The next step

I have been begrudgingly doing my chores; cooking, shopping and cutting the moss and weeds - sorry lawn over the last few days when really I wanted to MAKE BOOKS. In fact I have managed to start four! Here are the covers of two of them.

The little heart book has a three fold cover and I have started hand stitching on the dyed pelmet vilene. I only bought a few colours of the transfer dyes so I have worked on it with colour pencils before giving it a coat of acrylic wax to fix the colour. I hope to transform it with embroidery, I shall take my time. I shall fill it with rather girly heart motifs. The larger one I made in the same way but I have started to machine embroider this one and stitch on ribbon and lace. I have an idea of calling this my Book of Days and am toying with a few ideas. I promise to keep you informed. I have made another cover in the shape of a leaf, but I have put that one aside for later. 

This is the little book I have got furthest with.

I have finished the cover with embroidery and beads. The edge of the cover is pierced and shaped with a soldering iron which melts the vilene.

The theme of this book is the letter J (not too difficult to guess) and I have been making a list of things beginning  with J to go in it. Jokers, jellies, jumpers, jingles-the trick will be to make each page decorative.

Here is the first page - I am the big one!

The pages were lining paper soaked in Brusho water colour, I wrote the letter J on the right hand page with bleach. I shall probably add some stitches too. Got to go now, I am using up valuable stitching time. I'll try to drop in on your posts later.

Jill

Happy Birthday Janet!

It is my sister's birthday today so I made her an initial for her birthday. I am sure you can workout her favourite pastimes. I was especially pleased with the 'sea' moulded with Golden gloss gel and thanks to Lesley for the idea of knitting with cocktails sticks. I am sorry I can't just pop over to the Isle of Wight to see you, but happy birthday little sis.

A wonderful two days

What a great two days I have just had at Frances Pickering's 'Books to Cherish' course at Art Van Go (That's the links over and done). I am totally pooped, even though I have been sitting down most of the day! So this post is just a quick over view, with some very poor photos I'm afraid. Several people on the course said they were going to visit my blog this evening so I want to give they them something to look at. First I must say that  being able to handle Frances' books was a terrific opportunity. They were all delicious and over the two days my favourite changed, you need to look at her web page to see them. I was totally hooked and bought all the necessary materials. I will be going through the process in the next few days to cement it in my brain, so I will share it with you. Where to start?

Well here is Frances demonstrating how tactile our books should feel - perhaps not a very flattering photo, but showing her passion for her art.

This is the cover of my book - painted onto cheap copy paper with transfer dyes and ironed onto pelmet vilene  then waxed with acrylic wax to stabilize the colours. It is now ready for some stitched embellishments.

Here Frances  is showing us how to  shape the edge of the vilene with a soldering iron. You can also use it to make holes in the cover.

Next we tore some heavy duty lining paper into pagers and left them to 'marinade' in Brusho water colour wrapped up in polythene.

After they had been wrapped up for an hour or so, we dried them off with a hair dryer and gave them a quick iron. 

You are then ready to stitch your book together and start filling it.

This is the finished outside with a button and cord fastening.

and here a couple of pages - not finished by any means - it is a long term project.

Here are some of the other member of the group's work-

What I did next

I've been making these little scented shabby fabric hearts. 

Here is how: I cut out a heart shape from a piece of fairly strong fabric and then chose scraps of fabric, ribbon and lace that toned in. I then zig-zagged the trimmings onto the heart with a contrasting thread, adding a few random lines of stitching.

I then cut another heart the same size in a toning/or contrasting piece of felt for the back. I have some cheap viscose (or whatever) felt which I was wondering what I would use for.

I then stitched round the edge leaving a gap near the pointed end for stuffing. I stuffed them as firmly as I could and then added some pot-pourri oil on a piece of cotton wool.

As they are not turned inside-out it is easy to stitch up the gap. I then finished them off with a ribbon and a button or bow. I came home from my sisters with a big bag of fabric scraps and pieces of ribbon although that was before I got my machine and didn't know what I was going to do with them. I am beginning to build up my own bits collection now. She also sent me a tin of buttons and another bag of bits this week (what a great sister to have!)

I got a bit carried away photographing them in the afternoon sun. 

I must say I am rather pleased with them.

On Wednesday and Thursday I am going on a course at The Art Van Go Studio in Knebworth called "Books to Cherish with Frances Pickering. Here is one of her books, so you can guess I am really looking forward to it. I hope I shall something interesting to share at the end of the week. Meanwhile I hope you all have an enjoyable and creative week too.

Book by Frances Pickering

Shabby chic

After Lesley at Printed Material pointed out these on this lovely blog.  I had to have a go.

Shabby Fabric Flower from Roben-Marie Smith on Vimeo.

The petals are cut from a cotton napkin I got from Sainsbury's. They were under £4 for four, just right for a bit of embroidery. The centres are scraps of fabric, ribbon and trimmings. I made the leaves by bonding some green velvet and linen and stitched in the outlines and veins. Unlike the ones on the video I stitched them together as I had no suitable fabric glue.

I quite like doing this sort of thing as it is something I can sit and do while (half) watching TV. I am being a bit of a butterfly at the moment flitting from one thing to another, perhaps it is the spring weather. 

Spring has sprung

I've been busy today with some routine jobs this morning and in the garden this afternoon. It is very satisfying that a bit of judicial pruning and tidying up can make the garden look so much better, and fire up my enthusiasm. So here are a few photographs from my archives to match my mood.

There are dozens of seven spot ladybirds sunning themselves in the garden and I've not spotted one of the dreaded alien Harlequin invaders which smothered my philadelphus last year (but put paid to the black-fly I may add)

The daffs and tulips tone in well with my Carlton china

Just pretty

Pink and Blue

Thank you for all your suggestion as to what I could do with my embroidered squares and all of them polite! As you have all been so kind to show an interest, so here are the next two.

The pink one is inspired by spikes of flowers and the blue one by swirls of water.

They will both get some more work - I have only just started on a yellow one - I'll post it soon. I have been doing a strand's worth of stitching at every opportunity. At the moment I am finding this very soothing - a bit like doodling - no pre-plan, just go with the flow. I am toying with the book idea and I have thought of making a hanging. Thank you for all our suggestions