What Presented Itself

After getting the boards cut for my 5 day fabric journal challenge, I mentioned that I hadn't found anything suitable for end papers, and I couldn't (or shouldn't) glue the bookcloth to the boards until I did. But I was sure a solution would present itself and it did. I remembered the teacher saying somewhere that you could always use the same paper as the signatures, and I had plenty of it. It's just that it is white, and plain, and I wished I at least had something that was off-white, but, better yet, patterned. And then while musing outside the studio, I realized that the drawing paper was a good weight for stenciling or stamping, and lord knows, I have plenty of stamps and stencils to choose from. I could easily make my own prettily patterned end paper. I settled on a recently bought foam stamp that I thought would relate a bit to the design of the bookcloth, and a reddish brown stamp pad. Very pleased with this.

Now there was nothing holding me back from covering those boards . . . except my own foot dragging. I suddenly found myself intimidated by the process, even though I've covered boards several times in the course of working on books in the club. Read and reread the directions I'd printed out. Watched the instruction video to refresh my memory. Got out my glue brushes. Cleaned out my small jar to place the PVA glue in. Played with where to place the board on the cloth. Not all on the same day of course - I can procrastinate for days with the best of them! But finally I just had to do it, and it all went perfectly smoothly. While the covers dried under weights, I got out my punching cradle and got the signature sewing holes punched in. Today I got the holes in the cover punched. I'm ready to sew, once I decide on which thread to use - the 4-ply black linen thread or the slightly thinner handspun tan hemp thread. Any thoughts? The thread will be a feature on the spine and I'm leaning toward black.