At the beginning of this month I went on a week-long bookbinding course with the very excellent Guy Begbie (www.guybegbie.com/ ). At the end of the week we had to make what was the equivalent of our masterpiece – to show that we had mastered the craft – the book box. My heart sank at this. This is one of those things were precision really matters and every botch screams out. I found it very difficult and have blogged before about feeling like an amateur and an incompetent. Guy was great and gave me lots of help, but I was very slow and didn’t finish my piece. This weekend, however, I finally had the time to stick all the bits together and here is the result: a book box made to house yet another project based on Laura Ashley, made to house a long, thin quilt:
This solved a major problem for me: how to present this quilt which is long – four feet? but narrow 10 inches? It would be a framer’s nightmare. But rolling it up in its own custom-made box was the perfect solution.
I will blog about the quilt separately, but for now just want it noted for the record that having done it once (like making my own pasta from scratch) I do not feel the need ever to do it again. And, let the record show that Guy Begbie has the patience of a saint.
