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. 

In Praise of Play

Austin Kleon is primarily a writer but he also has certain daily rituals that on the surface look like they have nothing to do with writing. He draws, he puts together mix tapes for himself, he collages. The above is his response to a reader who asked, “How do you balance making fun stuff with doing business? Do you allocate time to simpl[y] make ‘pointless’ things?” (See post here.) This caught my eye because you could say the majority of my creative journey has been being serious about what I was working on and resisting play that felt "pointless" or at least a bit of a waste of time. Yet I have had to admit a time or too when play resulted in something better when applied to a "serious" work. It's probably safe to say that very little play is wasted time.

With that in mind, I was compelled to run the above photo through a palette generator. It's been quite awhile since I've used this tool which can be revealing or frustrating. The photo is from a series taken by Jay Stotts who lives in my area and posts on Facebook. I was immediately drawn in by the palette, thinking it would make a wonderful quilt of peachy fabrics mixed with browns and greys featuring pops of red. 

Well, my eyes see differently from the palette generators; I tried half a dozen (eschewing any with AI) with varying results, most giving me a palette of colors I didn't recognize as being in the photo. Most did not pick up any of the yellow unless I upped the number of colors to the max. The two above are from colorkit.co and colordesigner.io

I tried a different photo and ran it through CSSdrive.com, which I'd used a long time ago. Where'd all the peach go? 

Another try with yet another photo and palette generator, coolors.com. This one works a bit differently from the others I tried in that you can move those circles superimposed over my photo to alter what is getting picked up for your palette. Still, I wasn't getting what I thought I was seeing. Might try working with this some more.

This palette provided by colorpalette.imageonline.co using the solo bird photo above finally gave me the peachiness I was craving and the pop of red but still missed the brighter yellow. Still, I like the first six colors as a possible palette for a quilt.

But for all the time I spent on this, I couldn't help thinking I might have spent the time better and more satisfyingly rooting around in my stash with photo in hand.

View From My Back Deck

Well look at that! We'd gotten a dusting of snow the night before but I thought yesterday was supposed to be rainy. 

It snowed lightly all day but with not much accumulating - only a couple of inches. Definitely helped put me in the mood to finish up writing on Christmas cards.

But today it has warmed with gusting winds. All this is melted off the trees, roads and lawns. Beautiful while it lasted.

Can you believe it? My deck plants are hanging in there still! On closer inspections, I can see that the local deer that pass through have nibbled some leaves off the geranium but otherwise it is holding up.

I think it may be because we haven't really had a hard freeze yet. Just chuckle at that lovely yellow snapdragon bloom.

Still dawdling on sewing together my sweater but did get as far as to realize that these quilting clips might be perfect for holding the sections together as I sew. I may have to get another package because these are working great. With most of my holiday preparations taken care of, I think I can convince myself to focus on finishing this up now.

How are your holiday preparations going?

One and (Not) Done

I started last week with unusual vigor, and when I sat down to do my usual checks on the internet, I instead found myself pulling things out of the center cubby of my roll top desk. There are smaller cubbies on either side that are fine in terms of being organized, but this larger one is where I tend to toss papers I think I will want to reference soon or just don't know what to do with yet. It always gets totally out of hand and gets searched through throughout the year without ever really doing anything about the pile. Not this day. Out came everything, including 2 years' worth of Christmas cards (I always hold some back thinking I will answer them before the next Christmas rolls around but rarely do), a paper clipped group of recipes from magazines (I have no idea why I put them there), and various papers that could either be filed or tossed. In the process, the fountain pen I'd been looking for I think 2 years emerged; I must have tossed it up there with something too and it had rolled to the back and down near the bottom of the stack. I know I looked for it several times in that cubby, lifting up papers from the front but probably just burying it further. Anyway, excited to have it back. Then I attacked the corner of the writing area where I had let those insurance "explanation of benefits", prescription labels and paid medical statements pile up, waiting for me to match them up and file them. Well look at that - a clean desk and my first organizing of the year done.

Also one and (not) done, the first sock of the pair from the grey wool. I actually knitted into the wee hours of New Year's Day to finish them, only to find the instructions for binding off merely saying to do it with a sewn bind off. A sewn bind off? What is that? While these directions did include illustrations of how to cast on and decrease/increase, it assumed I'd know how to do a sewn bind off. Luckily, when I first got interested in knitting socks, I invested in a book that absolutely has everything you need to know about knitting socks, all the different methods and stitches, and then patterns to try them out. I did a quick check and yes, it had instructions for a sewn bind off, but it was way to late for me to absorb the method. Another day, a study of the method, and I quickly finished off this first sock. It really is an easy and nifty bind off for the top of a ribbed sock. Speaking of ribs, I realize that the sock looks a little weird, but that's the 2 x 2 ribbing which stretches out when on the foot, keeping them snug all the way up past the ankle without being too tight. That bodes well for the knee high version which I just may try. It's a good fit though maybe a tad long heel to toe, but I think blocking will made it all better. I've started on sock two, having the same struggle with that different cast-on and the first few inches of increases. I may have done a better job than on the first sock which has a curious lump of knitting under the middle toes and a few holes I need to sew up. Anxious to get past the increases and on to the ribbing pattern.

Do you remember the Celtic Weave handmade book from August? I intended to add a few things to the pages before gifting it to my niece who has been researching her Irish heritage and making a few sojourns to Ireland. Plenty of time, I told myself as I set it aside to work on other things. And then not plenty of time as I realized it would be a Christmas gift and Christmas was almost here. So that week before Christmas, I got busy, cutting out the stained glass images of a Celtic design that repeatedly showed up in catalogs. I'd been tossing them in the bin of ephemera for art journaling/mixed media and now they had a home. The signature papers are off-white while the Celtic design had a white background, so I used an X-acto knife to cut away the white within the design. I've been wanting to try the Artist-tac adhesive that is especially made for open designs like lace or doilies; instead of a solid sheet of adhesive, it has dots of adhesive. Here's the video where I found out about this product and shows it in action as well as Art Graf's Double tack which I used to adhere a large print out instead of glue so there'd be no wrinkling. Both product worked great.

The book has 8 inner signatures and I had just enough of these Celtic designs to place one on the first page of each of those signatures.

I also wanted to add a couple of Irish Blessings and decided to invest in a wood stencil designed for drawing evenly spaced lines on a page. Oh, where have you been all my life? I found this one on Etsy and decided that even though a little more expensive than some of the plastic ones for sale, it would be worth it and I think I was right. Here I've drawn the lines in pencil and they were erased after I finished writing. The finished book is now in the hands of my niece and she is delighted with it. Call that a finish for 2023. On to 2024 projects whatever they may be!

Another Book Challenge & Some #INKtober Sketches

Last week was busy, and not a bit of pink abstract challenge in sight! Instead, I tried my best to keep up with my bookclub's latest open to the public challenge, this one called 5 Day Gratitude Journal Challenge. I watched the promo video and was feeling a little lukewarm about it as it is another coptic binding and I wasn't feeling the need for a gratitude journal. However, I was quite intrigued by the pockets it included and thought about a friend who might enjoy receiving such a journal. Those pockets needed a rather large piece of paper and many were using gift wrap for them so I looked through my box of wrapping paper and was surprised to find not only the book of William Morris Designs wrapping paper but also some pretty National Wildlife Federation papers, both which I had totally forgotten that I had. Signature wrappers were also called for and I had some blank butterfly cards I thought I could use. As I gathered them up, I also ran across things I'd not known what to do with but didn't want to toss that would fit into those pockets. Suddenly I was all in to make this book!

First order of business was to make those pocket wrappers. I cut one sheet of wrapping paper and did a trial run. Easy enough with a few folds, and although I didn't have time to make the other three on Day one, I did pick out a different design for each of the rest of them. Day one instructions finished the following day.

 

Only one day behind (which as these challenges generally go for me was really good), Day 2 instructions were for preparing the signatures which required some cutting down of 9 x 12 drawing paper to 6 x 12 for 6" signatures when folded. We were also encouraged to use pages from magazines as signature wrappers and interspersed within each signature. I used the greeting cards as my wrappers, trimming a little off top and bottom to fit and it not mattering that they weren't as wide as the signatures.

As for the interspersed magazine pages, also cut down to fit, I chose some pages of different paintings out of The Magazine Antiques. Some I put between pages, others I placed in the center of the signature. Like the greeting card wrappers, they did not need to span the entire page and the ones between pages of a signature did not even have to be folded down the middle - an example of that later.

Under weights those signatures went, and cutting bookboard was next. I really don't like cutting bookboard. It is a long and arduous process and by the time I got two cut, I was out of steam to cover them. I cut the pieces of cover paper and end papers to size as well as sorting through my ribbon stash to choose one for the closure before calling it quits for the day. Getting just a little more behind but got the gluing done the next day. Took the signatures out from under the weights, wrapped the covers in waxed paper and put them under the weights. Honestly thought I'd punch the sewing holes in those signatures before quitting for the day but again, discovered I'd run out of steam.

There's an instruction video for each day's assignment, only ten to fifteen minutes long but invaluable, so I'd been doing that too. On this next day it was time to make the punching template, another quick and simple process but that is all I did. Definitely slowing down! Then nothing on the day after, except I did spend time tracking down directions on-line for how to set my Crop-a-dile up for inserting eyelets. I'd bought one with a coupon once I'd seen members of the club using one to punch holes in bookboard and insert eyelets. I bought some eyelets, although of the larger size of hole it makes although I really wanted the smaller one. I'd used it a few times to punch holes in leather but that was about it. And in the process, I'd misplaced the directions - they are SOMEWHERE on my worktable, I'm sure! Anyway, having familiarized myself with its workings and getting it set up for my eyelets, I called it a day.

Now it was Monday, with the 5 days of the challenge having ended on Friday. Time to get to work. I'd been worrying about durability of the gift wrap on the covers (plus I'd experienced the same issue with wrinkles as I did the last time I used this type of paper), and decided I wanted to put a coat of acrylic varnish over at least the outsides. Once that dried, I took a big breath and punched the sewing holes in the cover and added the eyelets. I've been told that one can get eyelets with a longer shaft that will work better through the thickness of the bookboard, but of coarse I hadn't bought that kind of eyelet. And as others experienced, there was a splitting of the shank on the back, which by the way, the company warns about. I used my trusty tack hammer to beat down the rough edges. And today, I sewed the book together, with little problem. The too large eyelet holes turned out not to be an issue. A white thread would have shown off the stitches more but I rather like the blue.

Click on the photo to see the eyelets

A ribbon closure is a good choice for this kind of book. Not only is it already a little chunky because of those pockets, it will get fuller as things are added to those pockets and perhaps glued to blank pages, so it is starting out not closing flat (although not springing open as much as I feared since I tend to pull my stitches pretty tight) and will need the flexibility of a ribbon closure as I work in it. Because, once I started collecting things and found that William Morris paper, I fully embraced this book and everything about it and am excited to fill it not only with things relating to the gratitude theme, but also things I love and favorite memories. As for the friend who I originally thought I'd be making this for? I've already got some papers picked out for making a second one for her.

A look at the inside of front cover and back of pocket wrapper and how the pocket wrappers look side by side.

Here's an example of a magazine page that had a painting on each side. It is folded off-center and placed between pages of a signature.

And this is the part of it you see when you get to that page on the other side of the center fold. None of these magazine pages are glued down.

And finally, in the center of the last signature, I bound in this lovely handmade card from Jan in Wyoming which she sent to me after my back surgery. I'd been wondering where I could put it other than the top of my desk and this was perfect, certainly a reminder of a friendship to be grateful for.

As for #INKtober, I did think to skip it, what with these challenges to attend to. But flipping through the sketchbook I've been using for them, I decided it is such a good practice that if I keep each day's sketch quick, I could include it too. I even printed off the official prompts for this year, but then decided I wasn't that keen on a lot of them. Instead, I've reverted to a practice I was introduced to by one of the Sketchbook Revival teachers where you keep a daily diary by sketching an activity of the day. I am finding this so fun and so far, the self-made prompts have been easy to come by. That first one got me off to a rocky start, but each day seems to get a bit better. The eye needs training!