Autumn Leaves

Today is the reveal for Fiberactions' "neutrals" challenge.  I made three fabric books for the challenge ~ Autumn Leaves here, the second I'll post tomorrow and the last one on Saturday.

I stretched the boundaries of the concept "neutral" to include natural botanically-colored fabrics (raw silk, crepe de chine, and vintage cotton and linen).  Since they are earth tones, they're neutral to me.

The book is 7 x 10 inches and consists of 12 individual tiny quilts.  Two quilts were sewn together to create the front and back of each page.  Then each two-paged sandwich was beaded on each side.  The covers are one long piece of silk crepe de chine that was lined with linen and then quilted.  Then I assembled the book by handstitching the cover and pages together, then added handmade buttons on front and back as a decorative elements.

Although I didn't make the buttons myself, my first husband made some of them back in 1972.

Click on any of the photos to enlarge.

I'll be posting the second book tomorrow (an image of it is now my blog banner) and the last on Saturday.  If you regularly get the blog in full fashion, you see I've made a lot of changes since yesterday.  If you get the blog via email or a reader, click here to see what it now looks like.

And hop over to Fiberactions to see what other group members have come up with for the challenge.