a new journal

Today I want to tell you about and show a new patchwork piecing project this month. It is a cover for a coptic bound journal. I use them to write in and sketch ideas for new quilting projects. Last year I made a pair of patchwork improvisation blocks using some of the scraps from my big Orange Explains It quilt scraps. Compared to the regular book cloth covered coptic bound journal this was clearly fun and interesting to do but extra time intensive. That is because to make a cover with fabric one has to add a paper backing to the cloth patchwork before gluing to the book cover boards. Double the glue work but doubly unique in the final book covers.

Orange Explains It scrappy Coptic bound book 

After I completed this first book I gave it to Keith for Christmas and figured I would make myself another one in the winter. It never happened until now but recently I finished up a big quilt top using two tones of orange and had scraps that were long strips and by adding them together and cutting them I got a new type of scrappy quilt block for my next book. See images below of the new cover...

Inside this new journal I added some wrapping paper we bought last year at that great paper source store in Georgetown with various feathers printed for my end pages. I like to use a heavy Strathmore paper for my fly pages in this case darker orange. I also had orange beeswax coated linen binder's thread to finish up the orange theme. While sewing I decided not to add glass beads to the spine but to use a soft paper and insert a little yellow-green or chartreuse over the two center folios for some colorful interest on the spine. 

In the back ground there you can see the big copy press I have on my studio desk. That is how I get the paper and glued fabric to stay pressed flat before and after I apply it to the book cover boards. It's a very heavy tool but a great one to have. 

A friend on Instagram asked about the needle I use. It is a bend binder's needle in this case one that I bent myself a trick I learned at my first class in Coptic book making with Daniel Essig years ago at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center when it used to be in Riverdale, MD. We plan to have a fabric block printing workshop for quilters at the current Pyramid Atlantic home in Silver Spring, MD next January 2016 for DC Modern Quilt Guild members. So here are a few images of my process as I built the book. 

detail of the first 6 signatures sewn in place with orange thread and chartreuse paper over the spines of two signatures. 

look closely to see the bent binders needle is tucked under the thread which is all that holds the coptic journal together. 

book assembly is one signature at a time added using a single tread and needle.