When I taught art, people always asked me what medium I worked in. Any art teacher will tell you, if you can do one form of art, you can pretty much do them all. Either you’re handy, or you’re not! But if I had to choose, I’d say the fiber arts. I come from a long, long line of tailors and dressmakers, back in the day when ladies had their dresses custom made, and I definitely got the gene. True story: my husband once freaked when I randomly took a pair of scissors to a length of creamy soft cashmere that a friend had brought back from Scotland. A couple of hours later: Ta Da! A sweater. (Now, if I could only dance and do math…)
This past year, though, there’s been precious little playtime at the Heather Heyford house. It seems as though all I’ve done is write my Napa Wine Heiresses series. As fun as that’s been, after I handed in A Taste of Sauvignon on the Labor Day weekend, I was suffering from severe craft withdrawal. So I whipped up this little quilted, reversible kindle cover.
You’ll find a variety of patterns in the accessories section of pattern books, or do what I did and wing it. Mine takes a quarter yard of quilted, reversible fabric and a strip of calico about 4″ wide and 2′ long. Lay your reader on top of the fabric and cut a rectangle 3/4″ larger than the device on all sides. Divide the calico strip into fourths longwise and iron the two outer sides inward (so the sides open like a book). Sew the calico strip around the edge of the rectangle on both sides of it, easing it around the corners, to form a narrow pocket. Insert a length of elastic and pull it tight enough to hug the reader. Now you have a cover that looks pretty, protects your reader, and feels cozy in your hands.”