Want to join me?

 I have been busy in the past few days getting my samples ready for a weekend retreat I am teaching next month for the Wolverhampton Embroiderers Guild. I am looking forward to  a full on two days in the company of 16 creative women - 17 if you count me!

I have also been making samples and taking photos of books for a workshop I am going to teach later in the year. This may seem early to tell you about it but  I am so excited to be teaching a one day workshop at my friend Sue's workspace, The Yard Artspace, in Cheltenham.

 The date is set for Saturday October 15th from 10.00am to 4.00pm. I will be providing a pack for those who want it of paper, cover boards, linen thread etc for £5 which is passing on the costs as they cost me. The fee for the day will be £70 and my expectations are that everyone will go home with at least one completed book but hopefully two, plus all the knowledge needed to make many more. I don't want to mention the C word but they would make fabulous gifts for the end of the year. There's nothing better than receiving something hand  made and personal is there?

 We'll be focussing on the french link stitch either as a stand alone stitch or combined with gathering stitches and sewn over ribbons and tapes leaving a decorative exposed spine. I'll be demonstrating how to make this book with both hard and soft covers and also looking at how we can add ribbon or elastic closures.

You can see from these samples that I made last week that the covers do not have to be paper alone. I used a vintage tray cloth I had for this one above along with some hand made paper from Khadi. I also repurposed some photographic cabinet cards I had  and although it was fiddly cutting the rounded corners it is a lovely book in the hand and I shall be making more of them alongside some other samples I've been working on using  the covers of discarded vintage books. More of those later along with details of a coptic stitch workshop I am also teaching in Shropshire in April.

I hope some of you who have left comments in the past are handy to Cheltenham and want to give this a go. Anyone who is interested please e mail Sue directly from her website. Go on, do it. I promise we'll have fun.....