Lilacs and a New Bookbinding

Lilacs are now blooming and just in time for the Lilac Festival Torchlight Parade which was Saturday night over in Spokane, WA - a little over an hour away from me. I have fond memories of marching in that parade when I was in high school. Always enjoyed band trips and nothing like the sound of drums to get my adrenaline going. Whether or not there will be lilacs the week of the major festivities is always questionable. Will they bloom early or late, or right on time as they did this year? I was delighted that the bush I pick a few blooms off of every year was indeed in full swing and sending out its beautiful scent so I'd have a lovely bouquet for my livingroom this weekend.

And as long as I was enjoying them from my couch, I did a sketch of them in my downstairs sketchbook. Not the first time I've tried my hand at sketching lilacs, and let me tell you, with all those small little flowers making up each large bloom, it is not an easy thing to sketch! It's one of those things that makes you creative in how to portray the general gist. And that vase was fun to sketch as well.

To my exasperation, my handmade book club's next 5 day challenge starts today and of course, I want to participate, but I still hadn't made any of the regular monthly book bindings I have laid out on my work table with instructions and papers. So I set aside more re-quilting of the couch quilt so I could at least make up this Butterfly Binding from January. Members were so thrilled with this one, saying it was quick and easy, and I had some signatures leftover from another project ready to go, so it should be even quicker, right? And handmade paper was suggested for the covers, and guess who succumbed to buying some quite awhile ago and has never used it?

The covers wrap around the first and last signatures, the narrow end glued to the signature and the wider one creating a flap. Holes are then punched through the signature and cover as well as the other two signatures. The handmade paper has bits of flowers embedded in it.

Four needles are used which though sounds complicated, actually makes the sewing easier as one signature after another is attached. I opted to use purple thread to match some of the purple flower bits in the paper.

The result is an elegant slim book with signatures that lie close to each other when open, always a plus. And I opted not to trim any of that flap, but use double sided Scor tape on top and bottom to create pockets. The paper is actually a little thin so it needs that doubling up for a sturdier cover. The size of the book is 9 x 6 inches, and I can see making this in smaller sizes too.

If I had any complaint, it would be that by using 4 needles, you end up with stitches in the center of the signatures that are doubled, but that's a little thing that won't keep me from making this book again. After all, I have an additional 4 leftover signatures to use up and that piece of handmade paper was exactly the right size for a second set of covers.