Round Robin books and a Lace journal

Busy time of month when the Round Robin journals come in.

I have completed several, which are now on their way.

In the Kindred Spirits Round Robin, I finished Gloria’s book. Her theme is Vintage Shabby Chic. Here’s what I did:

The girl is actually 3D, and each butterfly is highlighted with clear embossing powder.

I grunged and aged the page too.

 

Next is Eileen’s lace book in the Vintage Round Robin. Her theme is Vintage Accessories. Her book already had gloves, glasses, so much good stuff, but… it was really missing a boa. And everyone knows life goes better with a boa. Here’s the front cover:

The left page has a red rose, and lots of lace.

 

The right page is the lady with her boa and her jewelry, checking herself in the mirror. Soooo romantic!

 

 

And finally, the last Round Robin that left yesterday is the Medieval Lace Book. I had Liz’s journal: Medieval Gardens.ON the left page, I embroidered a medieval design from BeadsEast, on a background of faded pink velvet.

On the right page is a picture of one of the last Medieval gardens in France, Chateau de Villandry. It happens to be 10 miles from my home town, so I know it quite well. Liz loves rust, orange and green colors. All fall colors. So I added some chestnuts, and some flowers in that color range.

The outside cover is striped velvet that I decorated with machine stitches in all sorts of colors, as well as ribbons and flowers.

And of course, the latest bracelet, because I wouldn’t want you to think I’ve stopped beading… This one is headed to my hairdresser’s salon. Because in Palm Springs, there is  a market for such a masculine cuff. Now to find a rock star…

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.

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: