The Friendship Notebook is a great project to make as a gift, and this one was posted off to a very special friend. This traceable stitchery design has been hand embroidered using a variegated Valdani perle thread, this time I used shade M60 from the Summer Garden collection, as it matched the colours of these fabrics perfectly...
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...I used a selection of these charm squares, cut in half and pieced together, to make a large patchwork rectangle, large emough to cover an A5 notebook and to wrap around the inside too. It was layered up on a piece of wadding - this was a piece of cotton wadding leftover from making a quilt - and then machine quilted very simply. Once it was trimmed to size, the two short sides were neatened with a single fold binding. Although there are instructions for constructiing the journal cover in the pattern, I prefer to use my own method of putting it together, which I find is much neater, and although it's a little bit tricky, I much prefer the end result. These journal covers are removable, so can be reused again and again. The inside is as neat as the outside - no raw edges to be seen! I always pin the top and bottom edges before they're machined, to make sure the cover isn't too snugg when the notebook is slipped inside...
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...and here's the finished cover! The pattern, by Gail Pan Designs, was purchased from Coast and Country Crafts and Quilts in Cornwall, and the fabrics and threads were purchased from Cross Patch, an online shop based in Wales. These really do make great gifts, and I'll definately make a few more of these over the next few months!
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