Piano Hinge book workshop

On the weekend I taught a wonderful group of women how to make Piano Hinge Books. This is probably my favourite book to make. One of the reasons I love to teach is to see the creations that my students do. You never have two books the same. I'm always inspired after and have started another book of my own. Here are their beautiful books.

 Bonnie

 Michelle

 Roberta

 Sharon

Sheila

Thanks ladies for a great day.

Wendy

Hand made books.

Wow, a week just slipped right by me. November is such a busy month, I must remember to slow down and enjoy the ride. I want to share with you some more wonderful finds I've made. Today it's all about Mary Kritz and her wonderful hand made books she creates. I've seen a few of Mary's books since she's joined our ATC group but recently I was lucky enough to make it to one of her shows to see many of her original creations. Each book is a one of a kind creation and some even include some of her art.

 This first book is covered with one of her Ink blot designs made of wonderful Canal paper. I love the details she adds like the tabs to hold the book closed when you're not using it. I think it will make a great art journal if I can bring myself to use such a unique piece of art.

This is a book of endearment. The intention is to write a word of endearment to another person and give the book to them. They then write a word and pass it back. You continue to pass it back and forth until it is full.

Mary has added some words and designs to get it started. I thought this was such a great idea and already know who I'm going to share it with.

This last book is bound with brown and red leather and has a wonderful stitching design on it. It may have small dimensions of 3.5" by 3" but it holds 80 pages. I think this will make a fun book to keep close in a bag ready to use any time. This is going to be a Christmas gift so I have officially started my shopping!

Mary makes many more types of books so go check out some of them here.

Craft show time...

Yes it's that wonderful time of year again where each weekend we can go to a multitude of shows. The last few years I have been a vendor at numerous shows and haven't had the time to visit many. I find myself involved in very few shows this year so I'm enjoying visiting friends at their shows and checking out possible shows for next year. So far this weekend I made it to 5 shows(picture big happy face on me). I love craft shows. We have so much local talent with such a wide variety of skills. Today I went to a show in Kemptville at the college in the WB George centre. It's also on tomorrow and well worth checking out.

 I have officially started my Christmas shopping! So I'm not able to show you everything I bought but I can share a few things I just really needed for myself.

 This is a Fairy door. Since my life is full of fairies I just had to have a door for them. This was made by Joanne MacKenzie who told me about how her daughter designs the doors for her. Who better than a young person to see into the wonderful world of Fairy. Joanne and her husband Doug both do beautiful wood working. I had a hard time controlling myself from buying more things there. See more of their wonderful work at Celtic Elegance.

 I have a soft spot for pottery and Joyce Wood of Beckett's Landing Pottery really caught my eye today. Again it was hard to just pick one piece. When she told me this was from a Hosta leaf it was a done deal.

Again this hit a soft spot for me. I love little drawers and I love wood working. I once took a course to learn how to do wood working and the thing I learned most was to appreciate other peoples woodwork. This box was made by L Wood's Crafts. I'm sorry I didn't get his business card and can't seem to find a link for him. He had lots of beautiful handcrafted wood pieces.

Quilting cards

Earlier in the year I made a card with this stamped quote on it but the saying just didn't really match the card. So at one of my shows a lady asked me to make some cards that were more quilt like to go with the saying. This was something that I already had on my mind so I told her I would. 

After a month or so of having it floating around in my head I finally came up with a few designs and here they are.

I tried to come up with my own patterns but the old traditional quilting blocks kept coming back to me so that is what I ended up doing. So much easier to do with paper than material!

Years ago I tried my hand at quilting and decided it wasn't for me. The sewing machine and I do not have a good relationship and so I satisfy my quilting desires by collecting fat quarters and every once in a while making some kind of paper quilting project.

Am I the only one with a bad sewing relationship? Let me know if you do to and how you deal with it!

Wendy