I have been in love with books since I was a little girl. If you have read my story over at Vintage Mama’s Book Shoppe, you will know that I grew up in a home without books. That wasn’t because my family didn’t like books . . . it is just that books are rather expensive, and that just wasn’t a priority for fitting into a rather limited budget back in the days of my childhood. But when I went to our rural old-fashioned school, I discovered the library. The room with the high ceilings, windows that seemed to go all the way to the sky, with wide wooden window sills where you could sit and look at books for hours. Well, at least as long as our class was allowed to stay in the library on the special day.

Those wooden window sills must have had hundreds of little bottoms sitting up there, curled up in the corner, looking at the pictures in those books. The books cases went from floor to ceiling, and they were all made of the worn and polished wood, the same as the window sills. I can still remember the smell of that room with the black and white squares of linoleum on the floor, the huge wooden desk where the librarian sat, and the desks and chairs where the students could sit to study. And the dark green window shades that were always pulled all the way up to let the sun beams dance across the floor where I would sit, back in the corner, so I could reach all of the beautiful little books on the bottom shelf. I fell in love with books!

But I never really owned very many books until I was a senior in high school. That’s when I bought my first book and I remember treasuring that book . . . I think is was a book by Ernest Hemingway (for whatever reason – must have been something we read in my high school literature class), but it was a REAL book with hard covers and filled with words. Words that meant something to someone and now I owned those words.

Before that time, I had been given a book of fairy tales that I read from cover to cover, over and over and over. My favorite story was Rapunzel and I can remember the drawing of Rapunzel in the tall, tall tower with her long hair flowing out the window, down to the ground, where her prince could reach it and climb up to visit her. I still have that book, but the pages are tattered and the back cover has fallen off. I keep it in a plastic bag so it won’t be damaged any more than it already has been over the years.

The other book I remember was a Christmas gift when I was about 10 or 11 years old. It was a book about animals. The cover has a picture of a horse on it, and inside are stories about farm animals. I still have that book, too! But my most treasured book is my Bible that I got about 35 years ago. It is pretty worn out and the covers are starting to fall off. I have written lots of notes inside and made special notation of verses that I want to remember. The pages are rather tattered, but my girls got me a Bible cover a few years ago for my birthday, so if I keep it in there, nothing falls apart! I’ve tried using a new Bible (we have several others) but I still prefer the one that is all raggedy and worn because it is familiar, it has a lot of memories, and it is just my favorite.

I’ve made lots of different journals over the years, but one that I found to be really a lot of fun to create is a fiber art journal / lace book. There are so many ways to make one of these gorgeous books, that it is impossible to identify the “right” way to create a fiber art journal. Here is one that I made and sold in my Etsy shop, Tatters to Treasures . . . . .

This is the front cover . . . . 

 

This is the inside front cover with a lace pocket which holds a couple of little notebooks made from stitched paper . . . .

 

This is the back cover with a pocket created from a vintage hankie, repurposed lace from an upcycled dress, a fabric flower, and hand-dyed ribbon ruching at the top. I added another little stitched paper booklet with more beaded lace and pink ribbon binding.

 

Here is the finished book . . . it includes paper / card stock pages with lots of little pockets and envelopes, ribbons and lace, with a beautiful ivory fabric tie to close it. The front and back covers are all made from fabric, lace, ribbons and buttons.

 

The binding was created from fabric stitched together with heavy interfacing in between two layers, then button holes were stitched in to match the holes in the inside pages. I used ivory ribbon to tie it all together at the binding. The spine was stitched to the front and back separately after all the pages were completed to make sure it was the right width to accommodate the number of pages that were created.

It was a lot of work, but it was such a creative project that I loved every minute of it! I’m getting ready to start another one soon. I already have the fabric for the covers, and lots of bits and pieces of ribbon and lace. This one will be soft gray and rose pink. Can’t wait to get started!

And here are several other examples that I found and added to my Pinterest page on my Fiber Art Lace Book board:

A Very Special Blissful White

from Lululiz in Lalaland

Vintage Button and Flower Fiber Art Book

via Pinterest

Denim and Lace Fiber Art Journal

via A Passionate Quilter

Lavender and Lace Fiber Art Book

from The English Romantic

Stop back soon to see my new fiber art lace book . . . and please pop on over to my Pinterest page at Vintage Mama’s Cottage and check out all the other beautiful fiber art lace book inspiration that I found!

Now it’s time for this week’s Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party. Hope you can join us!

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Please join us for this week’s

Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party

 

Katherine-Katherines Corner

Nina-Vintage Mamas Cottage

Marilyn-Marilyns Treats

Bev-Eclectic Red Barn

Angelina- Petite Haus

Theresa Begin – Shoestring Elegance