The Crazy Quilt Cover Journal

My first "Mitzi Made It" spring project is something that combines crafting with defining oneself.  We're going to create a journal cover with sections that we can label with our skills, interests, and dreams we want to pursue.  I think it's a great way to start my new blogging effort and I hope you find it inspiring and motivating. 

Before we start I'd like to make an analogy. When I used to go swimming at summer camp, I'd make sure to wring out my bathing suit really well after getting out of the lake. There was nothing worse than getting into a cold, wet bathing suit the next day. When we consider ourselves and the skills and abilities we have, I think it's our duty to ourselves to wring out every bit of talent and pursue every interest we have to reach our potential in life. When working on this project, remember the bathing suit!

Below is a picture of an antique "crazy quilt". These were made from scraps of fabric back when nothing went to waste. The fancy stitches have names such as "threaded herringbone" and "honeycomb filling" and showed off the maker's embroidery skills. I think we all have a crazy quilt that could represent our skills, abilities, and interests. All we have to do is label the different sections to define ourselves better:

 

Of course, if you are a good needle worker, you can make a fabric representation of the "Crazy Quilt of Your Life" and use fabric adhesive to attach it to a composition book cover, but I'm going to make one from vintage wallpaper on the front of a composition book. This will be my little journal that I'll use to write down thoughts and ideas related to this blog.

Materials Needed:

Composition book

Sheet of paper

Scissors

Pencil

Spray adhesive

Sharpie pens in various colors

Vintage wallpaper or other patterned paper

Buttons

Brayer (a rolling pin can work as a substitute)

Hot glue gun

I started by tracing cutting a piece of typing paper the same size as the cover of my composition book:

I cut the white paper into chunks, then used those as templates for my wallpaper. There might have been an easier way to do this because I then had to put the pieces together like a puzzle, but that was my method and I stuck to it! 

 Once I cut out the wallpaper pieces, I sprayed the front of the notebook with spray adhesive (Alene's Tacky Spray), then laid the pieces down and rolled over them with a brayer to get them stuck down well.  This is where you might try an old rolling pin if you don't have a brayer:

I used Sharpie pens to make the "embroidery" stitches between the different "fabrics". Using a white Sharpie Paint Pen is fun if you are using dark paper. You have to really shake the white pen well before writing with it. Trying it out on scrap paper first is a good idea.

Here is a link to give you some fun examples of the various stitches that were used on crazy quilts.

Now you can label your skills and interests in the various sections. I can't help you with that. I'm having a hard enough time with my own!

 

I wasn't pleased with my journal for some reason. Something seemed to be missing until I grabbed my button stash and glued on some buttons here and there with hot glue. That was just what it needed as a finishing touch!

After my first journal, I decided to make a second one with brown craft paper and book pages to demonstrate how easy it is to make without the fancy papers.  I thought of an easier method, too, instead of using templates.

First, I covered the entire composition book with brown craft paper:

I applied several pieces of book pages, a vintage ad, a color copy of a card of buttons and other neutral colored paper bits to the craft paper background:

Both Sharpie and Elmer's make white opaque markers.  I used the Sharpie on my project and it worked pretty well.  Sometimes two coats are necessary.

Adding the "stitches":

Filling in my interests:

I purchased some great wallpaper on eBay and couldn't help myself:  I made one more journal using my aqua and orange floral paper paired with some other papers that coordinated with it.

It's nice to learn something new every day.  Today I learned it's not easy to write on flocked wallpaper!

 

And for the finishing touch, some special buttons:

So now you have a starting point for defining your skills, interests, and abilities. You can write all your ideas, dreams and schemes inside your journal!  Now that I have three blank journals, I suppose I should get started on some writing....

 

Comments

[Kat]

Oooooo, your journals are beautiful! I have a few that I just might do for my granddaughter, who will be 8 soon and is at that age. She's learning how to sew, so fabric covered journals are a great call! Many thanks for this post and Major Congrats on your new blog!! I'll be looking forward to future writings!

[Mitzi Made It]

Hi Kat,

I love hearing that your 8-year old granddaughter is learning to sew! Not only that, writing in a journal is a good thing for young girls too. Great traditions!

Mitzi