Book cover

Hi, I have made covers for my book which will allow extra pages to be added. I made separate front and back covers, sewed loops on all the pages and holes in the covers then tied all together with machined cord.

Full circle

Breathe again, Maya!! Your page has arrived in Crete!! It's so Indian with block printed fabrics and sewn beads and sequins. Thank you so much, Maya, as you say we've come full circle now as your first leaf page was from me. I too look forward to making up my book and will make the binding un-fastenable (wish I could speak English!!) so as to include any late-comers. Thanks to all, I really look forward to seeing this next step from everyone. I wonder if there are any 'peeks' ready yet???

Kath's Page From Elizabeth

Kath, here is your August page, or , I should say, a tiny snippet of it!!! It will be on it's journey to you in Greece tomorrow!! I had a wonderful time creating this page for you and I hope that it has enough "Flower Power" for you!!!!

Thank you Liz

Hi, here is the lovely page from Liz with 'real' flowers growing up a trellis. Liz tells me the flowers are made from silk and paper and usually used for scrapbooking so a real find; I wouldn't have looked there myself. And the gorgeous back fabric is so colourful! Thank you for another great addition to my book.

Flowers for Greece

Kath, your July page is going in the mail today!  It's later than I had hoped, but finally on its way.  Here is a teaser - just a small one to hold you while it makes it way across the ocean!

Flowers from Gayle

This is a very bad pic of the wonderful page that Gayle has made for me. I know she sent us all scurrying to Google that word - Kanzashi, and I really think you'll have to look again and put those images with this one. I just couldn't get the 3D-ness of the page to register on my scanner, part of the page always came out of focus! Sorry, Gayle, not to do your work justice. Your comment in the attached letter 'it (the technique) takes more manual dexerity than I have' is just not true; yes I dare say there are experts in all fields but, let's face it, if we never tried anything just because we can't do it as well as the experts then our lives would be far poorer. I had a very good friend with whom I shared a passion for trying out new techniques and we never let our modesty in our own skills get in the way of sharing our attempts. A weaving instructor I once had used not to let us pull out any 'mistakes' ; he said those were what showed it was handmade. But, as you can see, Gayle has really pulled this one off and I got some vintage buttons as well plus a lovely back to the page as well. Thank you very much for sharing this find with us all, Gayle, I never knew about Kanzashi until now.

Two for the price of one!!

Today I collected more flowers plus a beautiful card! I hope I've done them justice here. Actually when I scanned the card front in the picture showed a lot more colour and depth than I could see with my naked eye! I am honoured by the page - Ruth says she has done so much more handstitching on those tiny flowers than normal, they are beautiful, thank you Ruth. But the border is scrumptious-layers with sheers then bound with a lovely silky cord. This is a page of many parts; thank you so much Ruth

Flowers galore from Ann

Flowers, flowers and more flowers!

I asked for colourful and I've certainly got it this month from Ann!! Plus a page telling me her inspiration - bordered with flowers and in an envelope with a cute garden sticker on it! Thank you so much, I love sunflowers as a Leo and we grow them in our garden.

Thanks Mandy

Just got a great page from Mandy. Machine embroidery, lino stamps and beads ON the card with extra flower beads for when I make up my book!! Thanks so much, Mandy, I love it - such a varied and colourful start to the year.

Flowers are travelling.

I have just returned from posting off my first page. This was "Flowers" for Kath. The detail above is a piece I was free machine embroidering for the page. Fursther photos will follow as soon as I know the page has arrived safely.

Flowers

For some reason I have been taken by the urge to make some lino cut blocks today. Not sure how this is going to help me make my page for Kath, but I tend to follow urges like this to find out where it is all going to lead. I wish I was more organised and could sketch everything else first, but that just doesn't usually work for me.

Just for now I have this fascination with the idea of mixing print with stitch. I shall let you know what happens next as soon as I have worked that out for myself.

Have fun!