How to Stop Ribbons Fraying

The secret to stop ribbons from fraying and ruining your hard work is a very easy one.

This technique will work on most ribbons - anything with a polyester component. It will not work for pure cotton ribbons.

Simply melt the edges with a match or candle. Hold the ribbon close to the flame but don't let it touch or it may catch on fire. It will shrivel slightly so you need to cut the length ever-so-slightly longer than needed. Do this over the sink or a surface that will not burn in case you need to drop a burning ribbon!

Candles are great for when you have a whole lot of ribbons to do - otherwise you may use a whole box of matches in one sitting.

Preparations for multiple Malachi 4 - Sun of Righteousness Quiet Book pages

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If you already knew this secret, who taught you?

How to re-size printable quiet book templates to fit your page size

Do you need to re-size a template to fit your quiet book page size? There are so many ways you can adjust a printable download to fit.

1. Adjust the printing options from your computer.

Keep in mind that there are different ways to print from your computer -

• Often you can print directly from internet file storage such as Google drive
• You may choose to download an image or PDF and print directly from your computer image storage
• After downloading, you can also choose to open your file in Adobe or your Word processor and print from there
• Again, you can download your image and open it in Paint, Photoshop or another editing program where you can edit and then print

In the above example from Google Drive, by clicking on the more settings section, there are four ways to adjust the size of your file:

a) You can adjust the paper size by choosing another option - A5 will print on A4 paper at half the size, etc.

b) You can adjust the pages per sheet. If you choose 4 pages per sheet and also choose to print four copies, you will get four copies of your file - one printed in each quarter of your page.

c) You can adjust the scale using the fit to page box - this adjusts the size slightly and may prevent some edges getting cut off.

d) You can adjust the scale using the number box with arrows. This adjusts as a percentage of the original image and will allow you to reduce and enlarge the image (by going above 100). It is easy to adjust an image to the exact size you wish using this method.

2. Photocopiers often have a reduce and enlarge button which you can adjust using a percentage value.

3. Of course if you only have an A4 printer or photocopier and need to print in A3 or another larger size, you could take the image into a printing service shop and ask them to enlarge it for you.

The Print & Copy Shop, Lower Main Street, Ballybofey
© Copyright Kenneth Allen and licensed for
reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

I was inspired to write this post because someone in a quiet book sew-along I am running is making A5 sized pages. That is half the size of my normal templates, so I thought I might be able to make it easier with some instructions on how to change the size of your printables. I often use these methods when I use a colouring page as a quiet book pattern, such as when I made my Psalm 46 - Be Still and Know that I Am God Tea Set Quiet Book Page. I printed multiple tea cups at a reduced size on one sheet of paper adjusting the printing options on my computer using option b) above.

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Let me know if this has helped you out with re-sizing your printable templates!

Hand Stitched Quiet Book Cover

I recently saw a hand-stitched quiet book cover which someone had made their grand-daughter. It was so lovely, I had to share it with you all.

I think you will agree, the design is very simple, but it looks stunning.

The pages are made from one or two of the Betty Lukens quiet book kits (not an affiliate link) which I have featured before in several posts:

• How To Ring Bind Felt Quiet Books - Free A4 Buttonhole Guide
• Micah 5 - Oh Little Town of Bethlehem Quiet Book Page
• Genesis 6 - Preparing For The Flood Quiet Book Page
• Genesis 7 - The Flood Quiet Book Page
• Genesis 8 - In The Ark Quiet Book Page
• Genesis 9 - Rainbow After The Flood Quiet Book Page
• With many more to come!

This time however, the instructions for gluing pockets on the reverse of the pages has been followed.

When the book is put together this means that all pages are stacked on top of each other facing up and then bound. The original instructions ask you to hole punch the felt and run string through the stack, but this book has been bound very wisely ignoring that portion of the instructions!

Instead, it looks like the stack has been hand stitched together first and then the tightly fitting hand stitched cover has been attached to the stack. This allows decorative stitching to be used on the outside and solid-hold stitching to be used on the spine underneath.

My other posts on how to bind quiet books include:

• Ribbon Quiet Book Binding Method
• How To Ring Bind Felt Quiet Books - Free A4 Buttonhole Guide

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Which binding method appeals to you most?