With These Hands – Plant – a fabric book

I took a class at the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival (now called the CreativFestival) back in October of 2005. It was called Fabric Book Stories, and it was taught by fibre artist Debbie Bates. We used quilting and mixed media techniques to create a fibre book on a general theme of “With These Hands.” I focussed on a garden theme, since the fabrics I’d brought with me were floral prints.

I thought it would be a fun thing to use for my first blog entry, even though it was completed a couple of years ago. It was a great class. We played around with everything from rubber stamps to free motion applique to beading. There weren’t too many students, so we had full access to the materials and Debbie’s attention. More than anything else, this class opened the doors of fibre art to me.

Here is the book, folded closed. The paper tags stitched into the spine spell out the word “plant.”

This is a view of the book folded out, showing the outside of the cover. The front has an outline of my hand appliqued on it. The back cover of the book is a trellis, complete with bead leaves and flowers. The page on the left folds into the book.

This is the inside view of the book, when it’s folded open.

This window has a pot of beaded flowers. To the left you can see a pair of rings stitched in. These will hold more pages some day.

This smaller page is a whimsical garden stitched with free-motion applique. The window is a small piece of screening that lets you peek into the page underneath.

With the window open, you can see the little pockets that house tags with stamped messages on them. The tags tuck neatly into the pockets when the book is closed. The inside of the window page is covered with a piece of embossed wallpaper that has been rubbed with paint.

This book was a great way to try all kinds of techniques on a small scale. I had a great time playing with stamps, computer-printed fabric, unusual media, and free-motion machine stitching. More pages can be made in the future, and added to the book using the loose-leaf rings that are stitched into the spine. A great way to keep the story growing.