Quilt Books

If you are not a quilter, I apologize in advance for this post ... because it's really quilt-y. ha!

My sister in law and her mom are quilters. I love that about them. I especially love that it makes them easy to make gifts for. ;o) I always know that they will appreciate anything that I sew for them, but especially if it has to do with quilting! So ... this year, for Christmas (and for mama's birthday), I made them each a quilt book. My mom had one of these for when she started her Southern Album Quilt, and I have used it often when assembling my own quilts. It's basically a big (like 18inch square) "book" with fabric pages, so that you can lay out the pieces of your quilt blocks and keep them from being strewn all over the place while you are working on them. It's also a great way to store your quilt blocks until you are ready to sew them together ... it keeps them flat and wrinkle-free, and doesn't take up much space at all.

Anyway ... here are some pictures.

This is Suzanne's quilt book. I saw this fabric at Hancocks and *had* to have it. It's so much fun.
My dad cut 1/4 inch plywood squares to slip in the front & back covers, so the books wouldn't be floppy. What a nice guy!

See the pages ... I made them out of quilter's flannel, so that the cotton quilt block pieces would "stick" on them. I think there are about 12 pages in each book.

I love personalizing things with initials.

Here's Mama's book ... that's an "M" for Mary Anne, not Mama. ;o)

A close-up of the button closure. I used one of my mom's vintage buttons.

I put a little 1/8 inch strip of red fabric in all the seams on the front, just to set off the patchwork. Is there a name for this? I don't know ... but it made it look more fun to me.

So, now I'm debating if I should make another quilt book for myself ...