Author Archives: ruthlane

Book Making Session

Posted on by under book making
Our local fiber group met on Friday and Jan taught us several methods of making books and binding. We had a great time and ended up with some really nice books.

 This is an accordion style book that Jan made. Isn’t it cute?

 Here we all are in Carole’s garage coloring our paper with stamp pads.

 We each made an accordion book. I made several in different sizes. You have to be very careful with your folding and cutting for these books to come out even.

 Here’s a smaller version.

 We then worked on a stab binding. Bunny had some really cool wall paper books and the cork cover is made from wall paper.

 Here’s Louise’s book.

 And this is Bunny’s.

Here is Carole stitching her book. I didn’t manage to get a photo of Sally’s creation.

 Next up was a book with signatures and a hard cover. We used various fabrics for the cover.

 Here Bunny is folding paper for her signatures.

 Here is my hard covered book. I used screen printed fabric we had made with paper scraps and thickened dyes.

 Here’s the inside of the book. It is glued together with the end papers holding everything in place.

 Here’s a view from the top of the book.

 I used several different painted pages for the first page of my signature.

And here’s the cork book standing on end. I have lots of ideas for making other books but I’ve got to get going on my stitch class homework. I’ll show you what I’m working on soon.

Back from NYC

Posted on by under journals
I’m back from NYC. It was a great trip and I had a wonderful time. I wrote a post about my travel journal over at the Felting and Fiber Studio. Go check it out.

I have been trying to catch up at work and you should see the weeds that have grown in my absence at home! I am meeting with my local group this Friday so I’ll post soon about our book making session.

NYC Travel Journals

Posted on by under book making, journals

 I had great fun today making these little travel journals. We are going to New York City next week and meeting up with my sister and her husband. We’ll be staying at my parent’s time share in downtown Manhattan. I thought it would be cool if we each had a little travel journal for our trip.

 So I made them out of the hand made paper I made last month and added painted paper inside. The pages are 8 1/2 x 11 paper cut in half and then folded. I then found a few photos online of things in NYC.

 My sister got us tickets to be on the TV show The Chew. We’ll be in the audience and might get on TV. I’ve never even watched the show but…

 My husband got us tickets to go to the Mets game. One of his friends knows a player. So a baseball game is in my future. Hopefully, I’ll survive 🙂

 We’re staying at the Manhattan Club which is right across from Carnegie Hall.

I made a little pocket for the back cover to keep tickets etc. that I will be adding to the book. I’ll show you the finished results when I get back. I’ll also post a mini tutorial on how I made the books on the Felting and Fiber Studio blog next week. See you soon!

Back from Stitch Class

Posted on by under level 2 stitch class

 We made it back from La Conner without difficulty and even though it was a bit cool and rainy, it was better weather than we’re having in Montana. It’s been raining and cold since we got home. I had a great time in class. We worked on machine embroidery. My old Brother machine started giving me a really hard time so when we got home, I went out and bought a new machine. It’s a Pfaff 2170 and boy is it cool. I’m still figuring it out but I think I’m really going to enjoy this machine.

 Here’s a piece that I did for last session’s Kantha homework. It’s of my hubby on his John Deere. Since I put a barn in the composition he said we needed to build a barn so the tractor would feel at home.

 Here’s another piece that I made for last session’s homework. It wasn’t assigned but I wanted to try stitching on felt. I made the felt hat out of short fiber black merino and then stitched the designs with 3 perle cottons. There are shisha mirrors in the yellow circles.

We worked on machine embroidery in this session. I don’t have any photos of what we did but I’ll show a few later. One of the designs we worked on was from a voided shape. Mine was from a photo of a flower that was simplified and then cut out. I’m still working on this piece so more on that later.

I’ve got lots of homework to get done before September and we are off to New York City for a week soon. Then it will be summer time and I’m sure it will be busy, busy, busy. Thanks for stopping by.

On the Road Again

Posted on by under class
I’m off to LaConnor, Washington tomorrow for session 3 of the Level 2 Stitch Course at Gail Harker Creative Studies Center. I thought you might like to see how much stuff I pack for class supplies. This of course doesn’t include any clothing, toiletries or stuff for the dogs so the car is packed to the brim.

 I have everything on this 6 foot table. The clear tub on the bottom is all dyed fabric and the green and pink containers are thread. The briefcase bag on top carries all my art supplies and the white and red bag is folders and homework. I’m not supposed to blog about all my homework so there are some things I haven’t shown here. But you’ll get to see them all in time.

 I have always wanted a set of threads with a range of colors for machine embroidery. These are Sulky threads (#30 cotton) that I ordered since I didn’t have any #30 cotton thread. Yummy! I’m sure I won’t have the color I need though as I always need a slightly different shade then what I have. (note to self – buy more thread)

Here’s the pile of stuff from the other end. Another bag with lots of other supplies such as interfacings, Peltex, soluble fabric etc. We will be working on machine embroidery this time so I am taking my sewing machine as well. It’s not an expensive machine but does everything I need it to do. The fishing tackle box holds all the small supplies and equipment. I am excited about the upcoming class and I can’t wait to see all my classmates homework and how they interpreted our assignments. Have a great week and I’ll give an update about the class on my return.