I’ve been working on a Book Quilt for Emily inspired by Lynne Goldsworthy’s Magpie Books quilt featured in issue 21 of Quilt Now Magazine. I fell in love with Lynne’s quilt and wanted to create something similar. Lynne chose a style similar to the Penguin book theme but I wanted something broader to include all sorts of favourite books.
Ever since she was about 5, Emily has been a voracious reader. When I asked Emily to make a book list for me, she chose books that we read as a family when she was little, books that she’s enjoyed growing up, books she’s reading now and also books she’s hoping to read in the future.
The tricky part for me was figuring out how to do the titles. I’d never printed on fabric before, but it was easy. I ordered a box of Photo Fabric from Amazon. It comes with 5 sheets of printed poplin cotton fabric that’s been specially treated to go through your computer printer. I chose bookish fonts and lovely swashes and formatted the titles in a word document. I was ab;e to fit three titles and authors per sheet and still have enough room to stitch them to the chosen fabrics.
Then I simply printed them out, left them to completely dry, peeled off the paper backing, rinsed with cold water and left to dry. After a quick iron, the book titles were ready to cut and stitch together with my chosen book fabrics. Designing the titles was really fun and leaves you free to go for any style you like. For this quilt I went for a simple classic lettering style but next time I might choose something more retro or modern. Other kids are lining up for their version of this quilt. I think I’ll let them design the written bits.
The best part was finding fun fabrics to go with the book titles. Then came the arranging of the blocks and stitching them all together with the black sashing. I love how the black sashing sets off the bright book covers!
There’s nothing quite like snuggling up in bed under a cosy quilt with a good book! We’ll post again when we come to the quilting.
