The Sea book is complete!

My book is now complete! This is a front view.



Here is the open book. My apologies for the photograph here. It looks a little odd sloping to one side, but that was my fault. The book was standing upright, you can just see the odd angle of the horizon. I have shown this photograph merely because it gives an indication of the wealth of textures there are amongst these lovely pages.



The inside of the front cover.



The inside of the back cover. Thanks everyone who sent me a page.



The book is designed to open right out, as you can see here, fanning the pages out and making them easier to display. The spine is woven and beaded. I used sticks as uprights and used blue, green, purple and grey-blue ribbon to weave in and out making the structure more solid.

My next challenge will be to get a shelf for my workroom so I can display all my three-dimensional pieces out of direct sunlight.

Thanks Ruth. I really loved taking part in this project.

The book of The Sea

My book cover is belatedly taking shape. The front and back covers will be the same - background fabric sewn directly onto a thick pelmet vilene base, then a zigzag stitch to give emphasis to the different fabrics used; the letters are bondawebbed in place; after this the fish buttons are sewn in place; textured threads added and couched in position; last of all, an experiment - the sheer fabric has been cut using a soldering iron giving a rather nice almost hard edge to the shapes.

It was so funny. A short while ago, my husband came into my workroom and stated "you have a soldering iron?" "Oh yes," said I, "for fabric."

Hopefully, this will mean that it will not be "borrowed" for an urgent task in the house............ I have just managed to reinforce the idea that my scissors (kept in the workroom) are only to be used for fabric........ I have carefully not mentioned my paper-use only scissors...................... Scissors for everyday use are kept in the kitchen.

Do I sound as if I have had a problem? Oh yes. Past tense, you will notice. My first pair of dressmaking shears got used for cutting wallpaper............ Then another pair got used for cutting some fine wire................

My own scissors now bear labels - "Fabric scissors - misuse at your peril."

So sorry I have been so late in getting my book put together. I shall post photos of the completed book in a day or so.

A goddess for Johoanna

My page for Johoanna shows the goddess Terpsichore.



As my letter explained, she was one of the muses of Greek mythology.



The base fabric was first painted and then the pieces for the figure added. These were attached using bondaweb, being simply ironed in place. I overstitched everything to add texture.



The back was kept very simple and uses a piece of my favourite Fossil Ferns fabric.

The letter also bore this apology. My page was rather late in being completed and then sent off. It had been intended as my December page.

Silver Saucer and Transparent apple by Mandy

Yesterday I found a soft envelope in my mailbox. It came from Mandy. She has sent me an Russian fairy: "The tale of the silver saucer and the transparent apple". I didn't know the tale but read it today. Mandy had sent it with the fabric book page to me. It is a wonderful tale and she made a wonderful page for me.

Look at the photo. You can see the the apple made with light blue fabric and painted with some silver so that it is glittering. On top and on bottom of the apple there are two some words out of the fairy which the princes spoke when she span the apple around in the silver saucer. When she did it she could look through the apple to all places of the world. In front of the apple are photos printed on Jacquard Extrav Oganza semi transparent silk sheets. The background of the page is made with a experiment printing fabric.



This is the backside of the page:



There were a lot of goodies with in the envelope. I show them on the next photo:



Thank you very much for the fabric book page, the story and all the nice things.

A fairy story and book plans.

A quick teaser. My last page, a fairy story for Trillian, will be put into the post in the morning.

I must then set about organising a front cover for my book and start putting it all together. Do not worry if you are working on a page for me and it is a little late. I am planning a book where I will be able to add pages at a later date should I have need to do so.

This has been such a very enjoyable project. Thank you Ruth for organising us all so well.

Goddess on the move

Just a very quick peek at the page traveling to Johoanna. Hope you like it.

Arrival of Debi's page.

I am delighted to be able to say that my October page for Debi - Shabby Chic Vintage has finally arrived. Does anyone else feel nervous waiting for the arrival of their pages?

This is the back of my page. The two strips are vintage sari fabric. I got these years ago in an embroidery pack. The larger of the scraps can be seen as part of the front.

My letter details the items used to construct the page. For the first time, I made the whole page quite quickly. I had all the pieces I needed in my stash.

These are some of the beads from the bracelet I took to pieces. It was a really fussy thing which I would never have worn, but what a wonderful hoard, just right for this page.

Oh yes, the bouquet of flowers shown on the paper used for the letter is a photograph of flowers given to me some time ago. It was such an extraordinary collection of blooms......

The leaflets mentioned were these:

Yes, I am fortunate to have Knutsford just a few miles away from my home. Its an interesting place to visit too, with some fascinating architecture. Home for some years to the author Elizabeth Gaskell, and said to be the inspiration for "Cranford". Tatton is the large Hall and grounds alongside the small town of Knutsford.

All creatures great and small traveling.

A sneak preview. I am stitching through some water-soluble fabric hence the muddle of stitched and drawn lines.
I posted my October page for Gayle this afternoon, so I do hope that it arrives soon, and that she likes it.

Another Door!

I received a door page from Mandy a little while ago.  It is sooo pretty!

The front has "door-ish" words and machine stitching.  But the part I really love is that the door opens . . . . . .

. . . to this!  Mandy said this is a photo of her own front door.  And the inside of the door is really nice, complete with hand-drawn flowers.

In the pocket on the back was a note from Mandy and some other goodies.

Thank you so much, Mandy.  This one is definitely a keeper!

Like buses.....

There is a joke in England, I'm not sure if it exists in other countries. It tells of waiting around for a very long time at a bus-stop only to find two buses coming along at the same time.......



As you can see, this is my second page in quick succession. There has been a plan at work to try and get back on track having got myself rather behind-hand with the sequence of pages I should have been completing.
The photograph shows a small section of my page for Debi. This is Shabby Chic. It is almost complete and should be ready to send in the next day or two.
The plan is to get started with Gayle's page in the next day or two. Hopefully, I should be able to post about that soon.

A door for Liz

After the last post, I am really ashamed to say that this is my August page for Liz. Ooops! Where did those weeks go? I am hoping to get this into the post tomorrow. It is all packaged up and ready for a journey. Hope you will like it.

Belated post - Mandy's Castle page for Carmen.

This is rather out of sequence, but here is the Castle page I made for Carmen back in April.



As my attached letter explains, the picture is based on a photograph I took of my daughters playing in the ruins of Beeston Castle.





This rather wonderful ruin is on the top of a steep hill with magnificent views of the surrounding Cheshire Plain. The site was chosen carefully for its strategic value. Built as it was many centuries ago, it was there to help protect the English from the marauding Welsh. With a cliff to three sides and a steep hill climbing to the remaining side, the castle managed to survive for centuries eventually falling during the English Civil War. It has the benefit of an amazingly deep well, which would have been life-saving for the inhabitants during a seige.
As a family, when my daughters were young we often visited this castle. We learnt a lot about the history surrounding it whilst playing amongst the ruins. There are still regular events, where various societies come to re-enact different periods from the Castles long history.
Thanks Carmen for allowing me to wander very happily down memory lane as I put this piece together.

Windows for Elizabeth.

I was delighted to hear a short time ago, that my page for Elizabeth has just arrived.



The windows page was based on my photographs of this delightful little chapel on a bridge crossing the Great Ouse.



The picturesque town you can glimpse beside the waterfront is called St Ives. I can recommend an exploration of the area, since the town and it's small museum is well worth a visit. More photographs from my trip can be seen here.



It was great fun to interpret one of the glazed windows for Elizabeth. As you can see from the note I sent with the page, I used a number of techniques. The gessoed piece of canvas came from a damaged artists canvas I had taken to pieces. The frame will eventually be used for some screen printing experiments.........



I could not resist putting something behind the window frame.



So the window is hinged using beads, so that it can open to reveal............



Hence the title..............



The back is made using a piece of scrap silk and some mulberry paper.

Windows page moving.

A quick post with a teaser for Elizabeth, since I have just posted my July page for her. Her theme is Windows.

Art Nouveau on the move.

A bit of a teaser for you all. This is the Art Nouveau page for Cobi. It is rather late, since it should have been sent in June.

Hopefully, it will arrive soon. I do hope you will like it Cobi.

Coastline.

As requested by Chris, here is the page I made for her.



I had originally started this piece using felt which I had made. Sadly, I just could not make this first version work. It just did not feel right.
I knew that the coastline I wanted to share was the area around Formby Point in Lancashire. This is one of my favourite places. Not very far from the famous Blackpool beach, Formby is quiet, the dunes are a fascinating place to visit. Also there are coniferous woodlands here, a nature reserve with one of the last places where Red Squirrels can be found.
A series of visits to the library followed. My favourite of all the books I borrowed was this one.
ISBN: 10 - 1905400381 (or 13 - 978-1905400386)



This photograph showed the dunes I so wanted to share.



After a lot of painting, and handstitching, my once white sheet turned into this scene. I added figures applied using bondaweb.



I had found a suitable photograph on the internet, so tried to copy this. The photo above shows the scene I was building against the photograph I had found.
On top of this I used a couple of maps of the area printed onto silk gauze.




Along with the page, I added this explanation.

And this list of the materials used in the construction.

A rather late coastline.

I have already sent a message to Chris to announce that my May page will finally be posted tomorrow.
My apologies everyone. No photo with this post.
I must go and get on with my page for June - Art Nouveau for Cobi.

Apologies to Chris, and Carmen.

I am so sorry that your May page - Coastline - is going to be a little delayed, Chris. I had started the page much earlier in the month, but since I just wasn't convinced the technique I planned to use was working, I decided to start again.
The page is nearing completion now, but it will be a few days before I can get it into the post. I shall let you know when the page has been posted.
On another topic, my April page -Castles- does not seem to have arrived with Carmen. I do hope that this arrives soon. If not, I shall remake the page and send a replacement for you.

Castles - on the way.

I managed to get "Castles" finished yesterday - just within time, but wasn't able to post it until today. Hopefully it will arrive quickly.