Friday 8 March 2013

soft book

Good morning ladies.  I'm home from work ill today.  I've got a cold, but it is one hell of a cold, my entire face hurts... sympathy please!  I was too uncomfortable in bed so I thought I'd sit on the sofa and watch the Craftsy QuiltCon lectures... hmmm, not exactly exciting are they!

Onwards!  Remember this panel I bought?


One day a couple of weeks ago I was overcome with the NEED to make a soft book for my nephew, I have no idea where this urge came from but you have to listen to yourself when it comes to gratuitous shopping, don't you?  There was a surprising lack of book panels, but I finally found this one.


I picked out all the squares that had "what sound does the XXX make" and laid them out as if they were a book.  I then sewed them all together completely wrong as the pages that were supposed to be next to each other, I sewed together!  I could also have done with leaving myself a bit more room round the edges of the squares.


I cut squares of wadding and stuffed each page.  I knew I needed to quilt them to keep the wadding in place but clearly I hadn't thought this through - I should have quilted each page individually before sewing them together.  Ah well, I went with a simple zig zag around the edges of each central panel - or thereabouts as they didn't line up very well front-back!


I zigzagged the inner edge of each page to stop them fraying too badly, then all that remained was to sew some kind of spine on. 


No, I don't have a photo of the finished book.  Being Mrs Last-minute, I sewed the spine on at 10pm in our B&B room the day before Jacob's birthday!


Here, however, is a picture of the spine before I sewed the binding on.


And here is the book.  Jacob loves books, he immediately put this one in his mouth - that means it's a success in the eyes of a 1 year old, doesn't it?

Right, I'm going to see if Jeremy Kyle is on, clearly I'm not a real quilter as I'd rather watch trash TV that this stultifying video...


14 comments:

Shirley said...

Don't get sucked into daytime TV or you won't get any crafting done today and we can't have that. The book is lovely, I wish I was more into sewing when my boy was little.

Anna said...

Super adorable !!!! Et on peut le personaliser !!! C'est génial !
Bon weekend.
Anna

Maya Kuzman said...

Ok. So I am not a quilter (though have a desire to tackle that too) to pass judgements,and I think that you've made one beautiful book. I love fabric books but have never actually made one - yours is an inspiration! Thank you for sharing!

Sandra :) said...

Soft books are surprisingly tricky as far as assembly order - the first one I made, a few years ago, had a similar "design decision" *ahem* :D If you make more, what you can do is take pieces of paper, write the block description on them (i.e. tiger, 1, front cover etc.), then cut and fold them in the proper order to use as a guideline :)

Sheila said...

Your soft book is cute and I'm sure your nephew will enjoy for quite some time.
Feel better soon!

Anonymous said...

You're allowed to watch daytime TV when you're poorly :) Rest and recharge!

I like your book, sticking it in his mouth is a definite sign of approval!

Celtic Thistle said...

Gosh those QuiltCon videos must be bad if Jeremy Kyle is a better option!

Hope your soft book gets sucked to pieces :)

JoJo said...

That's a fab book and yes, being chewed on is the highest compliment! lol I hope you feel better!

Samantha said...

Aww poor you, I hope you feel better soon. It's an awful waste of a weekend being ill! x

moira said...

I hear you re some of the quiltcon lectures LOL. Feel better soon (that soft book is fab!)

Jane said...

It definitely has the taste of success, lol. Fabric books are brilliant

Theresa said...

I think it's lovely, what a great idea. Hope you're feeling better soon Wendy.

Anita said...

Lovely book,what a wonderful gift ! I'm sure your nephew will love it.Get well soon Wendy!

Nancy Lee said...

I also have a cold. :-(
This is a lovely book. The soft books are wonderful and this one is so colorful. No wonder he chewed it. It just looks delicious.
Feel better soon!