Book repairs

For some time I have tended to avoid doing book repairs. This is because, when I went to classes, my book binding tutor always made me do it so perfectly that it took far too long and I lost interest and it became completely uneconomic.
Before Christmas a friend asked me to repair a very falling apart old Mrs Beeton, and as I have a soft spot for old cookery books I agreed. A neighbour also asked me to repair a book, so I thought why not, as I'm in the swing, and I even got round to repairing a cookery book of my own.
Mrs Beeton had to be completely taken apart,

And re-stitched (I've posted this image before, I've worked on it very intermittently!)

 then have a new spine

 And here it is finished. As you can see I didn't spend hours perfectly colour matching it so you couldn't see the join, I just made it strong enough to last many more years, and made it as neat as I could. The pale stripes are where it had been patched up with duct tape!!

 Again, you can see the join inside the endpapers, but the owner seemed happy.

The other book didn't need re-stitching, just needed a new spine. Here it is pulled apart, looking worse before it gets better

 New spine being made

 And here it is finished

 An easier endpaper to repair as I managed to find some paper of a very similar colour. It's quite amazing how many different whites there are when you are trying to get something to match!

So, because I didn't have to do them perfectly (sorry Mary if you ever read this), I quite enjoyed it, and it was almost economic. Well I didn't actually count the hours, that would be silly wouldn't it? But it is good to have indoor work when it's raining or frosty.

p.s. for Belinda
I'm still working on my lambing writing, I'll be back working in the lambing sheds in March, so will try to get it blogged then, when it's 'live'. Also sorry I haven't replied about the dog/sheep thing, I'm thinking about it and will probably e mail you when I've got some ideas together.

A christmas present

Ok I know it's now February 3nd, I'm a bit behind with my blogging!
A bit of embroidery

 A pink leather cover

 A book for the parents of my new niece

 And some stickers to put in the book to record her first years

They seemed pleased with it, and I met her in person last week.
I'm not a baby person at all, but as babies go (she's about 6 months now) she was pretty cute!

Christmas and new year firsts and inspirations

Life got busy in December as I work on a sheep farm at various times through the winter. This is a photo from a few years ago. I love it, and intend to write a lot about it one day. I've done some drafts...

Before Christmas I did my contribution to local community stuff. I painted one section of the scenery for the local panto. Apart from a very brief foray into this sort of thing several years ago I don't really have much experience at it. My task was a dusty Victorian attic. I was rather pleased with the result.

It looked even better when I'd painted cobwebs all over it, but I didn't get a photo of that.

I also made my first ever Christmas cake. I even made the marzipan with ground almonds. Much nicer than bought stuff, and dead easy. Then off we went a-visiting, cake in hand!

Pretty lights in a garden

 ..and lovely hand made decorations on a cousins Christmas tree

 and finally, back home on new years day, we went to see a mummers play. Vince has never seen one, and he still hasn't as it was too crowded! I took this photo over the heads of the crowd. They are performing again next weekend, so we may yet get to see a mummers play!