Scroll book update

In Don't Scroll Past I showed you how far I had got with the scroll book I'm making.   I had started to stitch in random places.

One of the problems with deciding vaguely what the finished piece will be, is that things don't always fit.  I knew I was going to put a piece of wood at the top for the fabric to wrap around, but wasn't sure what that wood might be.

Then I remembered that I still had some bobbins in a drawer.  However when I got one of them out it was just to small for the width of the fabric.  It wasn't possible to make the fabric narrower unless I undid quite a bit of stitching.

Thankfully I have a very amenable husband who was willing to sort it out for me.  In the photo below, the top bobbin is the original width.  The middle one shows where he cut 1 centimeter of the spindle out and glued the bobbin back together.  He inserted the centimetre piece into the middle of the bottom one which is now the right size for the fabric.

I usually print on the fabric before I start stitching but I thought I would experiment with using the thermofax screen over the stitching.  It was more difficult than usually because of the lumps and bumps but not impossible.  You can find the words of the poem on the thermofax screen here.

I have attached the fabric to the bobbin.  I could continue to stitch the piece if I feel like it.

Fabric bonded to itself around the bobbin

Bonded to the bobbin

Partly rolled up

Completely rolled up

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

A Grid Book

I will be The Festival of Quilts at the NEC next month in the Creative Textile Studio showing the various books that I have made.  In preparing for the Show I discovered I have not shown in full how I made two of the books.

This is a calico book made when I was thinking about Grids.  If you go back to that post you can see how I built up the layers until I ended with this piece of painted calico.

I tore the fabric up into strips and reassembled them putting the torn edges onto the right side of the fabric.  Then I folded it like the diagram below and cut where the red lines indicate.

I  bonded the pages together and then machined it with orange thread for contrast.  I also added some cotton fabric I had printed using my inkjet printer.

Closed, the book is 15x13cms.

It's very different from the books I usually make.

Thanks for stopping by today
Bernice

On to the next

You may remember my Completing the Tunnel book post where the book was almost finished apart from how to close it.

Well, I made a cord by using some tapestry wool and the zigzag stitch on my sewing machine.  I made a loop at one end and stitched it onto the closeure fabric.  The cord wraps round the book twice and then goes through the loop and is tied off.

But I've still more of silk noil fabric which I could make a book from.

I've these 6 pieces which are 21x15 cms each.  They already have pieces of Bondaweb ironed on.

So what sort of book should I make with these?  Should they be stitched?  Should I add photos?

What about a cover?  Should I fold it and make another folded book?

Questions! Questions!  Choices!  Choices!

Or shall I put the pieces to one side and do something else for a while?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Finished Florida fabric book

And another one done!

I showed you the start of this book in my last post: Florida Inspired. 

I had some metal shells that were charms on a charm bracelet from Primark.  They sometimes have inexpensive jewellery that you can take to pieces for elements for scrapbooking and mixed media that are cheaper than buying from art shops.  I painted these shells with acrylic paint.

I ironed Bondaweb on the back of each page and then ironed the pages together trapping the hinge/spine inside.

I sewed the signatures together using the sewing machine.  Here they are clipped together.

I used a preset stitch and variegated thread.  Sadly the stitching wasn't very straight on the third row.

And inside the book.

I'm really pleased with this book.  I've still got lots of squares left of the same fabric.  Shall I make a hanging?  Or make another book?  Or both?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Florida inspired

I still have one more canal-inspired book to make but I thought I would make a Florida-inspired one instead.

I can't remember when I dyed and printed this silk noil which I recently tore into 6 inch squares.  I had used Coral Sand and Robin Eggs Blue procion dyes that I had bought from Hilary Beattie.

In a recent online poetry workshop with Sara-Jane Arbury we were looking at list poems.  In particular we looked at 'Blackberries' by Rhiannon Hooson.  The lines of her poem started with 'I bring you' or 'I give you'.

Using that format I wrote 'Shells'.

I bring you shells.
I give you rippled waves on shingle.
I give you sandpipers running in an out.

I bring you boardwalks on sandy tussocks
And searing heat from the sunshine state.
I bring you remembrances of childhood.

I give you the sunrise glinting on tumbling waves
Easter morning dawning, singing
In praise of the risen Lord.

I bring you pelicans flying in formation
Sweeping low across the shoreline.
Daughter-in-heart, I give you shells.

As the fabric had been printed when I was working on Florida based ideas I decided to add the words of my poem onto the pages of the book.

I printed the poem on paper first and cut it up to make sure the font was the right size and the sentences fitted.  I printed the poem onto organza onto which I ironed Mistyfuse. I cut up the sentences and ironed them onto the silk noil.

I made sure that the pages are in the correct order and decided on a 'hinge' for the joining together.  I'm not sure what else to call the joining piece other than a hinge.

I'm a dab hand at thinking about the finishing of a book almost after the fact but with this one I worked on how to join the pages together to make the book.  I used some left over silk noil to make the hinges.  I bonded two pieces of the fabric together.

I had already bonded cotton fabric on the back of each square of silk noil.  I stitched through the fabrics using the printed lines as a guide.  I will then bond the back and front of each page together trapping the hinge inside.

Come back next week to see the finished book.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Completing the tunnel book

The pages were ready.  Now to work out how to make them into a book!

This set of pages were left over from the Folded Book.   I had bonded them together back to back.

I didn't like the tunnel picture on this page so decided to bond a cover to the book using the page as a stiffener.  I also added some more printed bondaweb to the side I liked.

I had cut the cover so that it could contain the pages when folded up.  Before I bonded the page to the cover I inserted a ribbon of the fabric so that it would hinge to the next page.  Below you can see the Bondaweb ironed to the inside of the back cover.

I bonded a thick piece of Lutradur to the inside of the cover and bonded another piece of 'ribbon' before adding another layer of the dyed silk noil.

I bonded some dyed cotton fabric to the back of one of the pages

I inserted another 'ribbon' piece using Bondaweb

I ironed Bondaweb onto the back of another page and then ironed it onto the prepared page and contained the hinge pieces at the same time.

The book closes with the pages folded inside.  Ideally I think it should have buttons and buttonholes but the buttons should have been sewn on before I bonded the page to the cover and I'm not terribly good at buttonholes.  A work-around will come to me at some point!

As you open the book the fourth page shows first

And then page two and three are revealed as you unfold the book.

I have made versions of this style of book before with the ribbon of fabric that holds it all together as one long piece right through.  However I didn't have enough of the fabric to do that so I improvised with small 'hinges'.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Tunnel book

I am calling this silk noil book - Tunnel Book. Mostly so I can identify it amongst the other silk noil books.  The fabric was all torn up and ready to go.

More often than not I start something without knowing the end result.  I know it will be a book and the pages will be of a certain size because I've already prepared the fabric, but from that point on it's a mystery.  Little things like how the pages will be joined together or how the whole book will be finished happen as I go along.  It's not always the best way to work but on the whole it works for me.

As with the previous book I had put pieces of printed bondaweb onto the silk noil pages.

I made small fabric collages on each of the pages.

Then I stitched over the collages using extended fly stitch and sveral different colours and thicknesses of thread.

Next time I will show you how I put all these together as a book.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice