I started this way back in August 2015 as part of The Alphabet Club. For 26 months I stitched one block per month and then planned to finish it into a cloth book.
I stitched it on an afghan fabric which I cut into a long thin piece.
Here are the individual pages of the book:
I actually finished the stitching in September 2017 and there it sat until this year when I decided to add it to my WIPocalypse and actually fully finish the thing.
The first thing I did was add a title - My Alphabet Book, a bar code and an ISBN to the back:
And, yes, that is a real ISBN. Look it up and see why it is appropriate.
The barcode also matches that book as close as I could make it.
Then came the tricky part, sewing it together. What I did was fold over the top edge along the thicker woven part and whipstitched the top of the first page to the top of the page with D,E,F and G. Then whipstitched the page with H,I,J and K to L,M,N and O. and so on.
Then I turned it over and did the same with the bottom of the book pages.
Then I cut four pieces of thin card to size and slipped one inside each page, the openings are at the spine end of the book. Finally I took the two half pages from the beginning and end of the alphabet and whip stitched them to the page with X,Y and Z. The orange selvedge marker makes a nice line down the centre of the back of the book.
I took some video footage to show you.
This one shows a little bit more of how the book is constructed:
Finally, the Summer Blog Hop. Anyone want to do a Summer Blog Hop this year? I thought we could do a Know Your Blogging Friends Hop. I allocate you the name of a fellow blogger and you make a post about them, showing something you think they would like to stitch. Could be something you have stitched or something you found online you think they would like to stitch.
So, for example, if you got me as your Blogging Friend you would write a post about my Blog Hops and show a dragon design (or 2!).
To take part, leave a comment here. I'll take sign-ups through to the 28th July and then allocate names with the posts going up on 8th August (It was my Nana's Birthday).
Oh Jo, I am MOST impressed with your completed Alphabet Book! It is just wonderful!
ReplyDeleteHi Jo, love the book and your video, the book reminds me of medieval manuscripts and the small personnel prayer books owned by royalty. I would love to participate in the new hop, I recall doing something very similar a few years back, it was an interesting experience.
ReplyDeleteLove the book and so professionally bound! You must be well pleased with this finish.
ReplyDeleteOh Jo, what a wonderful achievement! You should be very proud. Thank you so much for sharing how the book is put together. You are a very creative problem solver!
ReplyDeleteWow Jo, this is incredible.Not only is each albhabet full of beauty with variety of stitches, the finishing is out of this world.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finally finishing your Alphabet book. Love that it has the ISBN code on it too...I cannot fathom finishing something so complicated!!! Well done!!!
ReplyDeleteA fantastic project and finish...well done.
ReplyDeletecongrats on the amazing finish Jo. It looks fantastic.
ReplyDeleteLinda
That is so cool! Excellent finish and we're all glad you couldn't wait so we could see this. plus videos of how it works, awesome! And yes, please count me in the Summer Stitching Friends hop. :) Also, do you pronounce it "is-bin?" a friend who worked in a book store does, but that's here across the pond.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, that looks like such a lot of work went into it. What a lovely design, and you must be so please that it's finished now.
ReplyDeleteWow! How beautiful. What an amazing thing you have created.
ReplyDeleteThat is just fabulous" I love the ISBN, so very "you"
ReplyDeleteAnd the Y kitty is adorable
What a wonderful finish! This is fabulous!
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised you couldn't wait until the FFG SAL to show it off; it certainly deserves a post of its own, and the good thing is we get to see it again in a couple of weeks' time!
ReplyDeleteThe result from looking up the barcode came as no surprise!
The time and effort involved in the finishing certainly makes for a gorgeous finish. I hope you're very proud of your work. :)
Oh, what an awesome finish, and so clever too! I love it. It does deserve a post of its own, and to come up in the FFG again too!
ReplyDeleteJo, you book is simply wonderful and the finishing technique is so clever! You have created a treasure and should be very proud.
ReplyDeleteThe alphabet book is an impressive finish.
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