I tried two more insertion stitches today. The first one was simple and is called twisted insertion stitch. The second one, plaited insertion stitch was not so simple. It took some effort to figure the stitch out and then I had to keep looking at the instructions again and again. But it looks really neat when completed.

 This is the twisted insertion stitch. For all these stitches, you baste your two pieces of fabric to card stock to hold them in place. That way you will end up with an even space between the two pieces of fabric.

 Here is the little book folded.

 Here’s a closer view of the stitch.

 This is the plaited insertion stitch. I like how the stitch looks but I don’t like the ending and starting points. You can see in this photo how there is only one strand at the top left and then all the rest have three strands of thread? It just doesn’t look right. But that is how you are supposed to start the stitch.

 I decided to fix that after I finished the row of stitches. I put my needle back in just under the first thread.

 Then I “plaited” the thread. It’s just like weaving, over and under the threads with your needle. Make sure not to pierce the threads as you are weaving through them.

 Then take a stitch on the opposite side.

 “Plait” the thread back through with under, over under.

 And then take the stitch back through the other side and tie off. That is essentially how you do the entire stitch but it is really easy to get confused with this one.

You can see that the tension at the top is a bit loose. Next time, I will use a thinner thread, I used size 5 perle cotton here, put the two pieces of felt about 1/2″ apart instead of 3/4″ and try to get better tension.

I’m not sure that this makes a really functional book binding because of the way the stitch starts and ends. But perhaps I can work it out to make it sturdier at the ends. I have one more insertion stitch to try, it’s called  interlacing insertion stitch. It is made up of a double herringbone done between the two pieces of fabric which is then interlaced with another thread. I don’t have two types/colors of thread with me today so I’ll try that one tomorrow.

I got started working the Italian Insertion Stitch. It is actually fairly easy once you get started. It looks complex but is made by alternating buttonhole stitches on each side at an angle and then covering the prior buttonhole stitch with four detached buttonhole stitches.

The top three stitches are a bit muddled but then it got better after I got started. I actually think this would look better if I had left more space between each stitch so you could see more of the diagonal movement of  the stitch. I really like these insertion stitches. They were originally used to insert fancy pieces of fabric into clothing. But they make excellent bindings for small books. I want to use insertion stitches with hand made felt books. More of these to come!

Italian Insertion Stitch can be used for making a book binding. It is similar to the other insertion stitches that I used recently in class. I didn’t get to show a photo since I was having such trouble uploading photos when I was traveling.

The top one is knotted insertion stitch and the bottom one is grouped buttonhole stitches. We also did one with a lacing stitch and knotted buttonhole stitch on the edge.

All I’ve managed to get done today is to get the pages ready to be stitched. I haven’t started the insertion stitch yet and have to read the directions again as I haven’t tried this stitch yet. Hopefully, I’ll get more done on this tomorrow.

I finished lacing the Kantha bird embroidery today. Now I just need to buy a dark grey matt to go behind it and get it framed. I also finished the cat toys that I started on our trip to Washington. I ran out of beads so I couldn’t finish them in the car. I painted the first coat of paint on a canvas that I am going to finish with my local surface design group on Friday. We will be layering like I did in my studio journal recently.

 Here’s the finished bird after being laced to the card. You can click on the photo to get a better view.

 Here’s the back showing the lacing.

 I also stitched down the edges so they would stay flat.

 Here are the cat toys  before going in the washing machine.

And here they are, ready to go to the store after being “washed” and finished.

Here is the first layer on my canvas. I’m planning on doing a red background with green leaves in a variety of greens. I’ll show you more of this next weekend.

Today I am working on lacing the back of my Kantha bird piece. I thought of a way to mark the piece so that I didn’t have to wait to do this part until I got the backing board. It’s good that I did this because I realized that I measured incorrectly and would have gotten the wrong size board.

You can see I’ve just started lacing the back. I always feel like I need about 5 hands to do this. It’s a bit tricky getting it all lined up and keeping the tension even.