Done With My ABC's

My book is finally completed. I still see places where I could do some more sewing, but I'm done. I am pleased and it feels good when you read it. It will be in the North Redwoods Book Arts Guild exhibition at Eureka Books during Arts Alive. The opening is Saturday, September 4, 6pm-9pm and will be on display throughout the month. (All photos by Ellen)

I also have one pair of book earrings. The casebound books include twenty pages of pithy quotes about books.
 
Another has wooden covers (redwood) with a leather spine, Japanese stab binding and my photography. It features Chumash Indian art from the Painted Cave Historic Park outside of Santa Barbara.

Finally, I have a canvas and fabric book with my photos of rural Nebraska. The canvas is painted with acrylics, photos printed on fabric, and all printed fabrics came from my mother-in-law's quilt stash. 

T

The clothes pin and key came from the 300 Mile Junk Jaunt in Central Nebraska.

ABC Book of Machine Embroidery

I don't even know why I started this project. I love fabric, used to sew a lot of my clothes, and have made a few small quilts. I also subscribe to The Quilting Arts Magazine where I find more ideas for surface treatment for the pages of my handcrafted books than I do in magazines about books or paper arts. I frequently visit Lincoln, Nebraska, home of the International Quilt Museum, and I also like to visit small, boutique quilt shops. In one such shop I found a fabulous encyclopedia of machine embroidery, printed in England and featuring those wonderfully creative English textile artists. As a challenge, I decided to create 26 embroidered trading cards representing one letter of the alphabet: A is for applique, B is for bullion stitch, C is for couching stitch, etc. Now, several years later, it occurred to me that I could use these cards to create a fabric accordion book. I'm not finished (I don't know why I thought this would be quick) but here is the progress so far.

I just love this old Bernina, she is a real workhorse. Purchased in 1975 it is my newest of four machines. I have a really old treadle machine of my great-aunt's, a 1928 Singer in a beautiful wooden "coffin" case with every attachment you can imagine, and a 1960's Polish sewing machine used in home economics classes in Palmer High School (Nebraska). I am using the Bernina because it is the only one with drop feed. I am quilting a long strip of my hand dyed fabric which will be used for the front side of the accordion structure.The process is repeated for the back of the structure.

The trading cards are spaced out on the strip and sewn onto the quilted backing.

Letters of the alphabet are then sewn on. OK. G stands for what?

I really like the "V is for vermicelli" stitch. I have finished both sides of the book and will attach the front and back strips along the top, insert buckram in between (creates the rigidity needed for the book) and will machine embroider around all four sides. The valleys and folds will be stitched before folding. I used my pigment-based inkjet printer to print the text on on my hand dyed fabrics, prepared with Bubble Jet 2000. I think I could sew in my sleep.

Weddings and Fabric Books

We have done our first load of wash with our $30 machine.  We tested it on the deck of the cabin and except for a minor leak, it works.  We handled this little problem by putting a cookie sheet under one corner when we installed it in the cabin.  It is big enough to do about one sheet but it saves us from driving 30 minutes each way to get to the laundromat.  So, with clean clothes in suitcases we headed to Moab, Utah, for the wedding of Rollie's youngest daughter.  It was a beautiful time of year to drive through the Rocky Mountains.  The weather was quite a contrast to what is happening in Colorado as I'm writing this post!

The wedding took place at Red Cliffs Lodge located on the Colorado River just east of Moab.  Our cabin was right on the river and happened to look out on a rapid that knocked me out of my kayak a few years ago.  Laurie was given away by her son, Brandon, our oldest grandson and soon-to-be-a-father himself.  

Laurie and Brian's wedding took place on a beautiful deck overlooking a bend in the river. 

 

The all female drumming band was a great hit.  This looked something I could do do get some exercise.

We traveled to Moab with Robyn, Rollie's oldest daughter.  We managed to get in some shopping (hey! it was so hot that I didn't have anything to wear) and enjoyed the wine tasting at the winery at the lodge.

 

It was great to see family again and of course, we stopped overnight in Fort Collins to visit the fascinating household of the Noon family, formerly of Arcata.  They host two graduate students, one from India and another from Bulgaria.  Back at home in the cabin, I pack for another trip to San Diego and make a book for the NORBAG book exchange featuring fabric books. I painted the canvas pages with acrylics, printed photos on fabric, created some wirework decorations and used vintage clothespins, hankies and keys from the Junk Jaunt.  The pages and images were all sewn using my Polish 1950's sewing machine, purchased for $10 at the local Palmer high school auction.  This machine is the counterpart of the Communist East German Trabant.  It just goes and goes and you only oil it underneath the bobbin.  It does the job!