A Finished Project Six Years in the Making

In 2014 I made pink fabric journals for two friends, Laurie and Terry. Click their names to see those journal posts. While making their books I started one for myself. I'd pull it out occasionally and work on a page or two, but mostly all the makings have occupied a plastic bin in the corner of my craft room for the last six years. Right before Christmas I decided that thing was going to be finished! I worked on it for about a week and a half, and finally (ta da!!!) here it is! Fair warning - this is a very long post with lots of photos.

The cover is made from what I think is a placemat or dresser scarf. I'll show a close up at the end of the post. The beautiful heart collage was made by a friend and seemed the perfect adornment for this book.

The first page is French General fabric. The Paris fashion image is printed on muslin. The wide band of pink daisies is edging cut from a vintage tablecloth.

For this page I used a vintage hankie with a embroidered T, because this page features a three inchie I made for a Valentine swap organized by Laurie. The book includes my inchie as well as the ones I received from my swap partners. I won't list each maker here, but you can see them all in my post about that 2014 swap here.

This lovely lady was cut from a pillowcase. I used her twin in Terry's book.

The cutwork above is from a vintage pillowcase. If I recall correctly, the beautiful wide pink ribbon behind the three inchie came from an estate sale.

The cherry fabric on the page above is part of a 1950s Baar and Beards chiffon scarf. A piece of this was also used in Terry's book.

More French General fabric, with another swap inchie and a bit of trim from a vintage slip.

Above, various vintage fabrics, a vintage hankie made into a pocket to hold a swap ATC (more on that swap here) and some wonderful pleated trim I purchased from Dawn.

Yet more French General fabric, vintage trim, another swap inchie, and embroidered floral trim. This trim is one of my very favorites and getting harder to find. I'm always on the lookout for it in every color.

This vintage rose fabric was given to me by Wanda Clark when we attended The Art of Craft at French General in 2011. It's topped with a very old dusty rose doily, picot-edged ribbon, and wonderful embroidered roses cut from a moth-eaten sweater.

This page was cut from a embroidered pillowcase. The little yoyos at the bottom came from a old and damaged throw pillow.

Vintage pink eyelet fabric from an estate sale, topped with a swap inchie with a sweet little bonus doily.

More French General fabric. Can you tell I love them? The top fabric is a striped satin. Trims include crushed velvet ribbon, ruched rayon seam binding, more green picot ribbon, and a bit of green crochet along the edge.  It's all topped with a swap inchie.

The page above has a vintage hankie base with part of a pink plisse baby dress made into a pocket. The swap ATC is stored in the pocket.

Another swap inchie on not-so-old fabric - a scrap from my part time job - trimmed with a strip of vintage curtain and some cute ribbon trim.

Another page made from a old pillowcase. The larger flowers were added, along with velvet ribbon and pom pom trim.

This page is a mix of pink linen from an old tablecloth, a vintage glove used as a pocket, crushed velvet ribbon, and three different types of vintage trim. The pocket holds the swap ATC.

This piece of vintage lace hankie is sewn over pink linen, with vintage pink trim at the bottom and newer pom pom trim along the edge.

The embroidery on this page is from a vintage dresser scarf. The crochet flowers were cut from a damaged pillow case. The trim along the bottom edge is another favorite, made from intertwined pink and white rick rack with crochet. I love what some people could/can do with rick rack, and have collected quite a few examples.

This pocket holds little art pieces from several Valentine swaps over the years, including my contribution to the Valentine ATC swap mentioned earlier.

The embroidered organza for this page came from Laurie. The little "basket" is actually a sleeve from the plisse baby dress mentioned earlier. The bow and the edging came from another baby dress.

And lastly - you made it! - here's a close up of the placemat or table runner I used for the cover. I'm so glad I wasn't the one to tie all those little strands of nylon together!

Thanks you so much for taking the time to read all the way through! It's a lot, but a lot of time and love went into this so I'm happy to be able to share it.