Some of my other books I made

 

Here are some of the books I've made throughout the years!  

This is called a Squash Book and I made it in 2019.  One of the ladies in our online MIP group showed us a link on how to make it.  

This is what the 'book' looks like when open.  I stuck gift cards on the inside for my grand daughter's BD that year.

This was in 2019 too.  Each page inside I hand embroidered leaves or flowers.  

This is a bifold book I keep my printed papers in

This is an accordian book that, once again, I attached some of my favorite printed papers in.

The 'other' side of the accordian book.

I made this Travelers Journal back in 2018.  Actually, this is the back of the cover!

This is the front cover.  This was from a video from Design Matters TV/Laura Kemshall.  

This is the inside of the Travelers Journal, which has little pockets for pens or brushes.  You can place a journal book for watercolor or painting and hold with the elastic.  

I honestly don't remember the name of this little book.  This is the inside where you can use painted papers or posterboard.

Hard to see but this is the front.  The piece you see in the middle extends to the inside.  Memory doesn't do me any good on where or why I made this but I'm sure it had to do with Hilary's online group!  HA

I made this book using leftover fabric from a quilt (picture below).   It's where I keep some of my zentangle drawings I did back in 2010, 2011!

I don't even remember where I found the tutorial to do the closure but after doing the coptic book edge I don't think this was right!  HA  But it's held together!  HA

One of my zentangle drawings.

I haven't done any 'zentangles' in ages!

Good place to keep my drawings.  

This was the quilt I made using strips of muslin I dyed after the strips were sewn down on a background.  This was from 2009!!  It hangs in my kitchen!  

So fun to look back at some of the books I've made...now I can add the two from last week to the list!  

Book Making

 I mentioned in my last post about Kate from The Last Homely House and how she inspired me to get back to making little books!  I've done different books over the years, mainly from the MIP online class with Hilary.  But in looking through Kate's video's in her Book Making play list I found some great tutorials!  So, wanting to make some handmade gifts for friends, out came my printed, dyed, stamped papers and I got busy!!!  

I covered 5" pieces of cardboard with some painted papers just using Elmer's glue stick.  I then cut other papers 4 1/2" and glued to the inside of each cover (front and back). 

I started by  making 6 signatures, cutting sheets of copy paper 4 1/2"x 9".  This gives 1/4" space around  so the signature papers don't stick out of the covers.  

 6 pages will be folded in half to create the 4 1/2" signature.  The plain papers seem boring...so I started to go through some of my old books and found these pages in a book to color.  I cut those pages the same size, 4 1/2" x 9".  

 I stamped some of the pages with a  leaf.  I used another stamp as well...just so there was some interest inside the book.

This is a picture of the back cover with one of the drawing/coloring pages.  

Another picture of a signature group.  The picture on the right (branches) is the front of the signature and plain pages are inside.  4 sheets folded with the the drawing sheet (also 4 1/2"x9") folded and plain pages inserted to create the signature!

The paper on the left is the back of the previous signature.  Make sense?

Some of the drawing pages were so cute!  

This is the inside of the front cover and the first signature 'cover'.  

This is the back of the book.

This is the side showing the coptic binding.  I did enjoy making this book for my friend.  Kate referred to these little books as "gratitude books".  A little book you write down 5 things you are grateful for that day!  

I had some leftover papers, of course, so decided to make another little book!

With this one I decided, since I ran out of the coloring pages for the inside, I would make the front cover decorative.  So I punched holes around the leaves and embroidered the front cover.  I used some other papers to cover the inside so you don't see the stitching on the backside.  

I think these make nice little gifts.  I love my journals and use them for so many different life events (e.g. hubby's cancer journey, dog journeys - of which we have many!, my sewing projects, etc.).  

Kate's tutorial is so easy to follow!  Try and make one of these even for yourself as your own 'gratitude' book!

The Last Homely House

 

I just happened upon a YouTube channel called The Last Homely House hosted by 'Kate'.  I don't remember how I even came upon this channel but I think I've watched almost 75% of her videos!  Kate is a delight! And so very creative and productive!  She is located in the UK and posts all her videos from inside her lovely, charming home.  Kate is so inspiring with her quilting, knitting, paper piecing, sashiko stitching, Indigo dyeing...you get the drift...anything textile related you'll see a YouTube on.  Kate also has cooking youtubes!  You'll get to meet her children and see them in video's.   She is also on Instagram and has a website where she sells items she creates as well as books, etc.

2021 book

Speaking of books!  I got hooked on Kate's playlist for making books and journals.  So, yep, I'm back making some little books.  The last one I made was in 2021 which was part of Hilary's MIP FB group.   I really enjoyed making them.  You can see the inside pages on my blog here.  

It's Kate's fault that she got me inspired to make some more and she had a great tutorial YouTube to show you how!!!  Check it out here!  I'll be adding a blog post next week showing my results.  Kate also has some YouTubes on larger journals to make.  How cool!  And I think great ideas for gifts!

I have to admit I enjoy just watching  Kate sew or knit or just talk!  She is so comfortable talking to her "youtube friends".  If you have a few minutes and just want to unwind, go to Kate's channel and scroll through her playlists, which are organized by technique (paper piecing, knitting, etc.).  I guarantee you a pleasant time spent.

Lace Top Finished - and before Easter!

Woohoo!  I finally finished the 3rd lace top!  And before EASTER!  I did more ripping out on this one but it was well worth it.  I'm happy with the results and I like the length and the length of the sleeves.   This was before blocking.

A good soak in Woolite (small, small amt!) and water.  Always the scary part!

Next blocking to pattern measurements...almost as scary as soaking to get ready to block!  HA

Not the best picture...I was in my jeans and hadn't wash hair yet (but I did brush my teeth!  HA).  Only problem, up close you can see the color of my bra...SO, I might search for a cheap peach color bra!  

I did check out others who have knitted this same top on Ravelry and several  of theirs you can see the color of their bra unless they knitted in dark colors.  Who knew!  But that's ok!  Not a problem.  

And now I have my top for Easter.  On to the next project!  

Lace Top #3 - or project from H_ll!

I do so love to knit and now that I'm reading charts for lace work, I really enjoy it....except....the past few weeks I've struggled with some parts of my lace top.  

This is the original pattern picture...you can see it is more form fitting that the other lace tops I've made....no, I didn't even pay attention to that!  HA

 

So when I finished the body of the top, the ribbing and bind off was way too tight on the body and on the first sleeve I finished...so what to do!!  Un-rip...but as you can see here, I was having a heck of a time trying to find the end of the yarn so I couldn 'unrip'!! 

So I got out the old rotary cutter and actually sliced through the bind off edge!   This was the body bind off and ribbing.

Actually that worked out pretty well and I was able to find yarn that led me to a row so I could reknit!  

And I was able to pick up correctly 218+ stitches!

I finished ripping out the sleeve ribbing and bind off and reknitted.  I used the Italian Bind Off again, which I love!

I'm working on the 2nd sleeve now and hope to be finished in another week or so.  I usually only knit while dinner is cooking or at wine time before dinner...20 min. here....30 min. there....See why it takes me so long!  HA

My sister is looking at patterns for us to work on together...yes, she did finish her top but she also felt it was too small so she gifted it to her daughter in Pennsylvania!  Lucky Girl.  

Dye Dog Progress - not much!

 It seems like I'm not making much progress on my Dye Dog #2....stitching takes a lot of dedicated time, which I only do at night while we watch TV....that is as long as the dogs aren't on either side of me!  I'll have to take a picture of what that looks like!  

I watched our grandson's Lacrosse game on my laptop this past Saturday while stitching.   Multi tasking!!  I like when his college games are on YouTube or their home site.  Makes you feel like you're there....OK, kinda!

You can see in the next two pictures how much stitching I have to go.

I do have some other stitching in mind for this piece in addition to the background.  But I have to finish the background first!  

I still have the 2nd dye dog #2 up on my design wall but I haven't done anything else with it.  I need to finish this piece first and then my lace top!!  Easter is almost here!

I was reading that Blogger is no longer emailing out new posts to readers!  I was wondering why I wasn't getting some posts as well as a few have asked me the same.  That's too bad.  I'd much prefer to get emails of new posts as I don't always go into my Reader List and then I'm so far behind seeing what everyone is up to.  Darn!

Week's progress...

Well, Michigan weather has allowed us to have a few decent days of 40 degrees, which also allowed the dogs to be walked twice in two days!  Kalee loves her walks...Gigi is a fair weather gal so not so much..but good for all of us.  Donna and I walked at the church walking track twice this week.  So between dogs, walking, making dog food, cleaning and cooking not a lot of progress on two projects.  But there is progress!

Depending on how many dogs are on my lap at night and what's on TV, I can either knit or do stitching on my dye dog #2.  It's progressing and I'd say I'm about half way, well almost, half way  with the background stitching...???...close enough, right!

I'm about half way on the sleeve for the knitted top...BUT I am going to 'unknit' the ribbing.  I think it's too tight and I should have used a larger needle to bind off.  I'm knitting the Italian Bind-off again, which I really like.  It is stretchy but the more I look at this pattern, I see it's fitted quite a bit more than the other two I knitted.  I'm hoping I didn't mess up and the top will be too small.  I will try on after I finish this sleeve but I do know the ribbing/bind off is too tight.  SOOOOOOOOOOO.  

We're due for a rather large snow storm of 6-8 inches starting later this afternoon.  It's good they forwarn us but it doesn't alway happen in our area...but we could have run out of luck.  Our winter has actually been very mild this year!  Can't complain and other then going to the library to volunteer, I don't have to go anywhere until next Wednesday!  HA  So I should get a lot done, right!!!