My book. Mine. Mine. Mine.

Well, not mine but I like it :-)

Struggled with it for about 3 hours, just for the stitching. There are no signature covers here 'cos I thought it would clash for attention so it's just plain white acid-free pages. 9 signatures with 7 folios give 252 sides.

I'll need to work on the horizontal lines. It's a good thing that this variegated thread is very bold against the white and covers so the letters are rather striking. Given my original choice of rose coloured thread, I don't think it would be as nice.

Have a blessed evening!

Becoming a bookworm

Usually, I bind books in stages, preparing a few books rather than complete one then start making another. Maybe I might do that some day but not now, not when I'm rushing to complete as many before Term 2 starts. 

Stage 1: cut up the board into smaller sizes, usually slightly larger than A5 or A6. I used to use 900gsm greyboards but now I've started using 1000gsm whiteboards. These white boards are easier when the fabric is light coloured and the background of the backing board matters.

Stage 2: prepare the parts of the book - the covers for the covers (LOL!), the pages, signature covers, charms etc. The covers (fabric or paper) also needs to be cut and glued onto the boards.

Stage 3: While the glue dries, I fold and cut paper into the right size, print lines if I need to. This part is quite monotonous and sometimes I do this while watching Criminal Minds or some other show to distract me.

Stage 4: The outside of the cover done, I'll need to do the insides of the cover. This is either a fly page or patterned paper covering the board on the other side. Glue goes on and I wait again.

Stage 5: Sometimes I press the boards after they're dry.

Stage 6: Decide on stitching pattern, draft if necessary.

Stage 7: Find thread and wax it. I've used polyester, cotton and linen. I like linen for it's strength, cotton for the colours. I don't think I'll use polyester anymore, now that I've found linen and cotton threads.

Stage 8: Poke holes in the cover (and flypage, if there is) and pages.

Stage 9: Sew. Attach charm, perhaps?

Stage 10: Press. Sometimes I press for a few days.

Well, there you have it. Bookbinding in a nutshell.

I'm toying with a series of bookbinding classes for the June holidays but let's see how things go in term 2 first. 

Covers: Wilmington's Bunny's Day Out fabric (front), faux suede (back), 1000gsm whiteboard
Pages: 80gsm, 2 shades of green, acid-free, 8 signatures of 10 folios, 320 sides. Unlined
Stitch: 7-hole coptic
Thread: waxed cotton, variegated green
Size: A5

Covers: Lecien's Happy Chihuahua fabric, 900gsm greyboard, 120gsm endpapers
Pages: 80gsm, 2 shades of blue, acid-free, 7 signatures of 10 folios, 280 sides. Unlined
Stitch: woven longstitch, kettle
Thread: waxed cotton, variegated blue
Size: A5

Covers: Wilmington's Bunny's Day Out fabric (front), faux suede (back), 1000gsm whiteboard
Pages: 80gsm, 2 shades of green, acid-free, 7 signatures of 10 folios, 280 sides. Unlined
Stitch: 7-hole coptic
Thread: waxed cotton, variegated green
Size: A5

Covers: Pattern paper, 900gsm greyboard, 120gsm fly pages
Pages: 80gsm, white, acid-free, 7 signatures of 10 folios with signature covers, 280 sides. Unlined
Stitch: 7-hole single needle coptic
Thread: waxed linen, 4-ply, Robin's egg blue
Size: A5

Covers: Korean quilting cotton, 1000gsm whiteboard, 160gsm flypages
Pages: 80gsm, 2 shades of green, acid-free, 8 signatures of 10 folios, 320 sides. Unlined
Stitch: criss-cross kettle/Coptic
Thread: waxed cotton, variegated green
Size: A5

Covers: Laminated pattern print, 900gsm greyeboard
Pages: 80gsm, white (one book) / rose (other book), acid-free, 8 signatures of 10 folios with signature covers, 320 sides. Unlined
Stitch: Coptic, Roman links
Thread: waxed linen, dark chocolate
Size: A6

Covers: Laminated pattern print, 900gsm greyeboard
Pages: 80gsm, white, acid-free, 8 signatures of 10 folios with signature covers, 320 sides. Unlined
Stitch: Coptic, Roman links
Thread: waxed cotton, variegated brown
Size: A5

Have a blessed evening!

Sneak : quilted journals

Yup, another Pixlr-ed picture. It's fun :-)

These are 3 quilted journals in various stages of completion.

Top: just need to attach the two metal snaps

Middle: quilting done, waiting other side of cover, paper, stitching and snaps

Bottom: everything except for cutting the fabric, LOL!

Have a blessed day!

Back to school

T'was a long CNY break, wasn't it? :-)

Made these before and during the break. The studs are those with the claws, not the iron on type. Each stud has 4 claws and I used many here :-( Wasn't easy bending the claws back. The journal was fun. This was done without the end-pages that's why there's only a single line out on the cover at each hole. I think the next time I do this I'll use double. Or maybe I'll just stick to end-pages.

Have a blessed day!

Pretty in pink

What's your favourite colour? DS' red, DD's green. My three nieces like pink, purple and blue. I like yellow. I think I read somewhere that blue is the most liked colour.

Anyway, these 2 are pink. Bit of overload on pink, don't you think? I opted out of total pink pages. What you see are just the signature cover pages. It's white inside...*phew*, LOL! 7-hole coptic bound hardcover journals made from acid-free papers.

Have a blessed day!

Purple Pastels

DS thought I bought these *grin*!

I have this collection of papers of pinks and purples that are so pretty. Initially I thought the purple hearts in front would be too plain but it turned out just right. Paired with the flowers, the combination just looks so delicate. I don't have thick plain purple paper for the inside of the covers so I just decided to use the back paper for the front cover and vice versa. DD suggested rounding the corners which I think gives it a more brought-together look altogether. Also, this time, I thought I would take the easy way out and wire-bind them but I've yet to master the hole-punching and that's why, if you see closely, one book has 11 holes while the other has 10, LOL!

I can't decide what to do today....sew or bind. Maybe I'll do both :-)

Have a blessed day!
ps: I've not forgotten your orders, don't worry. I just like to optimize the inspiration and mood when it comes and do something different. Thanks for your patience!

First two

These are the first two books of this year, I think. It's been a long while since I've made a hardcover journal and this time I decided to have mismatched covers. Well, almost. I have another 3 on the way so you might see what I mean when I post the pics. I especially like the blue one. The blue sky contrasts with the dark blue denim print of the back cover. I thinking that I like the back cover more, LOL!

Made with acid free papers (except the ladybug paper). White papers are from sustainable forests. 192 pages, 6 signatures, 7-hole, coptic bound.

Have a blessed day!

All covered up

Three quilted book covers for this Friday’s bookbinding class.

Princess print is from Timeless Treasures, doggy one from Makower. I can’t find the selvedge for the kitty in the cinema print :-(.

Thing is, the first thing I do when I get a piece of fabric is to cut off the selvedge. Be it a fat quarter or few yards long. I salvage selvedges to make one-of-a-kind items. :-)

Anyway, this is a quick post ‘cos I have other covers to rush out for this Friday’s class.

Have a blessed evening!

 

Update: another 4 covers almost done. Will do the metal snaps tomorrow….off to play Spiral Knights with DS and DD now.

Good evening!

Square dance

DD asked me the other day why I didn’t make any A5 notebooks or journals. I’ve been making a series of A6 ones in preparation for the KKH bazaar in October and got carried away. I’ve made A5 ones before but they were hardcover ones and I wasn’t in the hardcover kind of mood. Folding paper can be therapeutic but there’s a limit to that monotonous cut, fold, slot cycle. So I wondered about what DD said till I chanced upon a stack of used exercise books :-).

After ripping off the covers and collecting empty pages, I ended up with a sizeable stack of paper. Along with these, I kept some pages that had kiddy scibblings by both DS and DD. My memories!

The cover was pieced together using 8 5” charms from the Whirlwind Romance Blush collection and quilted. Another 4 were used for the pockets inside.

I pierced additional holes into the 8 signatures and sewed them unto the spine using the criss-cross longstitch with silver thread that matches the 2 silver ribbon page markers.

The salvaged square paper was arranged from largest to smallest, just like how DS and DD bought smaller and smaller sized square exercise books as they grew older.

 

BTW, It took me an hour just to sew these signatures. I knew ‘cos that was how long DD’s swiming lesson was. LOL! Final touch were the 2 deliberately mis-matched metal snaps placed just so, for effect.

This is definitely not for sale. Just thought I’d like to share with you. Do you have any memories you want to hold on to? *grin*

Have a blessed day!

ps:

charm = 5” square

layer cake = 10” square

fat quarter = quarter of a yard, about 18” x 25”

jelly roll = 2.5” strips, length is width of fabric

honeybun = 1” strips

Booked

I made these on a whim, inspired by fabrics that arrived recently from US and Korea. Brightly coloured and coordinating quilting fabric made from super combed cotton. Some of the Timeless Treasures prints are cute to boot. Alas, I’m running out the 7oz interfacing so I have limited quantities of these on hand. Until then, feast your eyes on these

Each of these have a machine-quilted cover and lined with coordinating or contrasting fabric. Some have page markers with beads attached. All have 6 signatures of 8 folios giving a total of 128 pages that are stitched to the spine using criss-cross longstitch. Some have coordinating coloured paper inside. Two metal snaps keep the flap closed and prevents dog ears. Can you spot the camouflaged snaps?
I didn’t take many pics of these ‘cos I intended to bring them to the KKH bazaar on 18 Oct. If you’d like to know more, just send me an email.
Have a blessed day!
ps: If you wish to learn how to replace the paper when you’ve filled all the pages with your writing or doodling, you can either purchase a PDF copy of the tutorial of how I made these and do it yourself, else we can arrange a class at the current going rate of S$10/hr for a maximum of 3 persons, materials excluded.

And the bunny hopped away

Well, not really. DD claimed it.

Remember this Wilmington print of Bunny's Day Out? I centred one of the uber-cute pics of the bunnies on the cover of this journal. This is the first one that has the front flap overlapping so that the pic will not be obscured. I quilted it a bit, partially to frame the bunnies, partially to add some texturing detail. (Hmm, at this moment I just realised that I forgot to take a pic of the spine, but you can imagine it, ya?) Bright lime green gingham on the inside with alternating signatures of green and blue paper stitched to the spine using criss-cross longstitch. This time, I added beads to the page marker. The metal snaps were chosen by DD to 'blend' in with the picture.
Have a blessed rainy morning!

Green thumbs

More than a month ago, I chanced upon a very pretty garden at the foot of a HDB block in Choa Chu Kang. It was a public area but tended with TLC by a resident. It was evident that a lot of effort went into the maintenance of this place with the myriad of flowers and even a fruiting olive tree. After admiring and asking lots of questions, he let me pluck some seeds to bring back and told me to go back in a few months for the orange colour flowers that had yet to bloom.

DD planted them a few days after I came back with the seeds. We waited and waited. Nothing sprouted. We waited some more, nothing. One fine day, I decided to water more freuquently than usual and the seedlings came! This is the 9th and the latest.

 Made these 2 today, in between weeding the seedlings and other distractions.

This is all green. Green exterior, green lining, green stitching (well, at least the ones on the spine), green deliberately-mismatched metal snaps, green paper and green page marker. I machine quilted the cover for fun :-)

I think I have more than 4 colour combinations of this linen print. This is the pink version. An older post shows the green version. Maybe I'll make a series :-) Criss-cross longstitched six signatures of paper from sustainable forests.
Have a blessed day!

Go green!

I used to cut selvedge and throw them away. Then, I thought they interfered with the hand of the fabric. Hand, as in the floppiness. Selvedges are stiffer than the main body and have a different print or are white. I can't remember when I started collecting them. I have about 2 shoeboxes full now. Precious commodities, these are. A whole yard of fabric only yields 2 yards of selvedges and sometimes only 1 side has the colour windows. I think the most colour windows I have for a fabric is 21. Will show you someday, if I can find it. From Yuwa, I think?

That was the before. The selvedges that DD picked out. Green ones, of course. More than what I had in mind, but it's ok. Maybe one day I'll sort my selvedge stash. Not now.

 Sewed the strips onto calico based on DD's arrangement. Lining was chosen by her. Ditto the metal snaps. There are 6 signatures this time for 2 reasons; firstly 'cos this is a larger cover compared to the earlier notebook and 'cos DD journals a lot. Just checked that there isn't enough slack for 2 more signatures. These were sewn using criss-cross longstitch so the signatures must be paired.
DS says it's too thick. I don't think so. I like it like that. DD too. What about you?
Have a blessed day!
Afternote: 
Made another one in pink with four signatures.

After the afternote: Made yet another one.

Sore fingers

I made another notebook using the PP sheet as a cover. I like it that it's a nice translucent white which shows of the colours of the pages inside and that it's strong enough to protect the papers inside. No doggy ears here. However, due to it's thickness of 0.75mm, I have a hard time poking the needle through even after punching the holes with an awl. DS likes this notebook and says it's nicer than some that I've made, but I think I'll stop here for a while.

Six signatures of greens, blues and purple covers of plain 5mm grids. Each cross has 4 holes and there are a total of 18 crosses giving 72 holes. I like the effect on the spine :-)
Have a blessed day!

Day of His power!

Will you be going later?
Day of His power (a lovesingapore concert prayer) will be at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, 7.30pm this evening.

Have a blessed evening!

Two to go

I snack a lot. Sometimes too much. I like pearly soya from Selegie, doughnut holes (??) from Four Leaves, youtiao dipped in cold soya from Rochor, Ruffles and I think I'd better stop here, LOL!

Two coptic bound A6 notebooks with sweet treats hardcover. Seven folios in 4 signatures giving a total of 56 pages.
Have a blessed day!

Adding walnuts

Have you baked before? I've baked using premixes as well as measuring ingredients from scratch. Premixes are very convenient since the other stuff that you need to add are readily available as compared to, eg. blueberries. Water, oil and eggs for brownies. I like to add walnuts for a crunchy brownie but both DS and DD don't like. Can you imagine a tray of brownies, baked with one half having walnuts and the other without?
Made this book for myself to record the recipes of dishes I've cooked. Meant for DS and DD. While they can cook a meal if the raw stuff is prepared for them, they improvise when unsupervised. LOL!

My sis called me a karang guni when I started collecting boxes. I snagged this box from my niece one evening when she started baking brownies. See the food stain at the top right hand corner? LOL!

900gsm greyboard reinforced Fudge Brownies box. 9 signatures with variant number of folios giving lots and lots of pages. Bound using longstitch so I can keep the side of the brownie box intact.
What are you recording for your kids?
Have a blessed day!

Taking notes

I used to enjoy taking notes during lessons, writing in longhand with felt-tipped pens in various colours to highlight the different points. I doodled when I was distracted, or wrote almost verbatim when I wasn't. It was really fun then to fill up pages and pages of fullscap with notes. At that time, I drew more joy in having a stack of neatly written and colourful notes than having a complete set of notes for their contents. Of course, it helped during revision that I could read what I wrote.
If you're a student, I strongly encourage you to take notes. It helps with rentention of what the teacher has said and keeps you focused on the topic. You can even practice your handwriting, whether the speed or the neatness. You'll even get new friends who'll want to borrow your notes.

I've been busy the past week with these notebooks. All hardcover coptic bound notebooks with a mixture of white and coloured pages. You can't see it from this pic, but I like the book on top in bottom right pic. This group has pictures of patiserrie cakes that are so pretty, like a menu. Printed paper is from Tang's Art, if you're wondering.
Have a blessed day!

Everybody look to your left, everybody look to your right

I have dual updates, here on the blog and on facebook. They are different types of updates as in I type more text here while there are more pics on facebook. Recently, Blogger's been giving me some problems in that I can't update so the facebook entry is more updated that Blogger though I try to be consistent.
Anyway, two pics of handbound notebooks again.
This is my first handbound hardcover journal. Many places for improvement but I'm happy with the overall result. Made from 900g grey board which I cut to size and covered with patterned paper. Added lime green fly leaves for a brighter look. 5 signatures of 10 folios for a total of 200 pages cut out from 132 column printer paper. This stack of paper I 'rescued' from a pile that was doomed to be burnt. Left the perforated edges as a reminder to go green and reduce, reuse, recycle.

More updates on sewing next week! Have a blessed weekend :-)

Coptic, codex or stabbing?

New terms which make my heart beat a little faster these days.... these are types of book bindings that I want to try.

Something old, something new. I came across these 2 while spring-cleaning... the really old A4 sheets which have turned brown and the new wrapping paper from Watson's leftover from Christmas last year (well, almost new). Three signatures with total of 14 sheets for this A6 size notebook. Sewn with coptic stich so that the pages will open flat.
Have a blessed day!

Afternote:
Made another one this morning... hands itching to make another :-)

Upcycled cover from DS and DD's favourite biscuit that's baked and not fried. Five signatures of 5 sheets each (1 green and 4 white). Coptic-stitched so that the book can be opened flat. Slightly smaller than A5 size to fit the cover.
And another.... not addicted to it but close :-)

I'd better stop now :-)