This is a busy week! OK, most weeks are busy but this one seems to be a bit busier than the normal busy if you know what I mean. In and amongst the normal things to be done there have been some “fun to do” things and this is one of them.

I belong to the North Shore Needle Arts Guild here in Vancouver and one of the benefits of belonging is access to wonderful workshops with talented members. I have always loved words so loving books is the next logical step, so a chance to make a book was too good to miss! This was a 2 session workshop with the first one getting us started on embroidering (or quilting for me!) our book covers on a lovely linen. We then got together again to put the actual pages together and build our books.

Here’s my finished ( well there’s a few little things left to do) book. The cover is stenciled with fabric paint and then stitched.

Our books are open spine and involve stitching across the spine with waxed linen thread. It’s a bit tricky but once you  get the hang of the sequence it goes together quite quickly.

Of course I couldn’t resist one more etc… on the back cover. Each of the signatures (that’s book talk for the groups of pages) is covered with a slightly different natural colored card stock. Not only does it make the open spine really attractive, the pages inside look great as well!

My book turned out so well, I am really pleased with it! Thanks to Bonnie and Gaye for all their expert guidance.

Now to start filling in the pages…

Catherine