These quilted journal covers make quick and easy gifts as well as being a great scrapbuster project!
The first thing you need to do is take a soft flexible measuring tape and measure your book around the spine from the edge of the front cover to the edge of the back cover. That is your width.
Measure your book cover
Then use your tape measure to measure the height of the book along the front cover vertically. This is your height.
Add 1″ to the width and 1″ to the height measured. This is the size you want the quilted panel that will turn into your journal cover to be. HOWEVER – as we are quilting this panel, I recommend you add an additional 1″ to each of those measurements and cut your quilt batting accordingly. You can trim it down when you have finished quilting.
Your lining or backing fabric should be the same size as your finished quilted cover. So add that 1″ to the width and 1″ to the height of your journal or book that you measured earlier. For the side flaps that keep the book cover in place, you need 2 pieces of fabric each the same height as your lining and quilted panel.
Cutting Instructions – Lining & Flaps
If you want to keep things super simple you can of course cut one piece of fabric for your outer cover and just quilt it down to your batting. But what I have done (as usual) is use this project to use up some fabric scraps!
Quilt Your Journal Cover
I start by placing one piece of fabric on the right side of the batting (this will be the front cover of your journal) and quilting it down. You can use straight lines, free motion quilting, or use a decorative stitch on your machine that you don’t get many chances to use.