A need to create {owls and a leather book}.

Today I realized something...

I have to create.

This sewing and crafty thing isn't a hobby anymore. It's not a profession yet, though I'm hoping it will turn out to be in the next year or so. It's even past the obsession point. It's something that I just have to do. Musicians have to write music. Authors have to write words.

This is the same thing. Sure, I go through dry spells when I really can't think of anything to make and honestly don't feel like making anything. But those are short and rare times. I need to create and bring a little more beauty into the world.

I love to put together lovely little wallets and bags. I love to make things that I think are cute and that I hope other people will love, too. I always feel sort of sad when I sell something that I've made, but I also feel excited that someone else loved it enough to buy it.

I've really been feeling creative lately, with a bunch of new ideas, but I can't do as much as I'd like because of schoolwork. I love being in my early childhood education program, and I love kids, but I will be so relieved when I am finished with classes so I can focus fully on sewing. Which will be in less than a year now! :) I feel like this is a talent and joy that God has given me and I want to make a living doing something I love.

These are the major passions in my life (as in a "hobby" way...different than God or my family), the things I love and find joy in and can't imagine life without:

1. Sewing and other crafting (embroidery, felt art, journaling, & bookbinding)

2. Books

3. Classic movies and other vintage goodness

4. Music

I'm always trying to find ways to join these things together or incorporate them in one other. That's one of the reasons why I listen to my favorite swing records while I work...hoping some of the lovely vintageness will rub off onto my items. :) So instead of always making just cute or whimsical little things, like the below, I'm also making things that show what I love.

Isn't this fabric adorable? I'm going to start trying small zippered coin purses...this is mine, a prototype. The dimensions are a little off, but otherwise it's lovely. I've always had a strange fascination with owls.

I want to try some hoop art that is inspired by my favorite book quotes, song lyrics, or old movies. Like an embroidered Jane Austen quote or Sinatra song line. Or a felt silhouette of Gene Kelly in "Singin' in the Rain."

Today I revisited bookbinding. My "inspiration book" was just not working, because it's so flimsy and held together loosely. In fact, I hardly ever used it. I've had this suede for a few weeks now and had been wanting to try a new kind of binding, so I went for it.

And I love it to pieces!
I don't care what anybody else thinks...I think it's gorgeous. :)

View of binding. It shouldn't have that crease, but I go a little overboard with pulling the thread tight, which is why my books always buckle up.

Inside the front...I haven't decorated the front page yet.

I've already started adding pictures and sketches and measurements...all sewing or craft related.

Where one signature ends and another begins:

I used the below video tutorials. But when it comes to measuring for marking the holes, you're pretty much on your own if you don't have any graph paper handy (I didn't). You also have to come up with a way to hold your floppy leather book closed. I had bought some of this matching cord the other week. So I cut a slit, and put the cord through, knotting it on the end. Then I wrapped it around the book a few times and cut if off where I liked it, knotting that end, too. Sewing the book together is actually surprisingly quick. What took me so long was getting the pages cut to the right size (this was a small pieces of suede I had to work with) and deciding where to put the holes.

These video tutorials are really great:

Hope you all had a lovely, inspired Labor Day!

Until next time,