A Little Gardening

How was your Memorial Day weekend? The day itself here in northern Idaho was unusually warm - 80 degrees! We generally are cold and rainy with those who go out camping relegated to their tents or campers playing cards. It was perfect though for me to get the plants I'd picked out put into their containers on my deck and the big pot out front. 

But first, the neighbor girl who frequently brings me a bit of her baking showed up with not just a yummy still warm chocolate chip cookie but also added a rose blossom to the plate. Oh my! It reminded me of the sort of thing my late husband might do. My mother would call this a wild rose, although it is growing next to the duplex next door.

So beautiful with that big yellow center of stamens that I had to pause and try to draw it in colored pencil while I feasted on the cookie.

But times a wasting! I knew that tall plant with the purple flowers was destined for the pot out by the front steps. It already has some beautiful volunteer violas that have been coming up for several years.

I'd been giving thought to where what I'd chosen would go. Always, three geraniums go in the big copper washtub. This year I picked a red, white and kind of tangerine colored one.

I'd been pleased with the marigolds I added last year so picked up another pony pack with two going in the same pot as I'd used last year (you can just see it to the right of the geraniums in the previous photo). The third one went in one of the long planters in between the two dianthus plants toward the back that have wintered over. I'd picked up a pony pack of lobelia and decided to put two in the front of this planter. They are already blooming lovely purple blooms. The other two went in a separate small pot.

I also picked up some dahlias. I remember having some one year and really liking them. We shall see how they do and what colors they are. I'm protecting them at the moment from the possibility of our rampant feral cat population deciding to dig around in the freshly turned soil to use it as a litter box. They had done that last fall when I'd dug up the begonias in it to bring them inside. I'd quickly taken these same lattice pieces to cover the ground to keep them out. Once they are more established, I'll remove the protection.

Finally, I pulled the weeds out of this big barrel tub that sits on the ground at the corner of the deck. Long ago, a woman that lived a few houses down gave me some shoots of snow on the mountain plant she'd thinned out. I'd seen this plant in a nearby park so knew how big it could grow - too big for my deck containers. However, I'd never really put anything in this tub that I'd grabbed when the next door tenant moved and did not take it with them. This seemed a good place for this plant. To be honest, I've not been very good at keeping it watered and weeded. Some years I think it has totally died out only for it to come back in spring. This year it looks mighty healthy so I'll strive to take better care of it and enjoy its blooms which I see are coming on . . . a first!

So there you have it. I'm all set for some deck time to enjoy my flowers, and also to view them through the patio door as I sit on the couch. A lot of bending over that I'm not used to so I am paying for this with some stiff muscles! 

Traveler's Journals Done!

When last I posted, I had the outer covers of the Traveler's journals done and had started working on the actual journals and pockets to slip under the elastic that will hold them in place. I didn't want to put just plain paper in the journals, so printed up some papers with lines, others with dots and a few with graph paper. All had to be cut down to fit, which a guillotine paper cutter makes quick work of. I also used this to cut the scrapbook paper I used for covers.

It was suggested to use a running stitch to bind the signatures with their covers together if your signatures pages were not all the same height, i.e. incorporating leftover papers from other projects or sources, but even though all my papers were the same size, I still used this stitch. So easy starting at the top going in and out to the bottom, then working back up to the top, all gaps getting covered by thread.

Here are the journals ready to go into the covers, two for each.

And yes, just like in quilting, I dithered over the right color of thread to bind each journal. 

Now for pockets. Awhile ago I saw this nifty way presented by Karen Abend to put together a group of envelops to make a pocket booklet. You can use as many envelops as you want, but I chose 4 for each booklet. Start with two envelops, flaps open, pointing at each other, with one face down. 

Moisten the glue on the flap of the envelop on the right before slipping the flap inside the left hand envelop. You can use a little glue stick if necessary.

Now fold that right hand envelop back to the left so it lies on top of the first envelop. Press the fold with a bone folder or something similar since the flap is now folded in the opposite direction from where it started. Repeat with another envelop, slipping the flap into the opening of this second envelop. When you've added all the envelops you want, the flap from the first envelop can now be flipped over and tucked into the last opening, securing it all together.

I'd been giving a lot of thought to what I'd be putting between the covers and I wasn't particularly happy with the way the instructions wanted you to add a third item by tying a piece of elastic around the signature and then working that elastic over the center of a signature already under  one of the two elastic loops already attached to the cover. The eyelet holes were plenty big to accommodate another length of elastic so I added one - now I had 4 pieces of elastic to slip things under.

This works well and helped to fill up the space in the spine once I added everything. The pocket envelops went in the center between the two signatures. The fourth elastic could hold a memo pad or some other item one might want to add to the book.

Here's a look at the center of the pocket book where the blue elastic runs to hold it in place.

As you might imagine, as much as I really liked how these were turning out, I was so ready by now to be done with this project that I nearly skipped adding closures.

But a traveler's journal like this really does need a closure to hold everything together and I defaulted to my favorite soft journal closure that I learned from Michele in Wisconsin when we were trading books - see hers here. I found perfect buttons in my grandmother's collection and made simple loops from elastic. Really pleased with these.

 

Time For Bookmaking

I put the quilting aside last week in order to meet a deadline for a bookmaking project to get in the mail. I'm turning these two books from my library's "free" shelf, books that have been removed from the catalog or donated books Friends of the Library sell that haven't sold over time, into Traveler's Journals. The blue one is a volume of Reader's Digest Condensed books which takes me back to my youth. My parents had quite a few of these that I would occasionally page through. The other is a Scholastic title geared toward the younger set. Both are in good condition for this project.

A Traveler's Journal is a book where the signatures are not sewn in but can be removed, either for ease of use or to switch out with different signatures. By using old books with good covers and spines, not only does this score points for recycling but should make the process easier and faster. Step one is to remove the text block by slitting the end papers where they join with the block. My books were partially glued to the spine making them more difficult to remove than the book demoed in the instruction video. A lot of tugging and careful application of a sharp blade finally released them but boy, did my hands hurt the next day. Still, easier than cutting bookboard.

The spine now needs to be covered up with fabric, not only for aesthetic reasons but for increased durability. Because mine were pretty rough, I opted to make quick bookcloth by fusing a lightweight sketch paper to the back of the fabric.

These are trimmed to extend beyond either side of the spine but about 1/8" shorter than it. I used PVA glue to adhere them into place.

I realized that I could use the lovely yellow I'd cut away from the end papers to glue as new end papers trimmed so that they just overlap the book cloth. For the other book, it was the opening pages to the last story in the Reader's Digest as the recipient is a lover of cats. It was suggested that, depending on the sturdiness of the papers, it might be a good idea to cover them with some kind of sealant. The cat ones definitely needed this, but I sealed the others too with Acrylic Varnish.That yellow could easily get scuffed up or dirty removing and inserting signatures. The Digest cover is very sturdy with a smooth surface so no additional sealing was necessary, but I did use the varnish on the outside of the red book which has a standard cloth cover.

Once these had dried overnight, it was time to add some holes with eyelets top and bottom on the spine. I don't have many opportunities to use this Crop-o-dile combination hole punch and eyelet setter but every time I do I marvel at what a wonderful tool it is. It's only drawback is that there's a limit to how far from the edge you can punch a hole. However, they do make a giant one that has a much longer throat but it's definitely an investment.

The last step is inserting elastic through the holes. These will hold the signatures by opening them to the center and slipping under the elastic. I did putter a bit with printing lines on 8 x 10 drawing paper, something on hand that will run through my printer and need minimal trimming for what I need for the cat journal. The red one is slightly bigger and I'm still working out what paper to use.

I truly thought I could get these done in a week. If I were only making one, no problem; I sort of forgot that two would take longer. I also didn't really factor in the time it would take to make 4 signatures - 2 for each journal. As I finished up the outsides, I had that same sinking feeling I get after I finish the quilting on a quilt - elation at being done, then despondency when remembering there's still binding to do. There's still a lot of fiddling left to make the signatures but I've picked out cover papers and know what size the signatures need to be for each. Just have to get down to it and not dawdle. I gave myself enough lead time that I think I'll still meet my deadline. 

Not Exactly Flying

When I queued up the tutorial video for the crochet cardigan, I found myself watching a young and perky gal so excited about this pattern and promising that "it will fly off your hook!" Well, I'm not finding that to be true (although there's a lot of slipping off the hook - more about that later). Here's my progress this week, which has been slow. There's a lot of counting, which limits the kind of tv show I can have on while I work. I've already had to do a fix at the end of a row so I didn't have to undo two rows of crocheting, and undo a different row where I'd put a stitch in the wrong place near the beginning which threw off where the final stitches would land. I'm not flying (although one thing about crochet - those stitches really do fly when you're undoing them), and I'm not exactly enjoying the journey.

Add to that the difficulty of working with the slick yarn whose twisted threads don't really stick to each other making it way too easy to snag one as the hook is pulled through or even find the hook splitting the strand altogether. Slow going but I persist. There are many 4 row repeats left to go on this back section. I've only managed 3 so far.

Not having a great deal more success with the quilting on Venetian Tiles. I finished the 1/2" echoing inside the half blocks around the outside, all done with a walking foot. Moving on to the small "cornerstone" squares, I was reticent to give up my walking foot and slowly worked my way around 4 of the 9 squares' fabric motifs. No, you cannot see the stitching very well, as I wanted, but because I used Thermore batting, I'm not getting much texture either. I'm wishing I'd used something with more loft. The more I studied the different squares that were left, the more I realized I'd need to get rid of my "training wheels" and switch to free motion quilting. Not my finest hour as I quilted a fifth square, but again, it doesn't really show.. I'm planning on switching thread color on the final four so before doing that, I moved to one of the big octagon blocks, again studying the motifs to determine the best routes round for minimum starting and stopping. Not exactly flying on this one either but slow and steady wins the race I guess. And of course, the more I do, the more relaxed and better I'll get.

Continuing spring reporting, my side of the street is lined with chokecherry trees that burst into bloom last week.

They have a sweet smell that hit me as soon as I opened the front door. I just love them. Apologies for the blurry pic - it was quite breezy when I tried to get this close-up shot. I also noticed a lilac bush in bloom, another sweet smelling flower that strikes me as coming out a bit early this year. I'm sure the Lilac Festival organizers and participants are a bit worried as the parade isn't until next weekend.