New Year - New Diary

Happy New Year to Everyone.

I know I'm a bit late saying it but I saw the New Year in with a lurgy of some kind. You know how you feel when you first start a bad cold? You feel really rough but have no apparent symptoms so you get absolutely NO sympathy!! Well. that's how I felt for about 4 days or so. Ugggh!!!

Every year I make my own diary to carry in my handbag.
I've never been able to find one that shows a month-to-a-view - if I can't see the whole month I get in a muddle and end up booking too many things in on consecutive days when I forget to look over the page. I know, I know . . . . . . .  if I can't do something as simple as turning the page in a diary then I must be a bit dim! It's true.
Well, we all have our little blind spots and diaries have always been one of mine.

I started making my own diary a good few years ago now. It means I get the format I want while also giving me a little project to play with - I've made the covers in all sorts of ways over the years.

Aren't these gimp threads delicious?

I was given these for Christmas 'cos I want to do some more of my water-inspired pieces with them. I decided I would start off with a new diary cover so going with the watery theme I  used some water-soluble crayons on a piece of Evolon. The crayons I used are Caran D'Ache NeoColour II. I've used them on fabric before and when you add water you get a lovely texture where the pigment is pushed around. They aren't wash-fast but hopefully I'm never going to wash my diary!

I drew the crayons onto the Evolon and added water with a water brush.

Vaguely watery background so that the more definite lines could be put in with the gimp threads. I thought about couching them down by hand but couldn't face the idea of how long that would take so I machine stitched them with invisible thread.

I wasn't very keen on invisible thread until someone recommended Superior Threads to me. Previously, the ones I'd tried had been a little thicker than I liked and they also tended to stretch a bit - my own fault for using cheap stuff! The Superior monofilament thread is much better quality - I get some slight texture showing where the thread lays over the gimp and the Evolon shows where the needle pierces the fabric but overall I'm reasonably pleased with it.

Detail of monofilament machine-couched over gimp thread

And this is where I've got to so far . . . . . .



One of the ladies at TAGS suggested that I make a 2-year version of my diary and I can't believe that I've never thought of that before!!

So the next step is to decide how to finish the edges and to put a lining to hide the stitching on what will become the inside front cover. I might just add a few beads here and there too.

If anyone wants a copy of the diary page template then drop me a line.

Thanks for reading!