Little Books

 It's been a while since I've been to a meeting of Thames Valley Contemporary Quilt Group and I've really missed it. How it's grown over the last 2 years!An excellent session on making books with Margaret Cooter (who's doing an MA in Book Arts at Camberwell ) and a brainstorm on forthcoming exhibition at Slough Museum. In the morning we made folded  'secret' and 'flutter'  books

 And in the afternoon we made examples of stitched pamphlet and stab -stitched books.

 I was particularly taken with the wrapped pamphlet - the cover offering more structure and protection as well as hiding the stitching!!I've already had a go at the stitched pamphlet format to make  watercolour sketchbooks as I couldn't buy ones I liked. I either glued on a backing (wasting a couple of pages in the process) or stitched it into a leather cover as for my Tunisian Journal.Putting  a cover on in  the way we were shown opens up all kinds of possibilities.

 It also made me think about getting down to changing the paper in the Moleskine Cahier supplied for the Sketchbook Project. I did a trial run replacing the horrid thin paper with decent cartridge (actually the contents of the leather journal I'd re-filled  with watercolour paper! ) Worked pretty well apart from the rounded corners but I've got a punch for that now! My theme is 'Inside, Outside' and I made a rough start with consideration of vegetables!!