Project :- Embroidered Book Cover

I've been ill for the last ten weeks. When I began to recuperate, I started a new embroidery project.

Helen was kind enough to give me a book she had made. It's of the Coptic bookbinding design and I intend to use it to record various inks on various papers, pasted in.

Here it is, on it's side


On seeing the Guide to English Embroidered Book Covers in the British Library site
( http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/embin2a.html - do a keyword search, select "Gallery" and search on "embroidered") which the scribies mentioned awhile ago, I was inspired to make an embroidered cover for Helen's book.

I'm embroidering two panels for the front cover. The rest of the cover will be of black silk velvet

This is for the main part of the cover that isn't hidden by the flap.

This is for the flap (which extends from the back cover)

I haven't used satin stitch before, and am slowly getting better at it. I figured out that I needed to make my stitches longer, and keep the thread straight (and can see why someone would use a laying tool) just yesterday. You can see the difference in the green flower at the bottom - how much smoother it is.