A Family Album Gift

We have a lovely friend, who was married last year and became a step-mum to a lovely boy and girl.  About eight weeks ago, she and her husband, were blessed with a beautiful baby boy, as a brother to her dear little step-children. 

I wanted to send a gift for the whole family, not just for the baby, or for our friend.  So, I made one of my extra large albums for their family photos and memories.

I posted it yesterday, but my timing was a bit bad, as they left this morning, to go and visit her mother for a few days!  The post office apparently tried to deliver this afternoon and left a card.  I really hope they're home before it's sent back to me as undelivered.

I know she doesn't read my blog, so I feel safe enough showing you photos here - just so long as it's not shared on Facebook yet!

I messaged my friend on Facebook and just asked her "Beatrix Potter, or (original) Winnie-the-Pooh?"  She replied  "Beatrix Potter", so this is what I have used - a lovely green fabric, with a paisley-style background and lots of the best-loved characters from Beatrix Potter's wonderful books.  

 

I teamed it with an emerald green silk edging and stitching in mulberry coloured hemp thread, to pick out the purpley shades on some of the characters and give a nice contrast with the green.

I made an embossed and printed "Family Album" label, which I mounted on a piece of silk and attached to the front cover.

I so hope she likes this!

 

Back cover,

The stitching of the book - a Coptic binding, with a section of French Stitch in the centre, as a decorative touch.  I hope the number of pairs of threads will help you to realise how large this album is.  It's about 11.5" tall and 13.5" long.

 

Each page was a single sheet, which I folded over to make a spacer.  The thirty pages were made into sets of three, then stitched on the folds, so the album will open out flat the whole way through. 

 

It made a lovely thick and heavy book.  You'll see that the spine edge is a lot deeper than the right-hand (front) edge.  This is why the spacers are there - to provide room for expansion when the photos are added.  Otherwise you'd end up with a book that bulged out of shape and looked "overfilled". 

 

I said it's big - the photos on the left are 6" x 4" and the right-hand photos are 4.5" squares, with white edges on three of them, making them 6" wide.  The album would hold a good number of photos. 

I really hope our friends like their gift - I so enjoyed making it! 

Up, Up and Away!

I was standing upstairs a couple of evenings ago, when I heard a familiar sound from outside. 
A whooshing kind of sound.  I knew that if I looked out of the window, this is what I would see:

Rising into the air, taking off from the meadow on the other side of the river.  I had heard the whoosh of the burner, as it was switched on and off, to warm the air inside the balloon and lift it above the house-tops.

What I didn't expect was this, just a few minutes later:  

A second lovely balloon, taking off from the same place.

And then this:

A Third Balloon! 

Totally unexpected - balloons are a fairly regular sight over our village in the good weather, but three at once hasn't happened before.   

 

 

Floating away on the evening breeze... Wishing I could be up there too!

One Photo and Twenty Words - May 2014

Does he feel guilty? I think not.  The mummy starling wasn't impressed though, when he tried to eat her baby!

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This is part of Abi's Meme 'One Photo and Twenty Words':
"Find one photo and choose up to twenty words to tell its story. Jot it down and link back here."

Why not join in too and leave a link in the post at Abi's Blog?

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You may notice a bit of a pattern to my "One Photo & Twenty Words" posts... The Furry One features yet again!  This time though, he's in disgrace...