A few weeks ago I took part in a Zoom meeeting where I emptied a cabinet and spoke about the contents of that cabinet.
Can you tell the cabinet mostly held artist books?
The large book here wasn't actually inside the cabinet, it was on a shelf below so I apologise for not showing this at the time.
Since that zoom meeting I have been looking closely at this work and it still inspires.
I feel lucky to have these resources.
There has been a lot of searching for scraps going on here over the past couple of weeks. You will have noticed that in this post and this post in particular.
The tiniest piece of stitched cloth or paper can lift any piece of work. In the images today those little scraps are enhancing a page in one of my artist books.
(the pieces I speak of are top right of the right hand page here)
These images also validate the reason for my 'never throw anything' away habit!
I hope you have the same habit.
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There are only two days until my new class begins. (the scrap gathering has a lot to do with that).
Please take a look here for more information and if you are already signed up...a huge thank you!
“The circles of women around us weave invisible nets of love that carry us when we're weak, and sing with us when we are strong.”
c. Sark.
I've been playing with the little pieces I showed you in this post, considering how they might live within embellished pages.
I can't recommend highly enough having a stash of pieces like this because in addition to being useful they are wonderfully satisfying to create, a lovely way to spend an hour or so.
In other news....the blanket is almost finished! When I eventually get there you will be the first to know.
There is so much going on here at the moment hence my absence these past few days......... my new class begins on Monday and I have already made the first buttons!
My husband is having major surgery next week, we are prepping for that, (he has to self isolate meaning I do too so I have a lot of time on my hands) and I am not allowed to visit him because of Covid restrictions....that isn't a good thing at all.......it's going to be hard....I will have to keep busy with embroidery.
That means however, there is no excuse for me to be slacking.
Finally....if you are registered for the new class you should have received an email from me this morning. If you didn't receive that please let me know.
Just like in this post I am gathering, collecting pieces which will fill pages of artist books.
I will be creating new little artist books very soon so I'm getting prepared.
There is some stuff going on here this week and I will be missing. It's hopefully only temporary.
My shop will remain open and if you are registered for the new class I have good news, I have made our videos for the first week over the last two days.
I'm getting good at this 'be prepared' stuff!
I'm not constantly working on this piece, this cloth book of embroidered samples. By that I mean I don't pick it up every day. If you are wondering why it's taking me so long that's the reason.
I am alternating each day between embroidery and crochet at the moment.
When I am on an embroidery day I could be working on this little book or doing prep for my next class like I shared here yesterday.
Yesterday was embroidery day and the front cover of this was embroidered as were two new pages.
There are still two pages needed before this can be finished and a lining needs to be pieced for the front cover.
Today is crochet day and I will show you blanket progress next time.
This little white piece has been purposely created to fill a page in a hand made artist book.
The rest of my weekend will be spent doing more of this in prep for my next class 'October 2021 Sewing Circle'.
By more of this I mean embellishing little scraps of cloth, adding lace, beads, colour and stitch.
We will be putting a couple of little books together in this class so I will need something to start filling them with.
Meanwhile, the crochet is unfinished as is my little cloth book.
I'm juggling.
Last time I was here I spoke about my recent 'looking back posts'. I mentioned that artist books would take more than one post to cover so today is day two.
I think I could go on forever with this theme but as I was studying these past posts I came across ledgers which are different to artist books so they may be next.
This is a really good 'refresh' and inspire exercise for me personally and if you aren't a long time visitor to this blog a lot of this will be new to you.
In the background here I am very focused on work for sewing circle and am limited with what I can post here so am grateful for this opportunity to examine past work with you.
Recently I have been clicking through groupings of 'old work' on this blog. It's a 'refresh' excercise which is proving invaluable.
Today was going to be 'artist books' but there are so many images on that theme. Instead I decided to cover this one over a couple of days and today is the first day of that.
Another thing...help! Everything appears to have disappeared from my right hand side bar and placed itself at the foot of the blog. How do I remedy that? any ideas? or can you see it on the right hand side and it's only me having trouble? (all looks in order when I view it on my admin page)
I finally finished this little artist book. The pages measure four inches square and are now crammed with embroidery, buttons, ribbons, patchwork, beads and pom poms.
It's now available to buy here.
Tomorrow my 'sewing circle' will get together for the first time. I am more than excited at the prospect of spending the next twelve weeks stitching and chatting with this group, sharing ideas, inspiration and a love of hand stitch.
If you are considering joining us it is not too late, not only can I guarantee you will have the best time, you will also be supporting this small business of mine.
Thank you to everyone who is already registered. It means a lot.
You can read more here.
Piecing papers and stitching pages, hand stitched seams, ovelapping weights of lace paper, patterned paper and soft tissues.
I'm hoping these pages will be the perfect resting place for my net samples, lace samples and investigations for my next project.
There are three pages here each measuring approximately eleven inches by eleven inches.
I need to make more of course and am hoping to stick to that size as far as I can.
