One down and one to go.

Monoprint books, that is. I have finished the first one and here it is. I am very pleased with it.

The covers aren't as 3D as they appear in the photo, The black lines are couching and the circles are charms from a belly dancing anklet. No - I don't belly dance - I bought the anklet when I needed bells for the leaf hanging which was, I think, the first thing I ever blogged about.

The cognoscenti amongst you will have noticed that although I said I was going to bind it over tapes - I didn't. I decided Coptic stitch would go better with the design on the covers. This is a two needle Coptic stitch, which I have not tried before and which caused a fair amount of swearing, unpicking, stopping for tea breaks - you get the picture. It would have been easier if I had had four hands - or possibly five, one for each needle and one for the book. [Yes, I know I said it was 2 needle Coptic stitch. Some people call it multi-needle Coptic stitch which is more accurate, I suppose.]

The stitching is not perfect but I hope that the colour and the tightness of the loops will mean no-one notices. Apart from my readers of course.

To relax from the book binding I made this totally ridiculous object - which turned out to be quite unrelaxing. The pattern came from Quilting Arts 'Studio'. We don't use many tins here at Cheese Acres, and when we do our tin opener leaves a lethal edge - so when Babybel left an empty baby milk tin behind I grabbed it, and this is the result. As you can see the walls of my workroom are red - so I decided to make a red corset - and that led to red velvet. [What does it say about me that my thoughts run on red velvet corsets? I don't have one - and me wearing one would not be a pretty sight!]

Let me tell you that putting eyelets in velvet is not easy. Cue more swearing and stopping for tea breaks. However I like the end result, so if Babybel has any more tins she can spare they will be gratefully received and given corsets. They just won't be velvet ones!

Jude has kindly asked for updated photos of Babybel - but unfortunately I don't have any! We haven't seen her since our trip to the seaside last month. [Sniff.] However there will be lots of photo opportunities next weekend when she has her birthday party - the presents are already wrapped and we can't wait!