BFF Sal 3 a finish

 doing it by the book?

As previously mentioned I had always intended to finish as a book. Which book and the method for covering it was in flux till the project was finished and it was one of the reasons that I left the beads called for in the pattern off my piece.

Another visit to my local material supplier (yeah my loft) for a bag of shirt bits (for a separate patchwork project which will make an appearance later) unearthed amongst many a shade of blue some grey green material that looked like a good match.

I have covered books with material before, slip covers for hard backed books . In this instance I had a soft slip covered note book to hand and decided to sew onto that soft cover.  

I used some brown paper to size things up, and figure out where the aperture needed to be to get the cross in the right place on the front cover. (well as right as a measurement and straight line challenged person can get it)

The plan was to use some wadding so in addition to the material I needed lining (plenty left from the curtains in my previous post) and the wadding, I had a bit just the right size, there also needed to be some lining behind the cross stitch to stop any of the wadding coming through the linen, or the eyelets in the corners of the cross.

I used the needle turn method to sew the linen into the aperture..

Once that was in then I added started thinking about how I would quilt it, and added a few lines to the front and an outline of the cross (larger, the size it was on the pattern as it printed from the free site).

Added the wadding and pined.

I hand quilted round the edge of the aperture, the edge of the cross stitch  (outside and in) and inside the corner and centre circle.  I also added small cross stitches over the joins in the diamonds on the edge.

The straight lines on the front spine and back I did on the sewing machine using a walking foot. The wiggly bits with an embroidery foot free motion quilting style.

To secure it to the soft slip cover I folded down the lining and stitched it flat to the cover.  Then I folded the green material over the join of lining and book and hemmed it.

Not everything ended up straight where it had been intended to be straight. 

And perhaps it is a teeny bit tight, however once the material stretches a bit and the wadding gets compressed it will fit perfectly, forward planning I will call that.

However I am very happy with the result.

Oh I forgot to say the book is  A5 size and at this point I am not sure what I am going to use it for but I am enjoying the way it looks and feels.  There is another reason why the size matters,  it is once more same yet different with my BFF  click THE LINK and pop on over to her blog to see how she finished hers.

I did have a little video here but it had odd issues and was wanting one of those prove you are not a robot things coming up.

So I have moved it to you tube and am trying adding it as a link. Maybe later I can add it directly again

 

                                        Click here

Yes looking at it and opening it and closing it and wondering what to write in it.  Whilst the outside makes me think of The Book of Kells (its the size that stops it being the Lindisfarne Gospels) and making it made me feel a teensy bit Nerd Forge  I have a feeling that the contents of this book will be considerably more mundane than the outside.