I was following along with Pam Kellogg's
"Never Ending Sampler Stitch-Along" and completed Sampler One. As I mentioned in a previous post I was trying to use up bits and pieces of canvas left over from other projects.
I haven't really followed along with her second sampler as it didn't really appeal to me. Maybe a bit too traditional although I did use two of the bands...the middle part of number 2 repeated and number 3.
I didn't quit though. I've been adding bands on my own. Some of them found online. Some my own creations. There's lots of inspiration for bands out there. Just Google Blackwork, Redwork, and so on. Pinterest is also a great source...better than Google actually.
Some look at bit plain. I intend to add some beads here and there.
And......
I'm ALMOST caught up with
"Take A Stitch Tuesday" aka TAST".
I decided that I needed somewhere to put my stitch samples. So I made a cloth book with cloth pages. For the front cover I decided to use some of my ORTS....old ragged threads...that I have in a bottle on my work desk. It's where I put the ends from embroidery threads, ends of silk ribbon...whatever. I have stared at them for ages and wondered why the heck I was keeping them. Habit I guess.
I was sort of inspired by various crafters/artists that use fibres, threads and ribbons and layer them between sheer fabric or netting and create "fabric". I used a piece of white cotton and a piece of white wedding tulle. In between I placed threads and bits of ribbon from my ORTS jar.
To sandwich the layers together I used a running stitch on the diagonal.
The rest of the cover is some lovely purple batik. To reinforce the cover I used cardboard front and back and a separate piece down the spine. The fabric pages were glued together and then glued to the spine of the book. So messy and gluey...eeek! Ah well:)
Not my best effort. There are much better ways of making a cloth book. Next time I will do it very differently.....less glue.....LOL But, I must say it's quite tactile and it does invite one to turn the pages. I have lots of pages. I intend to put my sampler pieces in the back as a reference for future CQ seams.
Take care:)
