Making a Book

Hello Gentle Readers, Here, true autumn weather comes and goes. Weather- wise, Saturday, with a 95 degree high and very windy conditions, was miserable. I spent the day indoors because of allergy symptoms. In a nearby county, rural firefighters fight grass fires. Sunday and Monday temps were more like October. Monday I went out early to a dentist appointment and wore jeans, long sleeves, and a cotton cardigan. The morning air was crisp if dusty.

Today I link with Kat and the Wednesday Unravelers to post about knitting/making and reading. This week I finished a book-making project that began in June. Sometimes I make small chapbooks of my finished poems but this book was a more involved project. The instructions for the binding in this project are adapted from Cover to Cover: Creative Techniques for Making Beautiful Books, Journals, and Albums. There are many how-to books and online resources for bookmaking, I find this one useful.   

After making a cloth pouch in the slow stitch style, I was inspired by k3n cloth tales to make small hand-stitched piece to go with a poem I shared here in April. I enjoyed the stitching so I made more pieces to go with other poems in a collection about the Prairie. 

Several pieces, such as the blue feather, are designs by Kathryn of cloth tales. Others like the pinwheel and the prairie above are my own. I stitched the finished pieces onto the page by stitching along the top with quilting thread. I wanted to be able to see the wrong sides. To me, they are as interesting as the right sides. 

There are ten poems with ten pieces of stitching in this little book. I used materials I had on hand. The pages were leftover from a package of blank cards I used to make birthday cards for my grandchildren. The covers are made from cardboard from the backs of writing paper tablets covered with fabric. The spine is created with ribbon and pearl cotton embroidery thread. The ribbons extend about the same length on the back of the book. I am pleased with it, imperfections and all. 

As for reading, I am listening to The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez. As you might guess from the title, the novel is about storytelling. The main character is a writer who is ready to retire but has boxes of unfinished work. She goes back to her homeland, the Dominican Republic, to literally bury those stories. The narrator is excellent. The metaphors and themes about stories in this novel would make an interesting book group discussion. I'm enjoying the audiobook. 

I am chugging along with The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women's Lives, 1660-1900 by Barbara Burman. Some of this nonfiction is interesting but it could have been better edited. Some of the text seems repetitious so I skimmed a few sections. As an aside, the print in my paperback copy is quite small. That may have been a budgeting consideration, especially with the number of photographs.   

We delivered our mail-in ballots to the office of the Election Commission yesterday. I'm preaching to the choir, but please Vote. In this crazy season, I hope you are well and safe.