About 7 years ago, I won a Quilter's Journal as a door prize at a local quilt show. At first I thought I would never use it, but I have. It is about half filled with ideas for quilts I wanted to make, pictures torn from magazines that I found inspiration in, and lots of quilting motifs I wanted to try. I also clip in handy info that I use often, like measurements for tote bags and things I found on blogs and printed off. Then 2 years ago, Sir Old Man bought me another journal made of totally re-cycled paper. The cover is made from a Scrabble game board and the pages are office letterhead stock that was never used. I decided to fill it with free motion quilting motifs as I accomplished them. It is not a sketchbook, but rather a reference diary that is easy to refer to when I am looking for a design to stitch.
The sewing room was re-organized when Hot Legs arrived, and I went thru a big clean out and ended up with a stack of "items" that I just did not want to toss, yet what to do with them. I had paper gift tags from all the items my daughter had knitted for me, bookmarks, napkins, cards, and such. That kind of stuff.....that for some reason I needed to hang onto. I had them stuffed into a folder. So journal number 3 was born. I glued items into a smaller journal, made pockets of the notecards and glued them in. They are great to hold the bookmarks, and items I might use someday! I recently discovered this is called a "junk journal". Maybe so, I think it is a treasure journal of tokens I find inspiration in. 
The treasure/junk journal is the small one in the left corner. I used a bit of thread painting when I made the cover. And I have had to add a cord to wrap around it as a closure.
Anyway, I treasure all three because they hold a wealth of past experiences, and inspiration for the future.
Got any treasures? You might need a journal. :-)
Happy stitching.
I always kept a journal of my quilts, print out a picture and add notes but found it's easier to keep on the computer since the pictures are already there. I like the idea of the free motion journal though, it's a great idea to have those ideas all together in a book. Stealing your idea as usual :)
ReplyDeleteI do some of the same things you do, though not nearly as neatly organized. Thanks for sharing this inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThese are lovely. I tried to do this in the beginning, but found keeping quilting journals on-line was easier.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have "stuff", but I think I need to hire you to organize it for me. I like your style. : )
ReplyDeleteSo fun to peek inside these... I think we hang onto things for good reasons and it's great when they find a home.
ReplyDeleteI do have a couple of scrapbooks of my inspirational clippings, patterns and some are just kept as color combos. Trouble is, I clip out at a greater rate then I paste in. So I have lots looseleaf. Right now I don't care. It's all packed for a move. . . for a year I've done without them. Never at a loss for an idea though. Love seeing yours. Makes mine more acceptable. (I'm not the only crazy one. lol)
ReplyDeleteHugs
I don't have any journals but think it would be a good idea. A long time ago, I took a charm quilt class. The instructor suggested we carry a small notebook in our purse with a snippet of each fabric we had already cut a "charm" for our quilt from. She did hers by fabric color in different sections of the book. She used a glue stick to adhere them to the pages. You could refer to the notebook to see if you had already purchased that fabric or already used it for the quilt.
ReplyDelete