New Prayer Book... Work in Progress

This idea has been floating around my mind for a while now, ever since my 'Votes for Women' fabric/lace book. This time, I wanted to create a finer book, without all the raw edges. After making 20 purses, I'm partial to finished seams. So I created the cover and three signatures for my new book.
I chose deep, saturated colors for the foundation pages. The cover is just a beautiful upholstery fabric my granddaughter found for free at a garage sale! 

 You can barely see (above) the lace on the ends. It's beautiful hand made lace I took from two vintage Irish tea towels.
This view is of the top of the book... no raw edges!

 Inside the front cover showing the first signature. I had just enough of this fabric to create the signature. 15" by 19" gave me my roughly 6x8" book.

 This is funny.... the second signature is a beautiful soft forest green fabric I cut from a home-made runner bought at a garage sale a few months ago for $1. From that runner, I've made a purse, Christmas stocking, and now another signature for my book.... for ONE DOLLAR! (It sure doesn't look forest green in this picture!)

 I chose the third signature fabric just because I like it. The flower looks so nice here, but of course, it will be covered by the lacey pages. It's kind of the way I feel about the insides of my bags, I want things to be as lovely on the inside as the outside. It's all about intention.

 So, there will be 15 (!!!) inserts! Here is the first basic layout. I will be finishing off, embellishing with silk ribbon flowers, vintage jewelry, and what ever inspires me. What you are seeing is only the foundation. Oh... don't you love the squiggly stitches? First time I've used that stitch on my fabulous workhorse Janome sewing machine!

 This book will be filled with beautiful laces, stitches, embellishments, and many, many pockets to hold prayer cards and wishes.  I found an amazing Etsy seller, Green Valley Studios. I spent hours yesterday morning just looking at all of her lovely digital art. Her amazing deal, I bought TEN digital sheets for just $20. They are going to work great on my pocket pages. Do check her out!
'Hope' is the first pocket page I created. I'm imagining some silk embroidered flowers across the doily that is draped over the top. The lace sticking out of the right side is a coffee-dyed Venise lace collar.

 The third insert page is an inspiration page, showing my favorite holy card image from my youth. I always felt the presence of my Guardian Angel (still do!), so she had to come next. I want a number of crazy quilted pages, so here's the first. It's fun to work small, with scraps I'd thrown into my bin. I mounted the little CQ onto a partial vintage hanky with beautiful crochet trim. The bottom is from a vintage tea towel. And to finish the top and right sides I've over-stitched a beautiful vintage crochet lace. The lacy thing on the left is another coffee stained lace applique. This too, awaits embellishments.

Thanks for looking at my WIP! I welcome any suggestions!
Sweetest Blessings