Time for a change

Towards the end of last week I was starting to feel that I had 'sewing overload' and felt the need to spend some time doing something different. I have not really done any sketchbook work for a while so I was toying with the idea of playing in one of them when along came the DMTV newsletter and I spotted the perfect thing. Handprinted Sketchbooks. So I signed up for the videos and on Monday I made a start.

The idea is that you start off by taking a very large - A1 - sheet of good quality white paper and play around printing and stencilling on to it. Now of course those large sheets of white paper that I put carefully away were nowhere to be found! So instead I laid out 8 sheets of handmade cotton rag paper onto a plastic sheet and printed on to them instead.

My print blocks - that old sandal has been hanging around for a couple of years waiting for just such an occassion.

So I printed over one side of the paper and left it to dry.

Then I turned the pages over and did some more printing.

Once they were dry came the exciting bit - each page is carefully torn in half. Then the half pages are folded in half and put together four at a time to form the book.

And at this point I was so happy as the pages were looking great all together. The next stage was to stitch the pages together and into some covers and hey presto, one new sketchbook!

It was much quicker and easier than I had thought. I have just used mount board for my covers as I intend to make a fabric slip cover for the book so the board will not be on show.

I am so pleased that I used the rag paper as I love the soft edges it gives to the page - now to pluck up courage to go in and start working into some of the pages!!

It's FNwF tomorrow - still time to sign up so if you fancy joining in then sign up here  - hope to see you there.

CQJP block for March

Here is my turquoise block which is my Crazy Quilt Journal Project block for March!

And a few details

We are now in UK for Easter. The crossing on Tuesday afternoon was not very pleasant - we had very strong winds the night before and the sea was still quite rough. However, arrived at Plymouth safe, sound and on time so all was well.
So far the weather has been grey and damp but we are staying in a warm and cosy thatched house and hoping for a dry day tomorrow!

Friday Night with Friends....

.....was last night, it being the first Friday of the month. Many thanks to Cheryll for organising us.

I spent my time - afternoon and evening sorting out my next CQJP block and the beads, threads, ribbons etc that I am going to use with it.

Here is my basic block.

These are some of the threads and embellishments that I have sorted out.

Of course I did not have enough of the right colour silk ribbon so I have had to order some! Luckily Hearty Craft are very quick to send out orders so the ribbon will be here in a few days.
I also thought that I would dye some ribbon myself to  add to my range and added some lace as well and some pieces of silk and velvet to add to my stash.

Here are the ribbons and laces that I dyed - I did a bag of marine violet at the same time in anticipation of Aprils block.
I added a dash of emerald to my turquoise dye and on the laces it has given me the colour I wanted but the ribbons have come out far too green. Well they will find a use I know but I don't think that they will be right for this project.

And so by the end of the evening I had started stitching and here is my progress so far - just one seam treatment and a piece of braid pinned in place.

Today, Saturday, has been another warm sunny day spent in the garden. Late this afternoon we had several skeins of cranes fly over - always a welcome sight as it means that spring is on it's way.

Hope you all had a great evenings sewing - those of you who were not eating pizza in Brisbane!

Until next time.