Some weeks ago I prepared a variety of papers with the intention of making a book, then the Festival of Quilts intervened and those papers have been sitting in my sewing room ever since. Yesterday I thought it was time to do something with them. After much research online into book assembly, and many distracting rabbit holes, I finally decided that I would make up four signatures and sew them into a soft fabric cover of some sort. Yesterday was spent folding pages, looking for suitable fabric for the cover, the aforementioned research and generally planning it all out.
Each signature, folded to A5 size, has some khadi paper, cartridge paper and one sheet of watercolour paper so there is some variety to work into.
They have been stitched down the centre with pamphlet stitch, which seemed the simplest option, and one I have used before on a smaller book. It is great fun folding everything together, then punching holes through all those layers with a bookbinder's awl. Those holes also had to be punched into the spine, in four rows with the same spacing, so I could insert each signature.
The cover comprises some flexible pelmet Vilene with a piece of tray dyed fabric I did many, many moons ago in Studio 11, when I was still learning all the various techniques Christine taught us for getting colour onto cloth. I have used the brightest bit on the outside of the cover, and a quieter piece on the inside. They are layered together with Bondaweb so the fabric doesn't buckle when handled.
I did some very sketchy machine embroidery through all three layers, doing my best to echo the pattern on the outside.
On the inside the lines of stitch seem more random, as they are following the pattern on the outside. Because of this, I used a quieter thread in the bobbin so they are less visible, but I still quite like the effect.
The book is closed with a tie made from three strips of silk ribbon, chain stitched to form a loop at the start, then plaited to create the wraparound tie.
I left the soft torn edges of the fabric, as I love the frayed texture.
All in all I'm rather pleased with this, as I was really making it all up as I went along, learning along the way, which is what life is for I always think. I'm also very happy to have found a use for at least one of the many bits of fabric I have stored away.
I hope you have had a creative weekend
