Sun. Star. Book…

Here’s my little SunStarBook. I worked on it this weekend. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here is the inside of the front and back covers.

And the back cover…

I mentioned in a previous blog I was working on making a drawing book for myself. I had purchased a very large artist’s pad with pages too big for me to use for my small efforts. I thought I would share my process here.

I began with cutting the big pages lengthwise and folding them up accordion style. Then I used my leather punch to put in holes for binding. I then used embroidery thread for the binding.

As it turned out, I didn’t make the binding holes big enough, so I had to redo the pages after I’d already stitched up the first one. I needed the larger holes because I stitched through several times to make it really secure. Plus, I needed room to add stitches for the inside fabric binding.

In my efforts to mold myself into a fabric artist, I’ve been working with my own Spirit. I’ve asked my own Spirit to help me find my way. I felt that influence when I went to the big fabric bin to find a suitable piece of cloth to work with. Without even thinking, I snatched up a scrap of black duck cloth/canvas. I knew instantly this was the cloth I wanted to use…and thanked my Spirit. The cloth still felt like it had chemicals on it, so I gave it a wash, dried it on the line outside and left it wrinkly when I cut it out. As it turned out, I really enjoyed working with the duck cloth. It’s woven and easy to get a needle through. It also gave the book the kindof of comfortable feel I wanted it to have, simple yet, well, artistic.

I began with a tatted star. I made these a few years ago. I have one just like this somewhere I want to put on a jean jacket. It’s actually made out of crochet thread I dyed some time ago. I’m happy to use the tatted stars as it’s a pattern I copied from some antique tatting I found, rescued really, although the star shape was my idea. For the back cover I went with a sun made out of fabric I dyed recently, and I fashioned it with flames made out of satin stitch, or wrap stitch, as Jude Hill likes to call it in the way she uses it. I’ve seen a number of fabric artists make suns this way and find it very endearing. It was also really fun to stitch.

The masking tape is a trick I learned from my old quilter friend who is gone now. This was her method for easily marking lines by laying down a piece or two of tape, marking with a fabric pen, and then peeling up the tape. I simply stitched (running stitch) alongside the tape for one row, came up the middle between the two and down the other side. Then, I peeled off the tape and filled in the kantha (running stitch) rows.

I used a blanket stitch for the edges, which worked well for keeping the fibers of the duck cloth together. It tends to unravel easily.

I really like how I used the orange kantha in between the variegated blue/purple. It looks like the sun is raining.

I used Jude’s invisible stitch to tack the layers together when adding the backing. I developed a kind of mantra as I worked. It was a bit tedious, but I didn’t mind. The words helped me concentrate and monitor where I was in the stitch.

Down, up, invisible slide through layers…Down, up, invisible slide through layers…Down, up…

For the inside I used a 6×3″ piece of canvas to work as a fabric binding. It was to this I attached the covers.

Sun. Star.

The sun is a star.

Sun. Star. Book…

In other news…

We only had ONE trick or treater last night. The neighbors didn’t even bring their kids over. I’m not all that surprised.

The last two times I’ve passed out candy I haven’t had many kids. There are bigger, better neighborhoods who tend to go all-out and draw the crowds. Having gone out with the niece and nephew a few times I don’t blame parents for wanting to have the treating centrally located. I don’t blame the kids for wanting to get the best haul.

But one thing I like to do is buy like one bag of candy. Then I will mix it with a variety of toys. So, this year, I had a bag of tootsie pops and mixed in a bunch of super balls (the super bouncy kind) and some of those champagne poppers (party favor things.)

What did our ONE trick or treater take?

A big red bouncy ball and a champagne popper.

Who said all kids want is candy? Last time it was the same story. The kids went for the toys!

One a sad note, today I have to take my Spider down. It is, after all, November.