I've been spending a lot of time working on the Japan book. I want to get it finished before I go to Chicago next month so I can take it with me to show at Art Camp 2. I'm up to December 5 on the computer part–only ten more days to go. The cover art is the real chore.

When I returned from New York I made another photo transfer, since I wasn't satisfied with the first one. The second one was worse, as were the third and fourth. I gave up and went back to the one I thought was just for practice. It has a burn mark just above the tree and some bits of the photo missing from the lower edge. I think I've figured out how to deal with it, but I can't really try my fix until I take the photo off the embroidery hoop. You can see a little of what I'm doing–the picture isn't very good.

I plan to do only the tree: the leaves are French knots and the trunk is a sort of outline stitch.

I've been working on it during a class I'm taking on stitching. One of the other women in the class is married to a book binder. When I mentioned that I planned to glue this to the book board she said something about the glue staining it. I hadn't really given that much thought, until she said it. Serendipity again.

The canvas bag I glued for the China book was no problem because the canvas was so heavy. But the bag lining that I used on the inside of the covers is a light cotton and the glue stained it. This could be a problem with the obi silk; it's heavier than the cotton lining but not as heavy as the canvas. I found this article on the internet and will do something similar.