Another book.

I have always liked and admired the work of William Morris and did a project on it some years ago.  I have 2 or 3 books about him and recently looked through them after receiving a pack of 5" squares of patchwork fabric in some of his designs.   I decided to use some of them to make this book and in a few cases managed to match the border fabrics with my chosen designs.

Here I photocopied an example of his calligraphy.  He created designs for wallpaper, tapestries and furniture as well as fabrics.

I made the cover from left over pieces, many of which are the same design in different colourways.

It is edged with a soft blue fabric.

The lining for the cover has quotations from the man himself written on strips of plain fabric and stitched between the patterned ones.  'Have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful'.  And 'My work is the embodiment of dreams in one form or another'.

The backgrounds for each page are some of my eco-dyeing experiments which give the book a nice aged look, as if it has been lying in the back of a cupboard for 100 years, which is probably what it will do for the next 100!

I drew each design onto a separate piece of fabric which had Bondaweb applied to the back of it and gesso on the front.  I then added colour with Derwent pencils - Coloursoft and Inktense - before cutting out the design and bonding it onto the page.  Stitching was then added round each design and to hold and add definition to patterned strips sometimes matching the drawn design, at the edge of the page.

When everything was complete the pages were then bonded together back to back and then edged with an automatic machine stitch on which I worked raised chain band to give a nice firm border.

I just have to finish the cover, bind in the pages, and decide whether it needs a closure or not

There was lots of lovely relaxing hand stitching in the making of it.   The next one might be filled with ancient doors - I have found some lovely inspirational ones on Pinterest.