Postcard Coptic books (with a bit of French Link Stitch)
If you are here for the quilts I now give you permission to move along- I won't take it personally. For the past month or so I've pretty much fallen off the quilt bandwagon. I haven't done much sewing at all except the occasional bit of hand quilting. I think I got burnt out on fabric (how is that possible?). Anyway, I have been doing lots of creative stuff, just not with fabric. Today I'm going to show you these little postcard books I made last week. It all started with the little one which was a Peg and Awl kit that I found in my closet one day. I had forgotten I had it. I put it together and it was so much fun stitching on paper, that I got out one of my books on how to make books (How to Make Books by Esther K. Smith). I was immediately drawn to the Postcard Coptic Book in which the covers are made from postcards. I just happened to have a stash of postcards from past trips. I was feeling a little guilty about having so many postcards that I didn't even send to anyone, but really, this is the perfect way to use them up!
As it turns out we are going on an adventure soon- to Scotland and Holland and I needed a small journal to take with me for drawing and writing about our trip. Lo and behold, I also had postcards from Scotland where we've been before and also some Van Gogh postcards from some museum somewhere here in the US. Since we plan to go to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam I figured they would be perfect for that part of the trip.
I filled these little books with some BFK Rives paper that I've had sitting around for a long time. It's perfect for drawing and can handle a bit of wet media if I'm careful. After I made these three books, I ended up making 13 more and by the end of that I got pretty good at the Coptic stitch. I also discovered which is my favorite bookbinding thread (this unwaxed linen).
It's pretty satisfying to punch holes in paper and figure out how to stitch them together to make an actual book. If you haven't tried it yet, I hope you do! Here are a couple of tutorials that worked well for me: Sea Lemon's Coptic Stitch Book Binding Tutorial and Design Sponge's 5 Hole Pamphlet Stitch Tutorial. Now, I just hope I get some time to actually fill my books while I'm on vacation.
