Last Vintage Lace Book Page

This Round Robin journal is now going home to Elena, and it was my privilege to be the last one to work in it.

Her theme was vintage Paris.

I made the design on the back pages on my new embroidery machine. Gotta love it. I also added a crown and the letter “E” for Elena, because she’s our queen friend, who organizes lots of wonderful Round Robins.

Her book cover was mainly black and white, so I followed the theme.

On the left page, I printed images of Paris on fabric, and decorated them with a beautiful white flower from Beads and Buttons in Portland, and a sweet little white bird inside of a black rose. For the background, I used this wonderful black and white Paris map fabric that I had. It all got covered with tons of lace, of course.

For the right page, I had this wonderful furry and feathery black nest with precious stones in it. It guided the design for the rest of the page. I used a large piece of lace that covers both pages. It has these large white flowers on it, which seemed to continue the theme.

 

Here is a view of both pages together. I trimmed the top of the page with black and white gingham, very French. The bottoms silver and black trim comes from the collar of a jacket a girlfriend just gave me. It comes from Italy, and has tons of silver beads. Not easy to wear outside of Italy, even if you live in Palm Springs! It was perfect to finish the pages.

Fabric journal Round Robin

Here are my pages for the fabric journal Round Robin. The theme is Vintage lace. I picked “A young woman in Paris”.

My great-grand mother was a hat-maker in Paris around the turn of the century, and it seemed a fitting theme for this vintage lace.

Here is the front cover:

The inside front cover:

I made a tag to explain my theme, with a picture of my own great-grand-mother:

                 

We were to make the covers, and one set of pages, front and back. Our journals will travel around the US and to Australia, so we didn’t bind our pages to keep the weight to a minimum. These are my pages:

 

This is the inside of the back cover:

This is the back cover.

Can you tell that this is going to be a gorgeous Round Robin. All the artists involved are amazing. I cannot wait to see what they’ll do in my book.

And I so look forward to working in their books. Some of the other themes are: “A stitch in time”, “Vintage Gypsy”, “couples”, and more.

Another bracelet plus fabric book in progress

I have just completed another bracelet. This one took a while, you can just see why. It’s a stunner though.

  I mounted it on a brass cuff, I like it much better than with a hook and eye.

I also made a little pendant, very Renaissance. I’ve just been told I’m the epitomy of the Renaissance woman. So that seems fitting.

 

Speaking of Renaissance, I’m more involved with the Middle Ages at the moment, making a Book of Hours.

Here’s a preview. The book is not bound yet, I’m still working in it:

 

I’m going to do more embroidery. And who knows what else?

Thanks for visiting.

Many projects

 I took my first ever embroidery class, where we were learning to make little samplers such as the one above.


I made a little embroidered purse, based on the online beading class I took at Joggles, based on a pdf. Not the best way to learn...  I sent it to my sister for her birthday.


Following on the October beading class I took, I just finished a bracelet. It's based on a design by Sherry Serafini from her gorgeous book.

Here are some details. It took about 4 days.
Then I made a brooch. That was faster, being smaller. )



But one can’t be beading all day long.
I also made two pages (huh, couldn’t stop at 2, made 4…) in the Asia Round Robin I’m involved in. I played with my new sewing machine, embroidered the geisha’s hair. Endless fun!

This is the extra two pages, on the reverse side.
The gorgeous little girl is one of the Chinese unwanted girls who are sent to the orphanage, because they are girls. Wonder what will happen when all the remaining boys come of age, and there are no Chinese females around. Hummm…

Then I joined a tag swap, theme vintage dressform in Paris, I had so much fun with that one. There were 15 participants, and we traded tags, fabric and lace. Here is the front cover.
 

I decorated some of the pages without tags, because not all the participants had their tags ready by the due date.

Everything and the kitchen sink

It’s true, I’ve been having so much fun this summer, I have not posted for a long time. But I certainly have been productive. So here goes:

First, I made a gorgeous book for my friend Lillian, with her fabric and choice of ribbon. It’s for our Asia RR.

I also made one for Sue. I use the french ribbon binding technique, so you can open the book flat when you’re working in it. Don’t you love Sue’s cover? It’s really beautiful in person:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also took Mary Ann Moss’s new online class. Of course it’s fabulous, all sorts of new binding techniques, she’s a gem. Here’s one book I made for a present. I used an old german dictionary which I gutted, and I replaced the pages with vintage ledger paper and some pages from a 1829 book!!!! It was fun!

I also signed up for a Cabinet Card swap, where we decorated the cards on the theme of clocks and Time. We were to send 7 and receive 7 back, bound in a little book. Here’s my series:

I also entered a fabric journal swap where we were to decorate 15 tags on the theme of Paris and using a dress form. We’re sending our partners a fabric strip, 14x9 and a piece of lace, too, so they can vary the pages in their own book and I’ll receive 14 pieces to make a book. Here are some of my tags. They are larger than normal tags, made of fabric, but they will all fit on the 9x7 pages.

In Mary Ann’s new class, she uses old Victorian photo albums. I found my first one today. This will make a unique journal:

And finally, here’s to Teri, who forwarded an article from CPS, about what to do with what’s left (on your art table at the end of a project)! Fabulous project. It’s 9x12, and I like the way it looks: