Maybe a Smaller Project? And How About a Giveaway?

I've just been too busy to finish the quilt that I wanted to take with me, so maybe something smaller?  This is a 6-1/2" x 9" piece with flip-and-sew piecing and decorative stitches.  I "built" it onto a piece of heavyweight tear away stabilizer (which I'm actually going to leave on) and then had some thoughts about what I might want to do with it.

You may know my good friend Jake Finch from either her long time stint as writer/editor/jack of all trades at Quilter's Home magazine or in her present project as publisher of Generation Q, a magazine that has been on line for a while and is just about to publish its second print edition.  It doesn't seem like five years ago when this book was published by C&T!

***As an aside on Generation Q:  There is an absolutely hilarious article on the blog today (use the link above) on what to do with your "stash dawgs" -- you know, the stuff you bought but will most likely never use?  I practically fell on the floor laughing....***

Back to my main point here -- in the book, there are some great ideas for attractive and not complicated ways to cover journals and other kinds of books.  I've had the journal, fabric -- in fact, pretty much everything except the heavyweight interfacing -- on hand ready to do this.  So, let's get out all the stuff and see if I can make any progress before I get distracted by something else.....

I think this will be pretty cool; I'm almost done with the piece that I am going to put on the cover.  2" strips of hand-dyed fabrics were used for the flip-and-sew (I pieced them to create more color diversity) and the decorative stitching was done with Candlelight in the bobbin.  Since this is a bobbinwork technique and I was working from the back, I used the strip stitching lines as a guide. 

The butterfly was traced from a stencil; then water soluble stabilizer was used in a flip-and-turn technique so that the outer edge is finished and easy to applique.  The funky trim will be tucked under the edges of the butterfly and then appliqued down with this pretty turquoise Mettler metallic thread, probably in a blanket stitch since I definitely want the thread to show. 

So I just need to do the applique, trim away the stabilizer from the piece and stitch it down to my background fabric, then make the book cover from the fabric.  Hmmm --- wonder how long that will take?

Now, to the giveaway:  I know a lot of people look at this blog because Google is really nice about giving me all that information, but hardly anybody comments.  So to encourage comments, I have five copies of Generation Q magazine to send to you.  If there are more than five commenters (and I really hope there are!), then I'll do a random drawing.  I will look at this when I get home from Nashville on August 3; I'll post on the blog who wins and then you can e-mail me your addresses. 

Speaking of getting ready to go to Nashville, I'm still getting my blue on.....is this fun, or what???