Friday Projects

It is a rainy, cold day and I am still in my jammies. I've had my coffee and have decided which projects are going to get done today. I really should do the treadmill, but I have a very sore lower back. I'm guessing it has something to do with Little Miss 3 and all the playing, carrying, soothing I've been doing for the past couple of days. She was a little under the weather - feverish, croupy cough, runny nose.


Here is a look at what I have planned to do today. I think I told you about the huge crossword puzzle dictionary that is my favorite. I first saw it in pieces at my Mom's last year and I had to have one. For the most part when working difficult puzzles, most of the fun is working out the ones you don't know by working the clues that run in the other direction. The thing is that sometimes the clues are of the nature of movie directors or actors or Nobel prize winners. Those are things that I can't necessarily figure out without a bit of help. This dictionary has that kind of information and is invaluable when I am trying to do a puzzle that has more than one of that kind of clue in a particular section. Here is what my copy of the dictionary looks like today:

As you can see it is huge,  and it weighs about 4 pounds.

Mom's copy has broken somewhat in half, and many of the pages have gone missing; my Mothers' Day Gift to her is to take my copy and separate it A - F, G - P, and Q - Z and rebind each section so that it will be easier for her to handle. To that end I found a supplier of tyvek online and ordered a roll of it.

I purchased this from Material Concepts. It was an overrun or odd lot, 10" x 50 yards for $24.50, which I thought was great until they calculated the shipping and it was $18.78. Yikes!!! I wanted this in a roll rather than sheets so I could make one piece covers, but next time I want some tyvek, I am going to check out other sources and other sizes.

It is 10" wide, so I cut it into 8 1/2 x 10 sheets and put it in my printer and printed out the appropriate front panels for the new book. Caution - tyvek prints very nicely in inkjet printers, but never try to print in a laser printer with it. Laser printers heat up and the tyvek will melt inside your printer.

The tyvek is not this gray, but I couldn't get a good picture on such a gray day.

The dictionary measures 9 1/4"  x 7 1/4" so I am planning to cut a length of tyvek that will wrap each section in a one piece fashion. I will then glue (with tyvek you must use PVA glue) each of the front panels into place. I am working this out in my head right now, but think because of the thinness of the tyvek, I may either line it with some heavy paper or double layer it. I will keep you posted as I go. I am not sure this project will be completed today, but it is definitely getting started this morning.

I think that if this works well, I may try doing some art on the tyvek and using it as a cover for one of my handmade journals.

I also have a couple of journals ready to sew and am planning to get them done today. Here is the one that was in the book press the last time I talked to you.

This will be a coptic stitched journal and has 140# watercolor paper.

I also have a repurposed book that is ready to accept its new innards. I just have to decide how I am going to finish it. I cannot decide whether to do an X stitch through the reinforced spine (that is one of my favorite looks) or whether to cut slits and do a long stitch through slotted spine. I also like the buttonhole stitch which would require cutting out a portion of the spine. That decision will have to be made before I can go on with that book. It has been in this stage of preparation for several days now and I still haven't decided. Here is what I have so far:

from the inside

The outside

I've taken some Motrin, but my back is still barking at me, so the first thing I am going to do before getting started on my book making is to put a Salonpas pain relieving patch on it and see if that helps.

What do you have planned for today? I hope you are feeling well and have the time and inclination to do some art...

xoxo