Useful play

Over the years the offcut edges from quilts and journal quilts have accumulated - or rather, I haven't brought myself to throw them out - "they might be useful for something someday..."

That day has come. By gathering them into colour groups, cutting off the rough edges, laying them side by side, and joining the edges with an open zigzag, I've made strips of prequilted fabric - and then applied fabric scraps in a joyfully random manner -

The rough edges of the scraps can be covered with handstitch while watching tv of an evening. Indeed, the joins of the strips benefit from embellishment (sometimes the wadding peeks out of the cut edge) -

Those edges were from the "Hatching" quilt for the CQ Breakthrough exhibition. Each strip will make two bookwraps.

The edges from two or three journal quilts, together, make one bookwrap. These offcuts are from the 2012 JQs. Some of the joins have had narrow strips of fabric added, and there will be further handstitch to cover up some of the clumsier joining -

It will be trimmed (7" x 10" to accommodate an A6 notebook), given inside "pockets" at each end, bound, and a button and loop added. Takes about two hours, start to finish. 

whereas this is from part of the trimmings from the 2011 set -

The strips are more or less random, with a few substitutions to improve the look...