More longstitch journals

I'll say it again.

I'm so happy I took Diana Trout's "Longstitch Two Ways" bookbinding class.

I'm at 4 journals (and counting) and each one gets easier and goes more quickly.  I'm having no trouble modifying the technique to dimensions other than the ones in Diana's templates, which is wonderful because I was able to use the odd sized strips of paper that were leftover from cutting the pages for my first journal.

This little orange one is only about 4 1/2" x 5"

These, and all of the other, covers are from paper cloth that I made. 

I experimented with adding beads to the spine stitches on this one:

This next one is my favorite so far.  The paper cloth is a collage of different translucent papers, and the large blue circles were first pasted and then stitched onto the cloth.

 I sewed a button to the bookcover and then filled it with air-drying clay.  I stamped the clay while it was still moist, and once dry, painted it blue and rubbed it with some gold "rub and buff"

Here's a shot of the spine:

This next one is still in progress.

I made the cover from a giant sheet of tissue paper that I had sprayed with liquid watercolors.  I then turned the whole piece of tissue into a single sheet of paper cloth. It makes for a nice background.

I'm working on a few ideas for cover design and embellishment.

I'll show it to you again when it's finished.

 

 You can find out more about the class here.

The combination of clear video instruction, written PDFs, and diagrams shown in a white board presentation cemented this process in my head.

It's not a terribly complicated stitch, I learned it quickly, and with a solid understanding of the basics I think I'll be able to experiment with variations.

I'm hooked!