Handmade Books and Journal

I haven't made books for ages. Too busy with other things as you can see! Handmade books are good for gifts. They take less time to make than quilting or gifts that involve stitching. Some handmade books do have stitching on them, but not as much as quilting. My book binding sessions I started at my work are still going strong. We are now into our third year. The members are now into stitching as well. Our joke is that we are supposed to be a book binding group, but most of the time we are stitching! That's okay as long as we create something. 
I made these books to take with me on my trip to Japan as gifts. One of them is my journal and the other two are for gifts. 

The reason I started making books is because there was so much wasted paper at the library where I work. Until today I'm still using recycled papers to make my books. The covers for the top two books came from scrap Japanese paper given to my friends. She passed it on to me. They were only small pieces and I joined them together as covers. The cover of the bottom one came from an old folder someone found at the back of the State Library of Victoria. I cut it up and only used part of it for this book. 

This is a handmade journal given to me by Herm (no blog) from Oregon. Herm made it for me to use on my trip to Japan. Herm also gave me the blue fabric and the acid-free and photo-safe glue. I'm so lucky to receive such treasures. Thanks so much Herm you are so generous. I love the journal so much I have decided to take an online workshop on journal making after I return from Japan.

Happy Easter everyone. Hope Easter bunny brings you plenty of chocolate eggs! We are spending Easter with DS and his family. Can hardly wait to see my grandchildren!

  

Blog Keeping

2010 could be a really fun year or a really busy year. I have already taken part in the Friday Night Sew-in in January and signed up for the next one on Friday Feb. 19th. Soon after that I had fun playing with hearts at the Valentine Sewing Party with Kelly and Joan. They are already talking about hosting another one again soon. That's not all, I signed up for the Lazy Gal Liberated Amish 2010 Get together that Tonya is hosting and that wasn't the last. Ria and I are working on the Featherweight Challenge making the rail fence quilt which I posted here.

I pre-ordered Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston before Christmas and it has finally arrived. I only had a chance to skim through it briefly and can't wait to read it from cover to cover. Don't you love that quilt on the cover?

If you have not heard of the Friday Night Sew-in, go on over to Heidi and check it out. Click on the above button and it will take you there. With Dear Jane helped I figured out how to post a hyper-linked, thanks Janey!

2010 is not only a busy year for me, but it's a lucky year too. At the end of 2009 I won a giveaway from Simone de Klerk, but with the slowness of postal service at Christmas I only received my gift this year. It's a pattern from Cinderberry Stitches of the needle keeper plus embroidery threads.Thank you Simone.

That's not all. In January I won the hand dyed silk ribbons giveaway from Debbie of Blissfully Stitching. What yummy looking ribbons! Thanks Debbie for the wonderful gift. I don't normally win in giveaways, but to win 2 in a couple of months, that's not like me. My luck must have changed for 2010, let's hope so!

If that's not busy enough for me this year. At Easter DH and I are taking our holiday to New Zealand and Japan. DH is originally from NZ and we regularly go back to visit, but we have not been to Japan before. We are both really looking forward to it. We are lucky enough that our really good friend Lesley (no blog) has been living there for the last 15 years. Lesley insisted that we spend half of our time with her so she can show us around her part of Japan in Kanazawa. I think that is all for my blog keeping for now. Not a lot of stitching these last weeks, but we did make a trip to see DG last weekend. More about that later.

Anything Goes Wednesday: Made In France

'Made in France' was one of the present I received for my birthday. You might have had a glimpse of it on my birthday presents post. I saw this book in a book section in David Jones Department store long before my birthday and you know, it was one of those 'got to have' things. So DH got it for me. He doesn't spoil our children let alone spoiling me! I didn't get this book until my birthday, it was hiding in the drawer for three months before I finally got it...!

A little thread, some linen, a needle, a few easy stitches, and more than 50 pretty projects worked in cross stitch, stem stitch or French knots - let yourself be seduced by the simple art of embroidery. Elegant and timeless in red, white and blue, these exquisite needlecraft motifs can be used in a multitude of ways to create unique gifts and home accessories.

Let me turn the pages so you can have a look what inside it. A child's dress all crisp in white cotton with a bit of lace and few pin tugs, a line of red stitching and motifs of little girls sitting all in a row. The opposite page is some redwork embroidery on pillow slip and bed sheet.

French people loves snail and in this page they are snails embroidered on an apron . A simple gift to make for that special French cook! The next page is a redwork motif on a tea cloth. A nice touch for that special tray.

Moving on to the white section of the book. The embroidery for every stitcher. Cross stitch scissors motif in dark tan on white background. It will make a great gift for sewing friend.

The last page I am showing you are some of the patterns in this book. This is a great book for creative people with little spare time to make handmade gifts. I like the simplicity of the patterns and motifs that I can either make a whole table cloth or just put a small touch on a baby singlet.

Handmade Books Exhibition

Handmade books exhibition will be on the 31 March 2009 until the 30 April 2009. The exhibition is a result from my handmade books workshop that I have been teaching (free of charge) once a week at my work. We only have an hour workshop per week, but after one year we have enough books to exhibit. At our last week meeting I got everyone to help making these secret little books to give away on the exhibition's open day. These secret little books are made from discarded dust jackets as covers and recycled photo copy papers as signatures. I hope we can make 50 books by the time the exhibition starts in 3 weeks.

The size is 4 cms. x 5.5 cms.

The exhibition is called Rags to Riches. All of our handmade books were made using recycled materials , discarded dust jackets, materials I rescued from card boards skip behind the library where I work and some items from Revers Art Truck (posting on creative day 15 February 2009).

Enjoy