TAST Linked Double Chain

Just checking in to let you know R & I had a great Thanksgiving weekend which involved the hills , golf and wildlife.

More about the weekend and the work I've done on the Story of the Traveling Pages a little later in the week when I've settled back into a comfortable routine.

Allotment Garden Blogging Bee

My allotment garden is imagined because such a concept does not exist in urban India but its a concept worth implementing. read on to find out what I would grow in this allotment garden, what I'll be wearing and what I would snack on when I take a break from weeding and watering.

What would I grow in this little garden? Coriander/Cilantro, mint and fiery hot chillies. The requirements for my cooking on a daily basis. A couple of types of spinach, cucumber and tomatoes. Maybe I could squeeze in a banana tree or a drumstick tree. How about a papaya tree, one which produces those small sweet papayas which they call disco papayas.Haven't figured out how that name came about. A vine of betel leaf. I don't chew it but it has medicinal properties.
I'd like to have a bee hive too. Bee hives are probably not typical allotment garden fare but I've always wanted to give bee keeping a hand so a bee hive most certainly.

You'll find me tending my plot in rubber slippers/flip flops, sunglasses, and an old t-shirt combined with cut offs or a salwar. For a snack I'd probably take a sandwich or chapatis with jam or cheese and water.

India Flint over at Not all those who wander are lost is hosting a blogging bee. Its the first one I'm participating in. If you'd like to join in, you can read more about the event which has a giveaway worked into it by clicking here.

The images in this post are from a piece I created about seven years back of a little wild garden bursting with colour and texture. A teeny tiny tropical jungle in a forgotten hidden portion of this apartment complex where I've made my home.There's one such space right outside my bedrooom window where the wandering jew grows uncontrolled and a tropical jungle is in the making.

I hope your weekend is wild or tropical or both.

TAST - Reversed Buttonhole Bar

I enjoyed working with this stitch and creating what to me looks like some sort of alien fried egg.

How I make my Fiber Books

Here's the method I've devised to make the Take it Further Fiber Book and the two volumes of Take a Stitch Tuesday stitch sampler.

The Take it Further Fiber Book is my first fiber book ever and this is how I went about making the book.

Using running stitch I mark the 'pages' on the cloth. Each page has two halves or portions , one on the left and one on the right.
The size of the portion where the embroidery stitch is done is 3.2" x 5.75" with a 1/2" space between the two portions (the running stitch done with black thread) . Each page has a line of blanket stitch done around it. The blanket stitch is the means to joining the pages.
Once a sizeable number of 'pages' have been completed they are cut and seperated leaving a small seam allowance of about a quarter inch or so on all four sides beyond the blanket stitch.

For The Take it Further Fiber Book I ironed fusing onto the back of each page so they are quite stiff. I've decided to leave out the fusing in the Take a Stitch Tuesday books because the pages are about an inch or so smaller and since two layers of fabric make-up a page, the pages are fairly stiff.

The blanket stitch along the 1/2" portion between the left and right halves/portions of the page are not joined so that the page can fold.

Corners of pages must be matched and pinned and then the pages need to be joined, sewing and connecting blanket stitches on both pages.The left hand portion of the first page is left and you begin by joining the right hand portion of page 1 with the left hand portion of page 2. Once that's done you join the right hand portion of page 2 with the left hand portion of page 3 and so on.

In doing this you create little pockets. If you find your page is too floppy then you could slip pieces of card paper into the pockets if you want a stiffer page.

In the Take it Further Fiber Book I used black thread to join the pages and every five or six stitches I introduced a clear seed/sugar bead. In the Take a Stitch Tuesday books I'm joining the pages with a clear plastic thread which is as fine as a single strand of hair. Not sure what the name is but it can be used on a sewing machine.

For the cover itself I used a single piece of felt which simply wraps around the book. I edged the cover with blanket stitch and embroidered the front cover and the spine portion of the book.

The left hand portion of the first page is stitched onto the inside of the front cover (visible in picture above) and the right hand portion of the last page is stitched onto the inside of the back cover.
The 'pages' are joined to the cover only on the inside of the front cover and the inside of the back cover. They aren't stitched or connected to the cover on the spine section of the cover.

I hope I've been able to describe the method I employ to create my fiber books clearly for you to give it a try. If there's something confusing or unclear leave a comment and I'll try and sort things out for you.

I've stitched the pages of the first volume of Take a Stitch Tuesday together and I begin the embroidery for the cover this weekend, so next week Volume one will be ready to view.

Have a great weekend.

On a separate note - I've become an affilate of Amazon and Flipkart. You will see the banners on the side bar. Should you wish to shop online I would appreciate it if you could click on the Amazon or Flipkart banners/buttons and make your purchases.Amazon and Flipkart will pay me a small percentage of the value of your transaction without increasing the cost for you by even a cent. Thank you and happy shopping.

TAST Knotted Buttonhole Band

As I type its begun to rain, really pour yet the setting sun is still shining bright. How strange.

The unprecedented traffic on this blog because of the Take it Further Fiber book has proven to be good for my creativity and has spurred me on to plunge into fiber book making in a big way.

The TAST(take a stitch tuesday) embroidery samples of which the Knotted Buttonhole Band is the latest one to be completed are being made into a two volume set of embroidery samplers. Volume one has been sewn together and is waiting for its cover, volume two is in the process of being assembled as the samples are completed. So next week I plan to show you how I go about making my fiber books.

The second bit of news is that I'm participating in a fiber page swap with fourteen other participants to create a unique fiber book at the end of fourteen months. The Story of the Traveling Pages starts in January 2010 but it already has its own blog where you will get to see how the pages and books are created. This is the first time for me and needless to say I'm all charged up and excited, the theme for my book is leaves, by the way. Click here to read about the other participants and what their themes are.

Looks like I'll have to give BJP ( Bead Journal Project) 2010 a miss again this coming year or should I take the plunge and make a small little book with beaded pages the size of an ATC ?Need to give this some serious thought.

Have a great weekend, mine involves Goan food so R tells me.