Embroidered Notebook Cover

I am not much of an original designer. In fact, I almost always follow patters word for word, line for line, and I love using kits. This project shows my attempt to take ideas from several sources and combine into one project. 

Last December I decided to make a notebook cover. This is a combination of ideas from two sources, one of which is the Nicole French Maid Needle Book offered by Access Commodities. This was described by Mary Corbet in her Needle n' Thread website last year, only she worked the initial in surface stitch, not cross stitch as instructed in the kit.  Here's the link to the first article she wrote about this project. I liked the project quite a bit, but wanted a notebook cover from looking Australian Smocking and Embroidery, Issue 89. The project is called Melody, a smocked and beaded notebook cover for a Moleskine ruled notebook which measure 5 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches. Country Bumpkin still has kits available on their website. They are a bit pricey, but very convenient if that is important to you.

So I had two ideas, a needle book with an embroidered initial and a tiny notebook cover.

I received this lovely book last Christmas, Letters and Monograms from the House of Malbranche.  It has the loveliest monograms, and you can order it from Wendy Schoen, among other places.

This is the monogram I decided to use, the letter G from the English Chiffres collection in the book.

I found some floral fabric in my stash, heaven only knows where it came from, and some beige linen with a hint of yellow in it. In keeping with the style of the needlebook, the monogram is worked in Au Ver a Soie, Soie d'Alger, only in a very slightly padded satin stitch. Note the interfacing around the linen to protect it from my grubby hands!

I changed the flowers to match the fabric, and attached the linen to the floral cotton with a pinstitch worked by hand. The pinstitch is not completely finished here, and you can still see some of the blue pencil markings.

The next post will have the finished product.