Gelli® Journal Cover

Today I took one of my leaf Gelli® mono-prints on fabric and turned it into a journal cover.

Here's how the print originally looked.

I needed the design to be longer so I used a Frixion pen and the same stencil used in the print to mark on some more leaf shapes.

I then quilted the piece with free-motion stitch in blue to match the print. I didn't put a backing on, just a wadding layer, as I knew the stitching on the back would be hidden when I made up the book cover.

It still looked like a square dumped in the middle so I coloured some of the leaves with textile medium and Inktense pencil.

I added some bronze paint to the background and some of the leaves but I didn't like the design. The problem was that although the colours were different their values were both mid-range and very similar. It needed more dark and light. I painted in some white highlights and then appliqued on these leaf prints from a hand-cut lino block. Some more pieces were cut with the same stencil and machined in place.

At this stage I quite liked it and toyed with the idea of making an actual quilt wall piece. However that would involve measuring and making bindings. Ergh! And what was I going to do with yet another quilt? I decided to go ahead with the book cover as planned because I need more of those (not!). Also I have about a million other prints waiting to be stitched into. Here's how it looked on the back.

I assembled the book cover as in the previous post. This time though I was using a shop bought A4 sketchbook. Here it is before the book went inside.

The journal was spiral bound which made it really easy to slide on the book cover. Here are pictures of the front and back.