April 2021

Our Spring meeting was again on Zoom with two projects -   Pat's no-sew folded notebook book cover  and Margaret's  cascade book. The lovely examples below are Ruth's, made during the meeting:

Our book-swap theme was 'Freedom' which we'd all interpreted in very different ways.  Thanks to those members who were able to supply photos of their books for me!

Jill had written a lovely poem about the freedoms we've missed since March 2020 which she used as the basis for her book:

Margaret's book similarly celebrated freedoms we've been missing, illustrated by her own cartoons, inspired by a TED talk which proved to her she COULD draw!

Pat took inspiration from literary characters who had each made a bid for freedom:

Janet B was inspired by Martin Luther King' s famous speech:

Jo made a cloth book of Patchwork Postcards:

Ruth took the four seasons as her inspiration:

And Mari was inspired by the weather:

This meeting also marked something of a crossroads for the group.  After twenty years of meeting in person for workshops and the book-swap, we no longer have access to a venue for our meetings and the situation surrounding the pandemic has also given us a lot to think about. Reluctant to abandon the group completely and lose the creative challenge at the heart of Quarto, we've reached a compromise. 

We've agreed that Quarto will continue with zoom meetings but without a workshop or demonstration. Instead, we'll have a show and tell of things we've done, followed by a (postal) book exchange.  The meetings will be shorter as a result with a 10.30am start and we've decided to agree on a mutually agreeable date for the next meeting, rather than always sticking to the last Saturday of the quarter. 

Our next meeting will therefore be on July 3rd and the swap will be 'Apertures'.  October's exchange will be 'Quirky' and January's will be 'Travel' - dates for October and January to be arranged. 

January 2021

In the midst of a wintery UK national lockdown, Saturday January 23rd 2021 saw our second virtual Quarto meeting via Zoom. We're all getting so much more confident with virtual get togethers and the day was a real success. With two projects and a book swap, there was plenty to do and share and the excitement of the day was extended into the week after the meeting, with swap books landing on recipients' doormats thanks to the Post Office.   Janet Barnett took us through a sewn pamphlet journal with dust cover and paper bead embellished bookmark and Margaret demonstrated a deceptively simple Woven Flexagon with concealed hiding places.

The book swap was a theme-free one and it was lovely to see what everyone had created, keeping to the confines of the postal system's Large Letter guidelines.  Sadly, I don't have photos of everyone's creations this time but these are some of the books we swapped:

Ruth

Pat

Jill

Janet B

Karenna

Margaret

Janet A

Jo

Mari

Karenna also shared photos of her books bound with Portuguese Cork fabric:

At a time when creativity is so important to keep us sane, and when gathering together is impossible, it is lovely to be able to share so much with like-minded book-artists!  Here's to April 2021 and hopefully a Zoom hat-trick!

Thanks to everyone who provided photos and apologies this has taken so long to post! 

24th October 2020: Quarto by Zoom

Our autumn meeting date was Saturday October 24th and once again technology came to our rescue with  a Zoom-based workshop organised by Janet Barnett and Margaret Beech and facilitated by Susan Moor's Zoom account!  This time we were more ambitious, with a project in the morning, and another for the afternoon. Sadly, I don't have as many photos as usual but hopefully these give some idea of what we spent the day doing!

Janet began with 'Flexagons' - clever little mathematical folds of which appear to defy the basic laws of paper.  We made two, following her on-line demonstration and excellent powerpoint which kept us right and also gave lots of other ideas for developing the basic idea further.

In the afternoon, Margaret introduced us to a super-simple 'Triple Whammy' card and demonstrated how to make an envelope to fit it.  These are the ones Margaret had produced to inspire us along with the versions Pat and I made (we're in a support bubble so we were able to work together!) 

If anyone else has photos of the things they made on Saturday, please send them to me - it would be great to see what everyone created!

Finally, instead of our usual bookswap we had a quick 'show and tell' of projects we'd completed during Lockdown, with Janet showing how she'd used the stunning photos from her cruise to create an inspirational thoughts book and Pat demonstrating the different structures she'd used in a holiday scrapbook, most of which were taken from Shrushti Patil's Youtube tutorials which can be found here... 

It was really lovely to see and talk to everyone (not to mention getting a little peek inside some people's crafty HQs and seeing Susan's gorgeous cat!) and the Zoom approach is a really good one - hopefully we'll be able to do the same again in January when Margaret might be persuaded to show us how she made this stunning flexagon birthday card incorporating some tiny envelopes!

Wishing you all a crafty lead-up to Christmas!

July 2020: Update on projects and Quarto's first Zoom meeting!

For the second time this year, we've had to miss our quarterly meeting and workshop because of the pandemic. However, the one good thing about the very strange four months we've spent in lockdown has been the time to do lots of creative projects and this quarter's blog is a quick round up of some of them!  Many thanks to members who have sent these photos!

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and Margaret Beech's ingenuity, many members were able to take part in a 'virtual' workshop via Zoom to make these lovely 'Nested pinwheels (with little bit of Paper Magic!)'.

Janet Barnett then went on to add her own twist to Margaret's work using the leftover pieces to create a lovely matching  'curly box', perfect, she says, for a Ferrero Rocher!

Janet has also demonstrated her talent for limericks during the lockdown!

Jill Williams has created this fabulous stab bound colouring book for a friend:

Margaret has also been sending us inspirational ideas via email - it's never too early to think Christmas if you are a crafter!

And finally, Alison Topham has put her wonderful bookbinding creations on sale via her Etsy store: visit https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BorderCityBindery?fbclid=IwAR3ysaq33a4SrJUOTB1UJKwXN6xmStmIxplszA5jT8HvL44zJZCaI9sHlno
to see the gorgeous one-of-a kind handmade books which she has for sale.

If anyone else would like to share their lockdown creations, please just email a clear photo to Jo!

Stay safe, everyone, and have a creative summer!

April 2020: Strange Times Indeed!

Normally, around this time, I would have been posting the photos of our April Quarto meeting with our lovely swap books and projects.  But Spring 2020 has been anything but normal.  We postponed April's meeting when the UK Corona virus advice led to a full lockdown and we realised that it was very unlikely that we would be able to meet up at all.

However, as 'crafty types', we've not been idle.  Margaret Beech has been emailing small paper projects to members to keep us occupied - the sort of thing that could be easily mailed as a cheer-up in an envelope.  In addition, several members forwarded photos of their lockdown crafting projects so that we can share a virtual gallery of our craftiness!  Some of these are below.  If anyone else has pictures to add, please do send them to my usual email address and we'll do a second post in a week or two...

Jill Williams has created an array of gorgeous cards, using a mixture of different papercraft techniques...

 ...as well as a fabulous bunting banner for her niece's wedding (now sadly postponed to next spring.) Jill sent this as two photos and I've 'magicked' them together - please ignore the join!!!

Janet Barnett has also been inspired to make some lovely cards, using a wide range of different ideas from Quarto and Northumbrian Scribes workshops:

Margaret has been creating some fabulous monochrome montages:

And Jo and Pat Duncan have been working on a Saturday Recycling Creative Challenge: week 1 was toilet roll tubes which became characters from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream':

and week 2 Matchboxes which became mini theatres:

Finally, a burst of sunshine in paper-form from Ruth Rowland, reminding us that things will get better at some point - I think this is the message we all need at the moment!!

More soon !  Until then, stay safe, stay well and stay creative!

January 2020 meeting 'Precious Things'

Our Winter meeting was held on Saturday 25th January with seven people attending and we had a very productive day, with Judy Elphinstone leading a workshop on the construction of Hedi Kyle's Blizzard book - a structure requiring neither stitching nor glue.  Having mastered this fairly quickly, we then moved on to the impressive wrap-round cover which proved to be a  lot more challenging than it looked but which we were all proud to say looked fabulous when complete.

In the afternoon, Pat Duncan led a workshop to create 'Shiori Ningyo' - traditional Japanese doll origami bookmarks. 

As is often the case, both of these projects came from books made for  swaps in 2019 - Judy's for 'Italy' and Pat's for 'Japanese Stab Binding'.

The book swap topic for this meeting was 'Precious Things' which, as always, members had interpreted in many different ways, creating books about seeds, concepts and principles, the alphabet, varied personal interests, family history and nature, with sewn, folded and tied structures, and even one book that rattled when shaken! 

Susan Moor's Northumberland walking map book was inspired by John Ogilby's 'Britannica' map which can be viewed here:  https://www.fulltable.com/vts/m/map/ogilby/mna.htm

Looking forward to the Spring and our next get-together!

Next meeting:  Saturday 27th April
Swap topic: 'Fairy Tales'