stitch book finished!

It's been a long time coming, but the stitch book is finished!

I had a few more pages to finish since my post last week, so we'll start there...

Day 94

Day 95, end of page 19

Day 96, start of page 20

Day 97

Day 98

Day 99

Day 100 - END!!!  This last page doesn't seem to have a lot going on from day to day, but I didn't want to cover up too much of the words.

Lily helped me finish up this page...

Once all the pages were done, the construction of the book needed to happen.  There is a tutorial here (well, the first half - there's a link to the second half in the page this link sends you to).  It is fairly easy, just time-consuming.

What does it look like finished?

Front:

Back:

I thought this would be my cover, but I ended up deciding to go a different direction and use this as the back instead.

The "binding":

It's a cool way to construct the book where some pages have "tabs" and others have openings and they all insert between and among themselves.  The link above has a video that, if you're curious, will make it make more sense.  This is not a permanent method of holding the pages together, though it would take some effort to get them apart, too.

Let's look inside!

Other than pulling out the page that became the back, these are in the order I made them.  I wasn't planning to do that when I started, but they just seemed to flow fine when I was working on a layout and, much like a scrap quilt, I could fuss with it for days and never really get anywhere different, so I just put it together.

I trimmed the loose, raveled threads as I went, but in construction, a few more were pulled loose, so please excuse those.  I'll remove them as I find them when I have time.  (Today I was just snapping quick photos to share!)

I'm thrilled this is done, not only because it's a cool thing, but because I was getting tired of the every day sewing.  It is a good habit, but I think I'd do better with something more planned each day rather than this kinda improv project.  But it was good for me to do something new and fun to see the pages come together.  (I did go back and "edit" a few that I felt had too much or something that didn't quite fit, but in general, they're much the same as they were at the start.)

In other news, I've been working on the cat carrier covers.

So has Salem...

Much like every other cat on earth, she thinks the fabric puddled under the ironing board is for her.  All nice and toasty and flat, what's missing is her furs!

(But isn't that fabric the cutest?  Perfect for travelling kitties!)

Lily also helped, but she was much more aggressive about being in the way.

Here she is demonstrating that she does not like the "spicy dragon" but she will get close enough to make sure (again and again and again) that she is sure about it.

Speaking of spicy dragons, this is a new one.  The old one (which looked nearly identical - when you find one you like and they keep  making it, why not?) got extra spicy last week and shot a spark at me!  The rubbery guard that helps the cord swivel out of the base (you can kinda see it in the lower right of the photo above) rubbed a hole in the cord itself and I had a tiny hole with bare wire showing through!  I'm so glad it did it while I was in the room (not while I ran downstairs for a bathroom break or something), so I could unplug it immediately.  I've been using it a lot for about the last 5 or 6 years, so the fact that it still worked at all (I think that swivel cord has a tendency to break inside) was a miracle.

Best part?  The price had not gone up since I bought the last one!  I think this is the only thing on this earth that is not more expensive since the plague changed our lives forever.  I am NOT complaining and even considered buying a second one to stash away because you know next time I need one it will have tripled in price...  (But I didn't.  I do love this iron, though.  It's the fourth I've purchased - one actually died, one is incontinent (but good when you want a dry iron) and this one wore a hole in itself...maybe it's the fifth?)

And finally, I did not work on Bramble Blooms, I made nothing for the Rainbow Scrap challenge (still yellow for a few more days), but I did buy a back for the Two Colour Mystery Quilt.

I forgot a scrap of the fabric when I went shopping, so this was done kinda blind.  The darkest pink in here matches the pink in the quilt top, so all is well.  (And it's the back, so even if it didn't match really well, it would be okay.)  The dahlia flowers are about the size of my palm, so it's a larger scale print, but perfect for a quilt back.

Now I have to figure out how to quilt it...

Happy quilting!

Katie