July 6, 2015 Week 1 - Introduction

Hello Everyone,

Well summer is underway (finally!) here in Wisconsin.  So I thought I'd start by sharing a beautiful dahlia that bloomed in my garden today.

This is my first year to grow them, so this was a pleasant surprise.


Now on to books.  This month's book will be a  French Link stitched book with soft cover.   The theme is "Old-fashion Summer".  And so I thought I would create a book with Lemonade Recipes.

The French Link stitch is a wonderful stitch that involves creating a twist between two threads on two different signatures.  This creates a beautiful soft X pattern down the spine of the book.  Most of French Link stitched also have a row of coptic stitching at the top and bottom.  I have posted some examples of this stitch on my Encasing Structure Pinterest board.   link:  Pinterest Encasing Structure Board

For my lemonade book, I will use  5 double page signatures.  This gives me a total of 40 pages.  (a single page signature is 4 pages, a double page signature is 8)

I find its always helpful to create a dummy book.  For this one, I'm starting with an unbound Dummy that I can take apart and make sure that I am organizing it properly for the layout template.

Dummy Book - 5 double page Signaturen

Then I marked what each of the pages will be and I also include a page number.

front of 1st double signature

As you can see, when you flatten out the individual signatures, the pages do not go order.

back of 1st double signature

I find doing this prior to setting up my template on the computer is a must.  I am less likely to make major layout errors.  FYI - I am using Microsoft Word, for the text layout and printing.  You certainly could use Adobe's InDesign or equivalent to set up the pages.  I just chose Word because it is what I have available on this computer.

So there's my start to this month's book.  Next week, I will be showing how to do create a simple print design with stuff from around my house and acrylic paint.

Till then,

Happy Book Binding!

Sheila