new books

It's been awhile, but here are some books I made recently:


Covers are chiyogami and nepalese papers and the inside covers are the matching coloured kozo; the ribbons matched as well, instead of the contrasting colours I wanted to use (so everything is very monotone-ish). The books are approximately 5" x 7".

I have more (I've been playing around with cover ideas), but I never get around to taking photos when there's enough light outside.

bookbinding II: day 1 - 3

(Sigh, Flickr is giving me all kinds of guff. I have no idea what I have done to my computer for it to hate me. Anyway...!)

Last week I was occupied by the Bookbinding II course. Six whole days! It was pretty tough. But you know how it is.

I discovered my new favourite piece of equipment: the plough. It's used to trim text blocks. I was uncharacteristically patient when using it and ended up with straight edges! (I think I cut, like, 1 page at a time, which is a bit ridiculous, but I didn't want to rip my book!)


Speaking of which... that book had a real text block. It's so nerve wracking to sew a real text block. If you make a mistake on one section you can't just swap it out, because IT'S A REAL BOOK. Well, I may or may not have made a few extra holes in it when I sewed the end bands on (real end bands! Exciting!!) Sigh.


Oh, we had an official bookbinding mascot the whole week: Paddy. She greeted us each morning (trying to sniff out food in our bags) when we arrived in the studio and was most interested in us during lunch time. Her eyes never left our food. Chocolate is not for dogs, Paddy! (Even if you look hilarious with your jaunty scarf.)

cbbag

I'm a member of cbbag now! (Well, since March, and it's a one year membership.)


I made these books during Bookbinding 1 in March (I might as well learn how to do everything again the right way):



And a couple of books I made a few days ago as gifts (case binding is great, but I'm still partial to exposed spines):

j'ai fini

(By the end of it I was almost je suis fini.)

I finally finished this skirt. I had to adjust the pattern so that it was one size smaller. I made the tab approximately the width of the waistband (just because). And I decided to go with the machine embroidery detail rather than a button (I was going to make a fabric covered button out of the lining fabric, but I love x's. Although, it was hard to line up those two rows of dense zig zag stitching...) I used an invisible zipper instead of a regular zipper (would've had to make it a concealed zipper and that's just too much work - not to mention bulky-ish.) Check out the middle pocket! I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle all the under stitching and edge stitching and tailor's tape (since it's like two side seam pockets in one. And like a tube), but it worked. The pocket lining and tab details are my favourite parts.




Yeah!

the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

I can't believe it took me so long to finally read this book. It is fantastic! I need to read the whole trilogy (of five books).


I really like this line on page 177 for some reason.

(Also, it's funny that this book was lent to me by someone whose house is going to be "bulldozed" for highway construction. Nice!)

concerts

Remember when I used to take photos at concerts? Me either! It's been too long. A few of my feeble attempts earlier this month are below. (Mostly grainy, but what can you do.) I managed to, uh, get my camera in for the lc! concert, but that's only because I was wearing a winter coat. I don't know what I'll do when I don't have a coat! GC! promised a photo pass next time, but the kids aren't too reliable, so I'll have to think of a sneaky way to do it.

April 1st we went to see lc! at the Opera House.







The next day we went to see The Weakerthans. I didn't risk bringing my (confiscatable - is that a word?) camera to this show so I didn't get any passable photos. Boo. But it's John K being adorable, so all is right.



And look! Super cute pin we got at The John K The Weakerthans show. Yaz (and OT) would appreciate it.



The pin is on my coin purse because I can't be trusted to put pins on bags anymore. They all end up falling off :-(

paper furoshiki

My friend used a paper napkin as a furoshiki to wrap something up for me. Crazy!

poo.

It's pattern layout day and I forgot my tailor's chalk. How will I mark where my darts go?? Why did I have to go and choose a dark fabric? Sigh.

it's frakking over. and bsg inspired crafts.

So, I was totally having a one person crafting frak party all weekend. It involved watching both parts of the BSG finale and BSG inspired crafting. (The finale was simultaneously satisfying and unsatisfying. Is that possible? I don't like it when anything ends, so maybe that's part of why it was unsatisfying (Hey, I've held off watching the last couple of Six Feet Under episodes for almost a year now! I know how it ends though. Heh.), and space battles aren't really my thing (I like them well enough, but I don't need an hour of it!) Some of the character arc resolutions were a bit too brief (It felt like everything happened too quickly.) I'll probably like it better on re-watch. I was reading some comments/reviews about the finale and I laughed when some people compared the second half of the finale to The Return of the King because just when you think it's going to end it. Just. Keeps. Going. I laughed because it's true. I'm like, "Aw, it's over. Wait, there's more. Oh, now it's over. No, it's not! Godsdammit! Stop toying with my emotions!" The last three minutes, however, had shades of Steven Spielberg, which is unfortunate. You can't win them all.

Anyway! Back to crafting. This BSG inspired crafting project had been eating away at my brain for the past couple of months. The original idea was slightly different (less functional and involved more hand embroidery than I probably could have managed - I'll try it eventually), but then I discovered machine letter embroidery! (Thanks, the workroom!) The outcome of my painstaking effort is below. I originally wanted to make it dark/navy blue so it was more BSG-y, but I didn't have enough blue wool fabric. I had lots of brown though. So I decided this would be my New Caprica version (since it was all muddy and dirty there.) Although, it works perfectly as we wait for The Plan to air - commemorates the ending of BSG and reminds me that I have the movie to look forward to. Yes.

Okay, longest, rambling entry ever, sorry (I'm trying to learn how to edit the html template to insert cuts on here, but it's killing me. Maybe next time.) On to photos.


Sometimes you have to roll the hard...


Six (French knots! I was going to sew some dots on, but it didn't really match the font of the text, so I ended up doing some hand embroidery after all, which ends up being classier. This combines BSG and gambling - which, I guess, would have more to do with the original series, what with the casino planet and all. I've never watched it, I'm just saying. The quote is all New Version Adama (as far as I know.))


Yes, there are robots inside. (Is there anything this fabric can't do? It automatically makes everything classy.)

Too bad it's slightly wonky - it'll be better next time!

I have other BSG inspired crafts. But it involves books, so you can guess what that is. (I'm too lazy to take photos now...)

xfiles re-watch day (formerly st. patrick's day)

Another "holiday", another x-files re-watch day!

It just so happens that St. Patrick's Day and x-files share an official colour: green.

Look at the awesome x-files cookies*! Of course I didn't make the cookies. Yaz did, naturally. I just helped decorate. (I am particularly proud of my Fox and Dana ones - look at my awful icing penmanship! We have more ideas for our next x-files re-watch.)



Yeah, it's all right. My ass broke the fall.


Maybe his luck is the X-File.


Come on, Mulder. This guy just got lucky. There's no X-File here.

*Apologies for the awful, dark photos. x-files is the best, so these had to be posted.

furoshiki

If there was one thing I was going to make this weekend it was this furoshiki.

Although, technically speaking, I didn't actually "make" it. All I did was finish a fat quarter (which I didn't even cut since I bought it that way - yes, I'm that lazy!) with a rolled hem (which wasn't done very well, because I'm extremely impatient and I wanted to have something done after weeks of dicking around with ideas and having nothing to show for it.)

So, furoshiki it is!

interfacing

I didn't know interfacing came in black. I feel so ignorant!

Anyway, I used it (and this fabulous fabric) to make a patch to fix up my sister's coat.


In other news, I'm (still) feeling a little sore (physically and emotionally) from playing wii sports. I can't believe it thinks I'm 50. Fifty!

chocolate day, drawing fashions and frocks (or, what's in my parents' basement )

Happy post chocolate day everyone:


Guess what I did on chocolate day? That's right, I watched the X-Files. Since tomorrow is another "holiday", I will also commemorate it by watching the X-Files.

I was rummaging through my mom's fabric/sewing stuff in the basement today and I found this gem:



I don't know where she gets these things, but 83% of the time they're unintentionally hilarious. My favourite is the Summer and Afternoon Frocks:

february 8th and 9th

This blogging business is not going so well because I'm lazy. The weekend is fast approaching (in approximately 1 hour and 22 minutes) and I haven't even blogged about the last weekend yet. Anyway, enough of this nonsense.


On Sunday, I managed to go to the workroom for the Love & Rummage Trunk Show, bought a few neat things, sat around on the workroom couch for a while and took some photos.

And then OT and I walked down Queen street randomly taking (more) photos and window shopping (mostly because the stores were closed). We ended up at a Vietnamese/Chinese Restaurant for dinner.



On Monday, I was back at the workroom for the Snap Coin Purse workshop. Shown below is the fruit of my labor (trust me, there was a lot of laboring - mostly of the eye straining variety.)


And now we're all up to speed because there isn't much to say since I didn't burn any toast this week.

killer icicles and deflated logs

So... this is what I did all weekend. I watched the crazy enormous icicles at my parents' house melt (my mom was glad they were melting because she was afraid that if we went outside they would fall down on us...! I told her they would be a good booby trap for trespassers... She did not appreciate my defense of the killer icicles. I liked them!)


And then I worked on this fabric log. It's sort of a bag to hide stuff in. I think I'll make an actual cushion like this as well. I learned that I'm not very good at sewing circles when there are five layers of fabric. It's really hard. (And I may or may not have broken a needle while sewing near the zipper because I was impatient.) Anyway, it looks deflated in the photo because there's nothing in it yet. Maybe I'll get a better photo when it's actually in use. I don't know what's up with this computer screen, but my log looks like it's the same colour all over! (I'm not using my own computer at the moment, so everything looks off. Or, maybe I should just take photos in better light.) It's supposed to be darker on the "outside" (the bark part) and lighter on the "inside" (the end parts.) Well, just imagine that it looks like a real log. Except made out of fabric.

I also drilled holes in a bunch of boards for more book making good-times. I couldn't take a photo because I was using a drill. Safety first and such.

All in all, a productive weekend was had by everyone.

Of snow, boats and frostbite

Every year (since last year - it's practically tradition!) I go out in the dead of winter to take photos. I was only out for about an hour this time. I couldn't feel my fingers or toes (maybe because it was minus 20 below. Maybe.) Because my brain also suffered from frostbite, I took the scenic route home through the park instead of the main sidewalk. Bad move; nature totally didn't think I was cold enough, rewarding me with an extra helping of wind and snow in the face. But I persevered and managed to take this (dark) photo:


Take that, nature.

To keep this winter from killing me

I had all these grand crafting plans this weekend, but didn't get any of them accomplished. I did manage to alter a skirt though. What I also did was spend the weekend watching episodes of BSG. I watched the season premiere and I think my heart stopped about 37 times during the 45 minute episode. Ah.

No more! I promise.

Yeah. I'm like the crazy cat lady, but with fabric. I received an email from the workroom letting me know the robot fabric had arrived and was further tempted by this link: Erin Michael's Lush collection (the deer paint-by-numbers fabric is seen peeking out of the top and the laser engraved workroom logo on the bag. The paint palette pattern fabric is at the back of the bag; not sure if it's the matching one, but I'm going to pretend it is). I was only 20% joking when I said I would put it up on my wall. Why do I have such weak self-control?

Speaking of robots, I wish I had the Space channel right now. Boh. (I may be weak with fabric, but I will not read spoilers this time!)

'Tis the season for charity

Another book. This time it's for charity. It went for more than what I think it's worth. I guess that warms the cockles of my cold, icy heart. Just a little bit.

(Speaking of cold and icy, my mom just called to tell us to dress warmly tomorrow because it's going to be - 50 billion degrees outside. Thanks for the news mom, because I totally don't watch tv or have access to the internet (so I can check The Weather Network constantly, of course!) Oh, mom.)

Pack Rat Death Wish

At the rate I'm buying fabric now, in ten years, there will be stacks of floor to ceiling fabric that will threaten to trap me in my place. I will be reaching to pull out some fabric I bought 7 years ago that I only recently found a use for and the whole stack will come tumbling down and pin me to the ground. Weeks later, my neighbours will notice a strange odour and find me buried under all my awesome fabric. Maybe Scully will adopt my dog and name it Queequeg.


One of my new favourites. It has various talking sewing equipment. I think the scissors are telling us to cut cloth of cotton 100%. Awesome! We all need more Engrish on our fabric.

It's a new tissue case for 2009!

I really wanted to use this new fabric (bought at the same time as the robot fabric) for a larger project, but I've been thinking about making a tissue case for a few days now, so I just went ahead and used the fabric for it (I'm so ADD about larger projects these days; I keep making smaller things for instant gratification). I thought the print might've been too big for something so small, but it worked out. I ended up using a golden rod contrasting thread for the top, but now I'm thinking I should've tried to find some gold thread instead. Oh well. Better luck next time.

As is my New Year's Eve tradition, I watched the X-Files a few hours before midnight. I don't know why I do that (I wasn't even planning on watching the X-Files; It always just happens that way - is it still a tradition then?) because I always get really freaked out (I can't watch this show alone, even in broad daylight) and can't do things like go into the basement without thinking that Tooms is going to crawl out of the fucking ducts and eat my liver. Anyway, All Souls was the episode that freaked me out that night and all I could think of was Cartman was right about gingers being evil and having no souls. I think I need a new favourite TV show. No, that's a lie. I love the X-Files. The best seasons (1-5) are still better than 90% of the crap on TV today.