I’ve been a displaced artist a bit this summer while contractors are renovating my studio space. That means that rather than spending my day in my noisy, dusty, hot studio, I’ve been camping out in the dining room to work on my various projects. I’ve completed a couple of deadline projects, and the scraps have been everywhere. Rather than stuff them into a bin, I’ve been trying to use them up. One of my scrap busting projects has been to make quilted journal covers.
I have long been a fan of journaling, but I’m trying to avoid buying a new notebook every time I get a topic idea. One thing we have a lot of are old school supplies. My kids are older; one is off having a life and the other is home while attending college, but I still have a cache of unused or slightly used notebooks, etc. Particularly composition books. The paper inside was never used, of course, because even though the supply list assures us that we must have 15 composition books to start the school year (despite the fact that Target is out of stock, and I’ll have to pay an arm and a leg to get the proper number) the kids only ever used the first page of one of them. I digress. I guess I’m still a little bitter about school supply shopping.
Back to the scraps. I’ve got some lovely scraps of the Trinkets line by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics. You can see the project I made with this fabric in the December issue of Quick and Easy Quilts (Coming soon!) I gathered up a few of the scraps I had laying around, and made a little panel. A large piece of background fabric, with a pieced bit at either end was perfect. I did a quick bit of walking foot quilting, just straight lines across the piece. Then I put it all together, and have a lovely journal cover. I’m delighted with it, and my newly christened “Reminder Journal”. This is where I write down happy achievements for when I’m feeling down. Once in a while I feel blue, and forget all of the great things going on in my life. Now I can flip through my journal and give myself a little boost.
The inside flaps are Coco fabric by Michael Miller Fabrics. They are too good to go into the scrap bin. (That project is coming out some time in 2022)
I also made a journal with an appliqué dachshund, using some cleverness and the Gingham Dog die by Accuquilt. If you want the dimensions I use to make my covers, or to see a detailed tutorial, you can find one here. This one contains my notes on my watercolor and postcard projects.
If you are looking for a great gift idea, consider quilted journal covers. A rather simple panel with just a small amount of piecing and quilting really looks quite fancy when popped around a composition book. I think I might make some for my nieces and nephews.
OMG Jen!!! Oscar on a journal cover. How the heck cool is that?!! HAHAHAHA – 15 (!!!) composition books. Yes, I’m on the other end – typing the list that teachers say they need. Filler paper. Seriously, who the H needs three reams of filler paper at 200 sheets per ream. Do you have any idea how many I rescue from the landfill at the end of the school year . . . but now I digress. I just adore this whole post and idea. Thank you for sharing the tutorial instructions. I need to pick up some composition books, as there will be plenty out there, right, and get busy making some of these journal covers. Ooh, I cannot wait to get home from work and get sewing. How many should I make??? I need one to house all my ideas of what I need to make. ~smile~ Roseanne
I love those! I will be teaching a beginning sewing class soon, and those would make a great project! And as a former teacher, I can tell you how frustrating it is when kids are supposed to have a number of notebooks (one for each subject–usually 4 or 5) and instead of using all of them like they are supposed to, they just grab whatever notebook is on top in their messy desk, so all their notes and assignments are all mixed up and they can never find them. So I, too have a lot of old notebooks with only a page or two used in them that I have saved from the trash. In the US, it seems like there are always a ton of kids who can’t afford school supplies, so I cleaned them up and gave them to kids who needed them, but I still ended up with a ton.
Thanks, Ellen! Let me know how it goes if you make them with your class!
My “kids” have been out of school for years now and I STILL remember running around to get enough to meet those composition book requirements! I too use journal covers as one of my ways to meet my annual Scrap Quilt challenge. Mine have all been done to cover three ring binders (those are used to document my quilts) but I’ve had a cover for the composition books I use as quilt project planners on my To Do list for a while now. Love the one where you have the color tabs on the end and what a great project for testing out new dies!
I love buying school supplies, especially when they are really cheap at the beginning of the school year, but I agree that it is frustrating when the supplies on the list are expensive or not available, and when required supplies are not used. My daughter has been out of school for more than a decade and I still have supplies I am using up.
Gotta love the hotdog journal cover – that is an instant smile for the journal-ist! Love that you are finding things to do while being displaced.