new journal!