Category: bookbinding

Posted on

Twofer

I managed to make it through all last week’s activities not totally unscathed, but not in too bad of shape. Just some funny throat stuff trying to force its way in – which I am refusing.

Finished a twofer project. I wanted to support my SIL by having a quilt project to display using some technique or idea from Kaye Wood (nationally known quilter coming in to speak at the Community Quilt Connection next Sunday). I also needed to make a journal for the week 2 class in the online journal making for fiber artists class that I’m taking.

Soooo, I used Kaye’s 6-hour quilt technique and made the journal cover. The quilting isn’t too bad. Not sure a quilted cover is appropriate for the type of journal we were doing, but… it is done and posted. I didn’t even get started on it before some of the class folks were finished with their week 3 projects already! Overachievers!

Working with the Art Club kids tomorrow. We should finish up our orbs/spheres. Next week we’ll start on grids.

Posted on

Why do I think I can do everything? The body is just not as young as it once was, but the interest is constantly expanding!!!!!!! It is all good stuff – interesting, exciting, challenging, needed – just lots of it. Especially this past week.

One of the things I did NOT get to this week – at least not so far – was working on the second class of the journal making online workshop I’m taking. The administrator of the workshop did set up a public flikr site so we can post pictures for others to see. Some really nice looking journals are being made by this very diverse and far-flung group – I think there are well over 30 members in the group and they hail from Canada, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, UK, US, and I think Sweden and Finland (I may be off on a couple countries since I haven’t been paying close attention lately) plus a few others I know I’m forgetting.

I have managed to cross everything off my lists each day that absolutely needed doing which is a relief. The would-like-to-dos, though, have languished. Except for time in the hot tub. I guess I sort of put that in the must-do category – it keeps me going!

So, before the next storm hits, that’s where I’m heading! I’ll get back to the lists after that.

Posted on

Journal Making Class

I mentioned in an earlier post that Sue Bleiweiss’s (see her blog in the sidebar under Fiber Art) journals have been an inspiration for me to try some different things. She is offering an online journal making class (5 weeks/5 lessons) so I joined and this week we started with the first project.

I was sewing machine-less until late yesterday (it was in the shop getting checked out for a really obnoxious noise). Today I worked on the project – a larger size of journal than I’ve been making lately. I figured that I knew the basics of bookmaking, so I used this as a means of pushing some concepts that I’ve been meaning to try. Getting people used to the materials and including pockets was the main push in this lesson.

For the outside of the cover,I laid down paper strips (leftovers from a paper folding project last year) on the double-sided fusible Peltex then fused a layer of organza on top of that to soften the colors and protect the papers. The inside lining came from an old silk shirt – and I used the pocket from the shirt as a pocket in the journal. The button for the closure was an old one from Grandma – and I figured a way to have it ‘caught’ without making a loop or hole.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with it. I’m thinking it is a bit bigger than I like, but that can be easily remedied in future work. There have been a variety of pockets devised in the class, which is nice.

Seems to be a growing group – from all over the world – and I’m not sure how many are actually in the class. Sue set up a Yahoo! group to accommodate questions and comments and pictures of finished projects – it is a very chatty group so far! 🙂 And the great part about it being online is that the work can be done any time – at home – without having to drag materials and supplies all over the place.

Posted on

Book cover cloth

Finally pulled the camera out today and took some shots of the book cover cloth that I’ve been making lately. It’s been fun to see what the fabrics will do together. And to think of other things that could make a fabric.  Of course, it all looks so much better in person.  <g>

My love made the comment last night that it is getting harder and harder to tell the difference between what is food, what it art materials and what is garbage. I try my best to keep him straight.

Posted on

Reporting in

Hmmm, I seem to be making it to my blog about once a week.  Time sure does fly when you are having fun, or when you are busy, or when life is so dull and boring there is nothing to talk about… not!

I guess I should claim busy. (Fun has been a part of it, too.)

There have been the blank journals I’ve been making (thanks, Sue Bleiweiss, for your inspiration!), the plastic bags I’ve been melting, the family members visited who have been hospitalized recently (all well now, thanks), the knitting dilemmas I’ve been trying to un-dilemma,  the bass notes I’ve been finding, the classes I’ve been setting up, the trip to PNG that’s now scheduled, the finished work being shipped out for exhibit, the gourds that have crept into the studio demanding attention, the odds and ends around the house that always seem to call out when you have a ton of other things you would much rather do…

And of course, the hot tub that keeps calling me, regardless of the weather. Right now, there is a line of little rubber duckies sitting on the deck up to their bright beaks in snow. Which puts it at about two inches of accumulation. That’s about the most we’ve gotten at one time – I haven’t lost sight of the duckies, yet!

Back to the gourds – they are rather insistent!