~ Around Beauty ~

Thanks to an unexpected gift card this Christmas ... I bought myself an unexpected gift.
I bought this book Around Beauty by Barbara Barry.
I was well familiar with the work of Ms. Barry but I bought the book without so much as a flip-through preview while sitting on a bench at Barnes & Noble.

I was not disappointed.

The book itself is a work of art with a lovely grosgrain bookmark ...

I have spent more time contemplating the inside liner on this book than I have spent perusing other decorating books from cover to cover.

But what I love most about this "decorating book" is that I find it to be, first and foremost, a treatise on the creative process.

I love the creative process.
I also love to hear how it works in the minds of others.

As a result, I am treating this decorating book a little differently than the others.  I am reading every word and not just flipping through the pictures.

Although the pictures do make me drool ... 

~ Go Ahead and Judge ~

A week or so ago ... I made this bookcover.

The outer fabric was from a scrap a friend had given me a couple of years ago. I purposely centered those lovely roses on the back.

I lined it with flannel because the front of my "book" is actually a screen and I wanted to protect it.

Then, in the process of designing my latest quilt, I got out my handy-dandy design notebook. I had forgotten that the same friend who gave me the fabric had helped me make this book cover, from a pattern she designed at Liberty Star.

She helped me with the construction and then I added the monogram on the front and the inside pockets. When I opened it up and saw the inside pocket I realized ...

... oh yeah, I had used that fabric before. Also to cover a book.

The back flap has a double-duty pocket.

Handstitched with some bright pink running stitches.

I love that the notebook is a graph book. I used it to design the appliques on my June Bug quilt.

Reading is a lot more fun than it used to be.

 Linking to:
Country Momma Cooks
Potpourri Friday