Free Motion Mavericks - Week 217 - Trial and Error

Has too much knitting addled my brain?  My project today consisted in not much more than a bound rectangle, yet I made one mistake after another.

Fittingly enough, the idea was to make the most of rejects.  When I was making my Mother of the Groom outfit a couple of years ago, I made quilted panels from which to cut out the pieces for the jacket.  I thought that they would be softer and easier to work with if I washed them.  It didn't occur to me that the dye would change colour, and if I washed them all I would have a jacket and skirt in different shades of blue.  I ended up with three panels I couldn't use.

This week I had the brainwave of using the spare panels to make book covers.  I had a particular book in mind, and set about making a cover for it.  Using the book itself as a guide, rather than measuring, I cut out a rectangle, then checked it by wrapping it round the book. It was too small.

So I cut out another, bigger, and moved on to the next stage...

… putting a fabric triangle in each corner.

At some point I realised that this one was too small too.  The covers were to big to fit into the corners. 

Not to be put off, I carried on regardless and started attaching the binding.

When I reached the third corner I realised that the binding was too short.  Rather than unpick the whole lot, I decided to turn it into a design opportunity and added an extra bit of binding in a darker shade of red.

Once I had finished the binding, I ferreted around the house for a book small enough and deserving enough for the smaller-than-expected cover that I had made.

Here it is, all wrapped up...

… and here is the view of the back, with the accidental design feature.

And inside is the pocket-sized New Testament that belonged to my grandmother, given to her by a friend on 5th September 1907.

The original intention was to make a cover that could be fastened, but I have decided to leave this one just as it is.  Somehow it feels more comfortable holding the book in the cover.  The book has already been repaired once, many years ago, and the spine could give way all too easily, and having the cover around it keeps it safe from damage.

Now the challenge ahead of me is to make a cover to measure for the book I first thought of, and get it right.  I'm making no guarantees.

Here goes for week 217:-

Many thanks to Margarita for linking up with her beautiful zip-up case.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.