Part 2 of Our Special Feature - Journals
A Series Project by Janet Carija Brandt

This month, we bring you Part 2 of Janet Brandt's 4-Part series on creative journals, incorporating Marcus Fabrics WOOLS and cotton prints. You'll love Janet's easy techniques that allow you to design your own journal, adding your favorite embellishment techniques like beadwork, embroidery, stamping, etc.

Review Part 1 - Simple Journal

You’ll Need:
4 assorted ¼ yard or fat quarters of wool for covers
2 yards light color cotton for pages
Small embroidery block or quilt block for the cover
4 yards of 12" wide yards fusible web product (Janet used Steam-A-Seam)
Machine embroidery thread
Perle cotton
Temporary spray adhesive
Freezer paper (optional)
Large black office clamps
Scrap of wood
Nail
Hammer

For the back cover, cut 2 pieces of wool, the same or contrasting colors, each one about 9½” x 12”. Cut another piece of wool 7½” x 4”. Stitch to the inside color of the back cover using the diagram as a guide. Fuse the two back cover pieces together with fusible web. Trim to the finished size of 9”x 11 ½”.

• It is easier to cut the wool slightly larger, fuse the layers and then cut to the finished size in order to obtain a crisp straight edge.

For the front cover cut one piece of cotton 9½” x 12”. Draw the finished size of the cover on the wrong side of the fabric. Also draw a line 1¾” in from the left hand side to mark where the binding piece will go. Cut one piece of wool 1¾” x 9” for this binding piece.

Use the rest of the area of the front cover to showcase your chosen embroidery or quilt block. Cut each piece exactly the right size, and beginning with the binding piece, spray the back of each piece with a temporary spray adhesive and put in place on the drawn side of the cotton. The edges should butt up against each other, not overlap. Use decorative machine embroidery stitches to attach each piece to the cotton, stitching in the ditch between the pieces. Trim cover to finish size of 9” x 11½”.

• The pages in this journal can be filled, printed or embellished before the book is assembled or after. Make this decision at the beginning of the project.
• This journal is based on pages that are 8 ½” x 11”. The light color cotton fabric can be ironed to freezer paper and run through your computer’s printer. The pages are horizontally oriented and need a 2 ½” margin on the left hand side of the page for the binding. Keep this in mind as you are formatting the page.

To prepare a blank journal that can be filled over time, cut the cotton fabric into 2 pieces (1yard each). Using the fusible web product, fuse the two pieces together, with wrong sides together. Cut into 8½” x 11” pieces. (You might be able to get 16 pages from your fabric. The sample journal has 12.)

Anything creative technique you can imagine can be added to the pages at this stage, when they are loose, or you can go ahead and bind your journal and enjoy filling it at your leisure. Again, remember to keep 2½” free at the left hand side for the binding.

Stack the back cover, pages and front cover together. Center the pages between the top and bottom edges of the covers. Line up the left edges of the covers and pages. Clip the layers together with the office clamps. Use as many clamps as you can, but leave the left hand binding area empty.

Mark 3 evenly spaced holes along the binding line of the front cover. (If you follow these instructions your journal won’t look like the sample, it will look better!)

#1 Bring needle up the center hole from the back of the book. Leave about a 6" tail of thread. Circle around the outside of the book and back through the center hole

Following the diagrams, circle the thread through each hole, then around the outside until you come to one edge of the book. Then repeat the process going back to the center. Don't make a second loop where you began this time, save it for your last stitch. Now work the same pattern to the other side and back, repeat your very first stitch. Both thread tails should now be on the backside of the book. You can know and trim, leaving the know exposed, or you can take the thread tails back in the center hold but come out in the middle of the book. Know, trim and it will disappear in the center binding.

Next month: The Quilt Journal