A quiet fabric book

Hello, Eleanor here again.

I've been stitching away on a small scale project, for a swap I'm involved in. It's called the quiet fabric book, inspired by a project in this book. Nine of us are making small (ATC sized, which is 2.5 by 3.5) felt books, with a theme of quietness, and each of us contribute 9 fabric pages. Mine are all the same, and will be sent to the host for distribution, so that we each end up with nine different, unique pages to bind into a beautiful soft little book.

I chose "the silence of a seed" as my page title, and stitched a botanical type illustration of the germination of a bean.

Here's one:

and here are all nine!

The very background is white felt, overlaid with woollen plaid from a sample swatch, for the soil, and cream damask from an old curtain above. I have used this curtaining for a dozen different projects, it has been so useful.

The bean itself started out as black shrink plastic cut in 2 inch bean shapes. Once heated and shrunk to less than an inch, I added coppery brown embossing powder, and heated until several layers made a thick finish.

A short length of white paper string cut at an angle makes the radicle.

As the hypocotyl grows, the seed coat (from a vinyl handbag strap, heated rather daringly, careless of fumes!) begins to rip and shrivel, 

and the first few roots emerge.

Appearing above the surface of the ground, the cotyledon has the beginnings of a leaf poking out.

Finally, the felt cotyledon has hardened and is wrinkling (with the aid of blonde moments embossing powder)

and the twin leaves have unravelled themselves and bounce gently on strong (wired) stalks.

The page title is printed onto my good old standby, cotton curtain lining, trimmed and secured with simple stitches.

It was amazing fun, planning and executing the pages, although by the ninth I was seeing wonky roots and wired stems in my dreams. I'm hoping the other girls don't mind that the page is a little bit dimensional.

It's a while until the swap is officially over, but as soon as I have pages back from the other 8 girls, I will post them here if they agree. Meanwhile I will be deciding how to bind them all, or maybe making a little quiet box to keep them in.

Finally, all the prizes from the Spring Blog Hop have now been drawn, the winners were:

Dolly's voucher - shellyj 

Gabrielle's Altered Book - Michaela

Mandy's Crazy Chick - Helen Winnicott

Laura's candy - Angelfish

Ifa's prize - Mole

Erika's candy - Kirsti

Eleanor's feltie thing - Catriona

Tracey's goodie bag - Jimjams

Kerry's flowers - Lisa

Leanne's shrine - Gabrielle.

See you next time,

Cheerio!

 

Comments

[Mandy]

W-o-W... I am in awe of the awesome quiet fabric book pages you made. I'm so wishing I was part of that circle swap just to get my hands on your page about the seed. Love it! Inspiring stuff.
Squidgey hugs,
Mx

[Debbie]

Absolutely amazing, it must have taken you hours and hours x

[Doda]

That is completely beautiful! I am amazed by what you have created here, and I love the inventiveness of your materials.

[Jimjams]

What an amazing book that will be if it's filled by pages as beautifully crafted and thoughtfully made as these.
And guess what arrived in the post today - my prize from Tracey - many thanks :o)

[Tracey Jackson]

OMG what a lot of love and work went into each page, Iove your idea for the theme and am floored by all the time you have spent on each piece, fabulous !!! xxx

[jayne]

OMG !!!! How amazing are these ! I think you have the patience of a saint x
WOW !!!! Love um :)

[Scrapdolly]

I can't get over the amount of detail in these - so tiny and so detailed. Amazing