- Re-vision: New pictures for Close Your Eyes

When I did the first edition of the lullaby book, I printed photos of my daughters with Jace and Griffin on a commercial cotton cloth on an adhesive backing designed to go through the inkjet printer. The quality wasn't great, but the pictures were adequately recognizable.

Of course, after finishing Jace's book, I found an inkjet canvas that worked much better, so that was what I used for Griffin's book ...

It made the photo in Jace's book pale by comparison (literally), so I cut Jace's picture out, printed a new picture and slid it into the resulting hole ...

The resulting edge is a little wonky, but the picture quality is much better ...

And as Don pointed out, the whole book is wonky, so it all works.

- Close Your Eyes: The final chapter of the first edition

It's a book ... which is not just the title of my favorite toddler board book, but also the result of my most recent endeavor in stitch ...

Of course, a printed book would have a dedication page, but due to space limitations, this blog post will have to suffice:

Dedicated to Jude Hill
with much appreciation
for her artistry and inspiration

Because as I stitched the final page, I realized that Close Your Eyes had become a virtual sampler of the many innovative stitches and techniques gleaned from Jude's incredible online classes on Spirit Cloth.

First, here are the overview shots: the a-sides, if you will, to the b-sides shown in the last post ...
 

Then the close-up shots, with notes in the captions that detail the techniques, stitches, and back stories ...

Cloth weaving anchored with invisible baste, Kantha stitch (aka running stitch), split back stitch

Wrap stitch (aka satin stitch) and Kantha stitch (aka running stitch)
I never would have thought to use a tattered edge like this before Spirit Cloth 101

Closer view of split back stitch on a setting sun discharge dyed with bleach

Full moon discharge dyed with bleach on denim
Back stitch worked from the reverse side, see details in this post

A bit of silk tie from Don's school administrator days
spinning through a galaxy of thread bead stars

The back side of some rust dyeing and a picture of Melissa and Jace
inkjet printed on cotton fabric and attached with invisible baste and blanket stitch

Text hand lettered with a Pitt pen and back stitched with a single strand of floss

Each page was connected to
the spine with ladder stitching

Interior view of ladder stitch in the spine (top pulled tight, bottom left loose to show detail)

Cloth label hand lettered in Pitt pen and back stitched

Interior label lettered in Pitt pen on cotton cloth from a threadbare shirt of my mom's
that I wore as a nightshirt virtually every day of the six years following her death in 2008.
First repurposed here when I began following Spirit Cloth, a part of it will now be passed on to her great-grandson.

- February 14: B-sides being Valentine's Day

I can tell you exactly what I had to eat for lunch on Valentine's Day twenty-nine years ago: a Belgian waffle with vanilla Haagen Dazs ice cream and hot fudge sauce. Then I took a long nap and when I woke up, it was snowing. By 8:00 Don insisted we go to the hospital before the snow got any deeper ... a few hours later Melissa Reid entered the world.

Which is why this is what we had for dessert tonight ...

Yes, I did add tart cherries in a soft creamy mousse this time around ... seemed like the color was just right for Melissa's birthday (around here we call February 14th "Valentine's Day" at our peril).

And it was also noteworthy that Jace's lullaby book took a leap forward, with all twelve pages now complete and stitched together along their individual spines ...

The next step will be to secure the other three edges of each pair, but before concealing the b-sides I took one last look at each two-page spread from the inside ...

With any luck, I'll be done by the end of the week ... just in time to head to St. Louis.

- Some assembly required: Progress on Close Your Eyes

Realizing that the first lullabye book was starting to come together, I decided to take some process shots so I can remember what I did when I make the second one ...

                        

My original intention was to stitch the individual 5" x 5" pages onto flannel, then sew the flannel together into two-sided pages, but it quickly became apparent that the book would be too thick. So, no flannel, just two pages back-to-back with a 1" strip of cloth along the spine edge ...

joined together with safety pins ...

then stitched along the spine edge, front and back ...

Note: I stitched the edging onto the front side, folded it over the spine,
then stitched the backside without going all the way through to the front.

This is where it got interesting. I wanted the stitch joining the two pages together to show on one side, but not the other. Which argued for Jude's invisible basting ...

but with the b-side intentionally visible, which required some thought about what exactly would show and how to get there. So I tried for a "wandering" stitch since I was pretty sure that straight line basting would be pretty hard to pull off ...

The resulting line calls to mind the Flight of the Bumblebee ...
or the path taken by any two-year old child on a walk

Last, but not least, there was an eleventh-hour addition of two pages when daughter Meg made a comment that confirmed what I knew in my gut: I needed to include all of the lyrics. Fortunately, I've gotten much more comfortable with the Pitt pen ...

and was pleasantly surprised at how much I was able to stitch in one day ...

Note: one word was changed to fit what I used to sing to my girls every night ...

- A sneak peek: Framing windows

One of my favorite results from the rust dye trial was the windows that sprang from a sheet of Junkology metal scrap that we got on Black Friday (take that, big name retailers) ...

                              

As you can see, the two sides of the metal sheet left different impressions. Cutting one out, I told Don that I was going to insert a tiny picture of Meliss and Jace behind a window in the lullaby book ...

Note the cut edges on this one versus the torn edges below ...

"Like a flap?" he asked.

"Oooooo, I hadn't thought of that!" I replied ... and promptly abandoned what I was doing to cut out a new window...

Serendipity: the torn edges actually lined up with the rust lines

Which opens to reveal an ink-jet printed cloth photograph ...

Ink jet fabric printing invisibly basted and edged with blanket stitch ...
applique would have been preferable, but the cloth quality is limiting and hard to stitch

Happy day ... I love making tiny stitches ...

18-20 stitches per inch

Better yet, final assembly of the first lullaby book is finally in sight.

Addendum:

The grad school food groups revisited on a rainy day: saturated fats, salt, chocolate, caffeine, and carbs

And because I want to remember how I made the hot chocolate (using flatware, not measuring spoons) ... two heaping table spoons of Dutch process cocoa, one scant tea spoon of espresso powder, two tea spoons of sugar and a splash of vanilla, whisked together with some hot tap water.  Added to two small cups of milk and a slug of cream, heated gently on the simmer burner. Makes two small, very rich mugs of hot chocolate.

- Learning the (good) hard way

The sun was shining again today, so I didn't mind that it took a while to get to where I was happy with this cover for the lullaby book. By the way, if you want to know when to use "a while" versus "awhile," the Snarky Grammar Guide has a great "Try this" trick.

                                         

Anyway, in spite of the effective instruction that Jude Hill provides in her Spirit Cloth classes (which I highly recommend even, or especially, for experienced stitchers), I still insist on learning things the hard way: by trial and error. So as I went along, trying to get to a final version of Close your eyes that I actually liked, I found myself remembering some tried and true sayings ... which led to the following notes to self.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And next time, don't use such a lightweight fabric over a sturdy twill ...

Measure twice, cut once rather than assuming that five 5" strips in each direction will give you a 5" square ... 

The third time's the charm, but it's best to hedge your bets, so practice, practice, practice ...

which includes using monochromatic pictures before you stitch to envision alternatives ...

A stitch in time saves nine, so baste thoroughly ... 

Dot every i and cross every t, but it's definitely better not to split back stitches that meet at a common point ...

                                                              

And one last thought: when using variegated thread, a second strand of a solid color moderates the effect. I learned that one the hard way, too.