The most basic part of this quilt is the books. This is the scrappiest part of the quilt and can be both fun and monotonous.
For the simplest (and these were the 1st 6 I did), cut scraps of fabric at various widths (I suggest no smaller than 1.5″ and no bigger than 3.5″) I also suggest making them fairly standard widths (every quarter inch or half inch). This makes the background part easier. Also make them at various heights. Take a look at your actual bookshelf–most of the spines take up about 3/4 the height of your shelf. Almost none are less than half height and a few are full height. Therefore, if you are making a 12″ high shelf, the books should be between 6 and 12 inches, with most between 8 and 10 inches.
Once you have a good pile of 6″-12″ x 1.5″-3.5″ scraps, set them aside. Now get your background fabric. You’ll use this to make up the height so that all the strips are about 12″ high. When it doubt, err on the side of a little too much fabric. The method that ended up working best for me was to cut long strips based on the height of the books rather than the width. So, I would have a long strip of 4″ fabric and sew all my books that were around 9″ on to them (remembering seam allowance), then I cut the background fabric up (scissor time) and had individual little books with the background. Then iron. I pressed the seams open. I’m sure there are arguments for doing it in other ways. Do whatever you like as long as the seams are pressed and flat. If you are spending more time at your sewing machine than at your iron at this stage, you are probably not ironing enough.
If you have eagle eyes, you probably notice that some of these spines are a little crooked. Most of the small sins like that get erased in the edging, cutting, finishing, and quilting.
Later on, I learned that adding extra strips of fabric looked pretty cool for the book spines, so I mixed that in a lot. It also multiplies how much time you’ll be at the ironing board. But I think it’s worth it for a cool look. A good mix of the spine labels and no spine labels looks pretty nifty to my eye. I also like leaving the blank spaces in my shelves. I’m glad I did, too–when I was doing the final layout of the blocks, I’d had several rows bunched together just full of books. It was too much–and surprisingly boring. One row is good, but there is too much of a good thing.
Lesson 2: If you will want to have book titles on any of your books (depending on the technique you end up using), you’ll want some book spines to be kinda plain looking. The titles will pop better against a neutral background than a busy one.
The BiblioFiles 