JELLY TURNS 10

Happy Birthday Jelly!  

She turns 10 years old today. 

BASTING

 I finished marking the Carpe Diem quilt top with a quilting design.

I've loaded it onto the longarm to baste it.

MARKING QUILT TOP

 I have hesitantly decided to hand quilt the Hourglass quilt, Carpe Diem.  

So I set about pre-marking the top before I baste it all together.

I'm using my acrylic template set of circles to create a Baptist Fan quilting design using a water-soluble marking pen.

ANOTHER BOOK MADE

 I had some papers laying around that I had sewn together into signatures.  I'm using them to complete a simple handmade book.

I used some of the book cloth I made recently.  I stitched them all together with a simple binding.

Sewn signatures ready to go

Newly made book covers 8-1/4" by 10-1/2"  using a batik book cloth

BRICK BLOCKS VARIATION

 Saturday was the Improv That Block Squad's last workshop for this year.  This time is is the Brick block that we are playing with.  I have a box of solid fabrics that I cut into rectangles and squares years and years ago.  I figured I should use those, but most of them are a rectangle sewed to a square.  So, there would be a lot of unsewing required to use just the rectangles.  And that doesn't sound fun.

So, I decided to use them the way they are.  I made some big squares with them, stacked them and slashed them diagonally, and sewed them back together, like the Hourglass blocks we made in the last workshop.

First making 18" square blocks

Next, slashing the two stacked blocks diagonally

Then, swapping every other triangle

And sewing them back together.

So far...

HEMMING PANTS

 Victoria stopped by with a couple of pairs of pants that needed hemming.

I'm amazed that wide leg jeans are back in style.

MAKING BOOK CLOTH

I made a batch of wheat paste and pulled out some Japanese paper to use for the backing on fabric to make some book cloth.  Since I made more paste than I needed I made several pieces.

But look at the fabulous fabric I pulled from my Batik stash.  It will make a great book cover.

JUNE'S BOOK

 This month's book on Handmade Book Club is the Japanese Stab Stitch in four different versions of the binding. I made three.

I cut the paper and made the book blocks yesterday.   Then I glued the decorative corners on to them and left them to dry overnight.  I cut the covers from Kraft-tex.

Today I sewed some fabric to the covers.  I used Darrell's drill press to punch out the sewing holes in the covers and book blocks, which was much easier than doing it by hand.

And finally, I stitched the bindings to complete them.  On one of them I tore a strip of silk and twisted it to use as the thread.  That was fun.