Jamie's Bookcase Quilt - August

Hi Everyone,

I stumbled across a quilt I LOVED on Pinterest a few months ago, and it inspired the quilt I'd like you to help me create. It's a bookshelf quilt, and what I like about it is that there are very few rules. My part time jobs throughout university were always in the university library or at a big bookstore, and my books are my most prized possession, so I completely fell in love with the bookshelf quilt idea.

I've gone back and forth about the size, but I think that because of the picture this quilt will make, I'd like it to be a twin size (or maybe a bit bigger) wall hanging. This means I need 18 blocks, so what I'm doing is having you all make some blocks that have regularly placed and stacked books, and then I'll make a few blocks where the books slant to the side. The reason I'm doing it this way is because I haven't figured out how to make those blocks yet, and I am about to head out traveling for a few weeks and don't have enough time (or fabric!) right now to figure it out and create one to show you! :) However, if anyone feels like they want to challenge themselves and make a block with a slanted book, you're more than welcome to do so. It's not expected whatsoever, but feel free to do so if you like!

With all of that said, there is definitely no rush on this quilt, and I think I've been behind on everyone else's blocks, so please take your time. I probably won't be putting it together until Christmas at the earliest.

I don't want to give you many rules about what kinds of fabric colours or patterns to use for the books themselves, because the idea I am going for is a really robust and varied book collection. You can see from the pictures of the fabrics I've used, that some of the prints actually tell stories of sorts. If you have a fabric that you feel tells a story, that would be great. I don't mind solid colours, but I don't want too many - there should probably be no more than two solid coloured strips in your block.

Here's the inspiration:

(http://www.thebookcollector.com/quilt.htm)


For this quilt, I'd like you to divide into teams, as we've done in the past. We'll have two teams. Each person on Team A will create one regular block, and Team B members will create one stacked books block.

Team A - Jennifer, Micalea, Anthea, Katy, Linsay, Stephanie, Pam, Donna Jo

Regular Block - This will be a 12.5" square made of strips of patterned or coloured fabric attached to black strips of the same width to give the illusion of a bookshelf. I would like your patterned strips to be absolutely any colour/pattern/width/height. What I'm looking for is a complete mixture, and this is a fantastic opportunity to use scraps. I actually found that because of the quilts we've already done this year, I already had strips pre-done! All I needed to do was attach black strips of the same width to them.

Here's the one I made:

Team B - Amy, Amy, Claire

Stacked Books Block - For this block, you will create a regular block (see above) that will be turned on its side to make a stack of books. I will leave it to your discretion whether you would like the books to be stacked from long to short, or haphazardly. I'd love a mix, so do whatever you like! I'll also leave it up to you whether you align the books to the right (as I've done) or in the centre - again, I'd love a mixture. If you do the centre method, you'll need black strips on either end - similar to the stacked books quilt we did a few months ago. I'd also like you to leave black space at the end/top, to give the illusion of open space behind the top of the stack.  The square will need to measure 12.5" square.

Here's the one I made:

You will need:
- Solid black fabric - no tone on tone please. You'll need enough strips of this fabric to match up with the patterned/coloured fabric you use.
- As many patterned/coloured strips of varying widths and heights/lengths as it will take to create a 12.5" square block with the black strips.

Here are mine together:

Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions! Happy quilting!

Jamie xox