It only took eight years, but I can finally call this small hand-crafted artist’s book “finished”! I’m counting it as fulfilling the second UFO prompt for Make Nine 2025.
 |
| Artist’s book with a kantha stitched fabric cover. Interior pages consist of various mark-making techniques and collage. |
A book of mark-making
This piece began as a mark-making exercise in a workshop with Dorothy Caldwell in the summer of 2017. The interior pages of this book are made of long, narrow strips of paper that were painted, inked, and collaged—experiments using different mark-making techniques and tools.
 |
| A page spread of the book. |
Each page spread is a little world—layered with marks, pattern, shadow, and intuition. Some feel like meditative sketches with spontaneous marks.
 |
| Another page spread with inked marks and collage. |
The pages are folded into three signatures, sewn together with a woven binding. The book, when opened, can lie flat.
 |
| Woven binding hold the three signatures together. |
The kantha stitched cover
The cover was also a long narrow piece of black cotton fabric. The texture and hint of color is created by rows and rows of simple running stitches—the kantha embroidery technique we were learning in the workshop. I used embroidery floss, both single strand and multi-strand, and let the needle meander across the fabric.
 |
| Kantha stitched cover. |
The single strands of colored floss provide a subtle contrast to the black fabric base, and a soft, delicate complement to the more dominant, white stitching lines. This cover was stitched intentionally—not fast, not perfect, just by being present.
 |
| Running stitches with colored and white embroidery floss. |
Combining cover and signatures… just do it
The stitched cover and the book pages lay together for years, knowing they were meant to go together. My dilemma, however, was how to attach the cover to the text pages. Make a wrap-around cover with a tie? A cover with a snap? or button closure? This was the step that stalled the completion of the book for so long.
Returning home with energy and excitement from a recent quilting class at the Folk School, I had a burst of inspiration and immediacy to complete this UFO. The time had come to just “figure it out!” I decided to create a “book jacket” (of sorts) for the book. The two short ends of the cover were turned to the inside and stitched, creating pockets for the first and last pages of the book to slide into.
 |
| The ends of the cover folded over to create pockets for the book. |
 |
| Front page inserted into the book jacket. |
 |
| The last page inserted into the book jacket. |
The final result is a tactile skin for my little book of marks: a soft cover, richly textured with slow stitching, that wraps around pages already brimming with expression. The perfect complement! The imperfections of the stitching as well as the painted and drawn marks show the hand of the maker… from cover to cover.
 |
| Finished artist’s book with a hand stitched cover. |
Inserting the signatures into the pockets of the “book jacket” felt like the last step in the ceremony. After all this time, the project finally had its resolution. It was not just a collection of pages and fabric, but a completed book. A united entity unto itself.
Creativity is not linear
There’s something deeply satisfying about finishing a long-dormant project. It reminds me that creativity isn’t linear—that even unfinished work holds value, and that returning to something old can still feel fresh and alive. It reminded me of the past experience when it was first created, but it also resonates with the present.
 |
| Make Nine 2025 UFO prompt fulfilled. |
So here it is: another UFO prompt for Make Nine 2025 completed. Not late, just… right on time.
 |
| Make Nine 2025 tracker. August 2025. |
