slateblu

book binding...

Last Saturday, when the kiddies went to the snow with their daddy, I had lunch with friends, who used to be colleagues at work.  My friend Daisy is a very good cook so we had a homemade 4 course meal with extras to bring home.  It was a great afternoon.

I made handbound books for my two friends...and one soon to be finished for myself to write down photo notes for my picture files.

The necessary supplies...

Slate gray linen thread...

Books...

This one's waiting to be finished...

Wrapped up with my new favorite bow and ready to go...

 

some crafting going on

Last weekend I took another class at the SF Center for the Book.  It was a class on the long stitch taught by Hannah Tashjian.

 
The title of the class was called "Bound for Love".  It was the day before for Valentine's day.  I chose the red string for the occasion.

 
We made a "wrapper" or  cover to protect the book.  Though I do prefer the look of the exposed binding.

 
The view from the top and the bottom of the book.  I like how it resembles an end band.

 
I'm knitting another gingham hat...

 
 
These masking tapes are appearing everywhere.  I picked these up at Japantown.  I love that they had the slate blue color. 

handmade books - and giveaway

I was making a couple handmade books bound with the coptic stitch for gifts.  One is for my niece who is going away to college and one is for my cousin's birthday who takes conversational French classes.  So I personalized them with their names and the type of notebook: "french notes" and "music notes".

 
I have one to giveaway so if you leave a comment I'll randomly pick a name at the end of next week (let's say next Saturday) and send it along to the lucky winner. It's a "things to note" book, the cover made with St. Armand paper and filled with ivory text paper. 

We'll be going on vacation soon with the kiddies before school starts.  It'll be a nice time away from work...and before homework starts up again... 

craft fair 2009

I sewed all weekend after having holiday with Anne, her daughter and Jason, for our craft fair at work. I'll post pictures soon on that too.  I also made some simple books with a coptic stitch to sell. 

 

caterpillar stitch

I took another class at the San Francisco Center for the Book last night.  It's a two part class so I take the last one next week.  We learned the caterpillar stitch.  It's a very interesting and decorative type of stitch.  Here are my pictures:

The front of the book...

The back of the book...

The spine...

The brown thread was doubled.  I think I like that look compared to the single thread of the purple one.
  

my december crafting

It's been a little while since I posted but I did do a lot of crafting in December.  I didn't have time then to post about it but I do now so here goes...

My friend commissioned me to make some zippered pouches for her xmas gifts so I made them w/ brown nylon and colored zippers.

 

I also made quick little tags with a "j" stamp I bought at Paper Source.

   

For my annual cousin exchange I made journals/mini notebooks and also personalized them.

 

 We also had a craft fair at work so I also made pouches, tissue holders, and journals for that too. My co-worker took pictures so here is my little section here.

I hope everyone's holidays went well and I hope everyone had a very Happy New Year.  I can't believe the end of January will be next week! How time flies!

cord binding

I took another exposed book binding class with one of my cousins.  This time it was with hemp cord on the spine and through the cover.  I took the class at  The San Francisco Center for the Book. Here are my pictures: