Book Quilts

[ViktorH]

Hello,

I was wondering if I could get some input on an idea that's been simmering in my head for quite some time.

I am thinking of starting a small business called "book quilts". The idea is to create bed quilts that have classic novels printed to cover the entire surface of the quilt. I first came across the idea after a classmate of mine started a company called Postertext - where a novels content is used to form an entire poster. Then I came across Spinlessbooks - more or less the same premise as Postertexts except that the entire novel is used each other - resulting in some rather large posters.

In the meanwhile, I purchased a cheap bed quilt here for the coming winter that happened to be covered in random letters of the alphabet. This got me to thinking - if an entire classic novel can fit on a larger poster, it maybe be possible to have it printed on bed quilts as well. I would just like to get some opinions on the idea. I have the feeling this adds to the bedtime reading atmosphere - literally wrapping yourself up in a favourite book of yours. Please let me know what you think.

I know there may be issues with printing that small (and legibly) on a quilt, as well as copywrite (I can only use public domain books) but strictly speaking about the idea - what do you think? Criticize away...

I think it would be really cool to have a Hobbit one.

[mal4mac]

It all sounds a bit pointless to me. The text of novels is meant to be read, not spread across disparate surfaces.

[chirpy]

^God forbid people make art out of the sacred written word!

OP, Go for it! If you do decide to make it please message me about it. I would love to see what you come up with!

As for suggestions... The hobbit seems like a great idea to me! I'm also thinking Alice in Wonderland. ooo can you add pictures?!?!? The copy I have (from Yugoslavia for some reason) has a lot of horribly fantastic sketches. Great gift for a bookish little kid or sensible adult.

edit: personally I doubt anyone would attempt to actively read a quilt. Still. Words don't need to be understood to be comforting.

[Calidore]

The first problem I can see is that the large type required for legiblity would make for a gigantic quilt, especially for a novel. Even a short story would be unwieldy.

The second is that quilt are (ideally) washed occasionally, and the print will fade. The smaller the type used, the faster it becomes unreadable, which makes the whole thing moot.

I like the idea of printing books on unusual things, but you definitely need to keep practicality in mind.

[Buh4Bee]

Personally, it has very little appeal to me, but I bet there is a market out there for this sort of thing. I'd say it would be worth, at least, looking into. If you can sort out the logical complications, it would be a matter of finding a small market for it. Sounds like something you could try through your local bookshop or even quilting or craft stores. I quilt and I can tell you, people LOVE quilts. Put something personal on the quilt and people love the thing for life.

[ViktorH]

^God forbid people make art out of the sacred written word!

OP, Go for it! If you do decide to make it please message me about it. I would love to see what you come up with!

As for suggestions... The hobbit seems like a great idea to me! I'm also thinking Alice in Wonderland. ooo can you add pictures?!?!? The copy I have (from Yugoslavia for some reason) has a lot of horribly fantastic sketches. Great gift for a bookish little kid or sensible adult.

edit: personally I doubt anyone would attempt to actively read a quilt. Still. Words don't need to be understood to be comforting.



Thanks for your response - please keep them coming!

I was born in Yugoslavia actually (back when it still existed).

From the companies I've spoken with, size 16 is the minimum font size for solid quality printing. "Spineless Books" manages to fit entire stories on large posters - quilts are still substantially larger than these posters - and with an entire back side available to print on.

Again, I really appreciate you interest and criticisms.

[Helga]

I'd like it. I have a pillow with a picture of old books so a quilt with a novel is nice. I'd like a Shakespeare play some comedy like 'Midsummer night's dream' or something by Poe, something dark and dreary. The Hobbit would be cool too.

[ViktorH]

Thank you for the honest replies.

An Odyssey quilt would definitely be one of the books I would like to use.

I do not believe I can patent this - but I could definitely build a brand around it and trademark the name.

The print size is a problem - but not in the sense of legibility. The manufactures I have spoken too have already informed me - printing on these materials - the fonts can only be so small -much larger than standard size 12 Microsoft Word text. The text has to be large enough to be printable, and withstand possible shrinking after washing. This of course limits the amount of content I can find on the cover as well.

It seems the business would have to cater to individual needs - thus customizable (to a certain degree). Therefore the quilts would be more expensive - but also of a higher quality. I believe quality is the way to go in this situation. People may be willing to pay more for a quilt that is unique to their selection.

The problem with this is finding the right manufacturing and what kind of selection I can offer for customization. Perhaps "Odyssey" could be offered in a selection of materials, templates, pictures/non pictures, text styles, text selection, etc...

Otherwise, trying to sell a single version quilt of a single book to everyone could be very difficult. Customization has it's own problems though.

I did not think to do a "kids version" up to this point either. Perhaps not a bad idea...

[Calidore]

I think the idea of a children's book is a good one. A complete fairy tale plus art would be a natural for a child's quilt.

Novels, however... Just for some logistical info: If we double the standard type size to 24 point (still seems small to me for printing on cloth, but I couldn't find a reference for this), using Arial as the font, you're looking at (all estimates very rough here) 13 words per foot across * 32 single-spaced lines per foot = 416 words per square foot. The number given as the average length for a novel is 100,000 words, which would be a bit over 240 square feet of quilt, or about 15.5 feet per side. Printed double-sided @ 50K words per side, you get about 120 square feet, or <> 11 x 11.

The Samuel Butler translation of Homer's Odyssey, meanwhile, has 269,183 words, which at that type size would come to about 647 square feet, or a quilt roughly 25.5 feet on a side. Double-sided, about 18 x 18 feet.