Choices! Choices!

Having completed the first silk noil book I'm on to the next one or three!

I love to make books in fabric or paper but as I am demonstrating fabric books at the Festival of Quilts in August I am concentrating on fabric ones for a while.  I'm also trying to use up various bits of my stash rather than buying or making new fabrics.

While I was looking for bits and pieces for the now finished book, I found lots of cream and white bits.  I also had a piece of undyed silk noil left which I bonded to a piece of calico.  I cut it  up to make a concertina book.

 

 Here are some of the bits I found.

And also some neutrals.  I was just going to use cream on cream but I think I shall put some of the neutrals on as well for contrast.

One of my problems is that I start books - for example tearing up the fabric - but don't write down what my plans are.  Consequently I often have fabrics ready to work on but without the thinking to go with it.

This fabric was dyed in 2019.  I was ice dyeing and the silk noil didn't turn out the way I had hoped.  It's only taken nearly 4 years to get round to using it!  The book will be canal themed but I'm still contemplating how to 'decorate' the pages.

Thirdly I have this silk noil which I dyed with robin's egg blue and coral sand.  The initial dyeing was a disaster (darling) and the photos back in 2020 don't really show the colours very well.

Recently I used thermofax screens to add the grey in the hopes of knocking back the coral sand.  I tore the fabric into 6 inch squares as a change from all the rectangles I've been working with.  I wish now I had made them 5 inches but there you are. 

I have enough squares to make two books or maybe a hanging and a book.  Who knows?  I can't remember what I was thinking when I tore the fabric into squares.

And now the choice has to be made!  Which of the three books shall I continue with first?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Finished

Following on from adding beads to the book, I sewed the pages together.

I started on the cover.  I couldn't find any undyed silk noil so I used some that had been ice-dyed in 2019! I found some leftover painted Lutradur and cut it to size.  Then used Mistyfuse to bond the Lutradur to the silk noil.

The inside of the cover

The outside of the cover with some added embellishment bonded on.

Then it's on to assembling the book.

I stitched the pages together back-to-back. Rather than use back stitch, I used running stitch and then went back to fill in the gaps with running stitch again.

I made a cord to hold the book closed.

I had added beads to the tails of the thread I used to sew the signatures into the cover.

I am pleased to say that the book is finished.  Here's a video I did using my phone.  I May go back to using my camera to make videos.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Beaded

I'm still working on my silk noil book.  I've added beads to some of the collages.

I took these photos with my new iphone and the colours are much more accurate than with my camera.

Next job is to sew pairs of 'pages' together back-to-back to form double-sided 'pages'.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice