A Holiday Journal Finish

 All ready gifted to my BFF so now I can share

my journal journey adventures. I do now know 

why I don't do many journal covers or book sleeves. 

First off, I found a very nice feature for the front. 

It says, "Just Sew Happy". A few false starts later, 

it was nicely bordered for the front. 

The fabric I chose was a leftover mini 4-patch

piece I had in the block bank. 

Measuring against the spiral book, 

there was more than enough to cover the book.

I stitched it together and then found that 

the blocks I sewed into the cover must had been relegated

to the  block bank since one seam of the tiny squares, 

hadn't been sewn .  I picked the book apart and 

stitched up the seam. The next problem was that 

the quilter's fuse showed thru as a few of the squares 

were undersize.

  More picking and some 

 thin black trim applied on top fixed that issue. 

The sleeve ends got stitched in but I managed to invert them

 and could not get the notebook in. 

So I picked it all apart and tried again. 

Now the sleeves were correct but the whole thing was a 

bit too narrow!!! Argh.  

I got a bit frustrated so I cut out the feature front and 

set off to the block bank to find some more fabric. 

Some color family strip blocks fit the size requirement.

I stitched three together and lined them 

with  a cheater log cabin print. 

I abandoned trying to enclose the ends, 

and did a simple fold and managed to get them to fold properly.

When the  feature patch was stitched on, the last task was to 

affix an elastic band to secure the pages. The edge of the 

applique needed to picked out to insert the elastic and that 

is when I discovered that the applique was upside down!

A bit of picking later and all was put right!  

It was the longest, simple project I have ever completed!!

I hope your Christmas time was all 

you hope for and friends and family 

were near. Stay safe and sew on as we get

ready to welcome 2024.