Aunt
Diane Dawber's poem, Aunt, refers to a specific car, which gave me the opportunity to make 1970 Buick Electras out of industrial felt! (This series of bookworks exploring textile techniques has given me the chance to try things I have never done in fabric.) Embroidered haloes, tiny quilts and crocheted tablecloths illustrate the poem about a woman who "could do anything with her hands." Photo credit: Chris Miner.
2023, Kingston, ON. 4 pages plus 2-page colophon, split. (5 x 7 x 15 ″) Edition of 6. $900

Button
This fabric book must be unbuttoned to read the text of Lorna Crozier's wonderful poem of the same name. The books were screen-printed in an eccentric edition of 10, as the fabric came from my stash: I am still trying to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE. The buttons used came from the collections of Norma Homer (a good friend), Pauline Melhorn (my mother) and Reta Boe (my grandmother-in-law.) Photo credit: Chris Miner.
2018, Kingston, ON. 5 pages, split. (14 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 1 1/2″) Eccentric edition of 10. $700

Counterpanes
This quilted meander book uses the text of Hazel Hall's poem of the same name. The poem was written c. 1921. Each page is a nine-patch quilt square. The books were screen-printed in an eccentric edition of 10, each book has a different colour scheme: some are orange, some purple two green and one red. Photo credit: Chris Miner.
2019, Kingston, ON. 9 pages including 4 text pages. (12 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 3″) Eccentric edition of 10. $800

Grandmother
Each copy of this book is colour-coordinated with its cover, which is a pair of seersucker or Madras plaid shorts. This copy has a mint green and white seersucker pair as cover. Some pages have extra additions—pant loops, pockets or pocket trim. The books were screen-printed.
2020, Kingston, ON. 9 pages including 3 text pages. (14 x 12 x 1″) Eccentric edition of 10 plus one AP. $600

Heavy Threads
Fabricated with fabric from the artist's stash, each copy is slightly different. The fact that there were only seven place mats determined the size of the edition. The text is screen-printed, using screens made on a Thermofax machine and Color Vie ink from Gunnel Hag, in Toronto. Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2021, Kingston, ON. 5 double pages. (10.75 x 8.5 x 3″) Eccentric edition of 7. $750

House Guest
Elizabeth Bishop's poem "House Guest" is about a depressed seamstress, who would rather be a nun. The dressmaker's Judy (dummy) is layered with five garments—all based on clothing from the 1960s, as that was the decade in which the poem was written. The second coat is a copy of a coat which was worn by Queen Elizabeth II. Removing each of the first four garments reveals a stanza or two screen-printed inside the clothing. The final verse is printed on the front of a nun's habit. (The colophon is on the back.) Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2024, Kingston, ON. 5 pages/garments. (19 x 9 x 8″) Eccentric edition of 6. $900 NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Ironing Board
Each copy of this book is different, as I was using up fabric from my stash during the third Covid 19 pandemic lockdown. The fabrics are colour-coordinated. I had a wonderful time making the little shirts, dresses, pants and skirts—I used a YouTube video to learn how to make pleats. It took me back to my childhood when I made a lot of doll clothes. I did order the teeny tiny buttons online. Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2021, Kingston, ON. 3 ironing boards, 4 pages of text plus cover and colophon. (4 1/2 x 15 x 2 1/4″) Eccentric edition of 10 plus one AP. $750

I Sit and Sew
Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson's poem is in the voice of a woman, during WW1, who wishes she were doing something more active to help the soldiers, rather than sitting and sewing. The book's format is modelled on a WW1 "housewife," a soldier's sewing kit. As it unfolds, the view will find sewing tools and eventually the text. Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2019, Kingston, ON. 3 pages. 4.5 X 6.25 X 1". Eccentric edition of 10. $400 NO LONGER AVAILABLE

The Knitters
P.K Page's extremely visual poem describes knitters as machines, and Henry Moore sculptures, in a maze, knitting mist, knitting men out of their world, covering them with fur...so intriguing to embody. P.K. Page was a Canadian poet who died in 2010. She won the Governor General's Award in 1954. She received eight honorary degrees, was awarded the Order of British Columbia, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Companion of the Order of Canada. Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2025, Kingston, ON. 27 pages. 7 X 7 X 7" (closed.) Opens to 3' x 4'. Eccentric edition of 10. $1000

Like the Petit Point
Like the Petit Point is a poem written by the Canadian poet Bronwen Wallace. Wallace was born in Kingston, and lived and worked in Windsor and Kingston. She was an advocate for women's rights who focussed her work on feminist issues surrounding domestic violence and sexual discrimination. Wallace was only forty-five when she died of cancer, in 1989. The poem had not been published before appearing in The Collected Poems of Bronwen Wallace edited by Carolyn Smart. This poem was used with the permission of McGill-University Press. Photo Credits: Chris Miner.
2022, Kingston, ON. 6 pages. (14 X 8.5 X1.25") Edition of 10. $800

Mending
The text of Mending is a poem by the American poet Hazel Hall. Hall was born in 1886, and lived for most of her life in Portland, Oregon. Following a bout of Scarlet Fever, at the age of 12, she was confined to a wheelchair. Hall took in sewing to help with the family finances, and Mending is one of more than thirty poems she wrote about needlework. Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2018, Kingston, ON. 4 pages. (Size varies according to size of pants.) Eccentric edition of 10. $500

Needle
Lorna Crozier's poem of the same name takes us from her grandmother, through school inoculations, high-school drug use and back to her grandmother. The felt needle case (which is basically a pamphlet) houses both sewing and injection needles, as well as a candy wrapper. Poem used with the poet's permission. Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2018, Kingston, ON. 12 pages. (5 3/4 x 4 x 1″) Eccentric edition of 10. $300

On the Grain
On The Grain is a fabric accordion book (mostly cotton) with pop-ups. The screen-printed text is a poem by Cindy Veach, from her book entitled Gloved Against the Blood. The poems explore the relationships of four generations of women against a backdrop of the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. As someone who struggled with sewing a lot of my own clothes as a teenager, this poem about being an impatient learner resonated with me. It was fun to deliberately mess up the sewing, mis-matching patterns and bunching up seams. Poem used with the poet's permission. Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2024, Kingston, ON. 4 spreads. (7 1/2 x 11 1/4 x 3″) Edition of 10. $750

Scissors
This fabric pop-up book incorporates heavy industrial felt, pieces of a felted and dyed winter coat (thanks to Alana Kapell) and felted wool sweaters, as well as thinner felt and Yupo, a stiff paper-like plastic that can be stitched through. Poem used with permission of Lorna Crozier.
2022, Kingston, ON. 4 spreads with 3 pop-ups. (13 x 9.5 x 2.25″) Eccentric edition of 12. $800

Sewing Pattern
I have wanted to make a book with sewing patterns for many years, so was delighted to discover Alexandra Cussons's poem, used with her permission. The poem describes the creation of a woman, who then destroys the pattern to maintain her uniqueness. Cussons is a British poet who won the Poetry Society's Foyle Young Poet of the Year Award in 2011 for this poem. The text of the poem is layered with pattern pieces, hand-illustrated sewing instructions, photos of the body parts and the final figure. Poem used with the permission of the poet. Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2021, Kingston, ON. 17 pages. (10 x 7 1/4″) Edition of 30. $275

Thank-You Note for a Quilt
Thank-You Note for a Quilt is a meander book, made up with pieced fabric pages, which open in a spiral to form a 16-patch quilt in a Falling Leaves pattern. The poem, by Barbara Kingsolver, is dedicated to her friend Neta Webb-Findley, who taught Kingsolver to quilt. The text speaks about living on a piece of land for one's whole life, and sharing skills and friendship with neighbours. Permission to use the poem was granted by HarperCollins Publishers. Photo credit: Chris Miner.
2024, Kingston, ON. 16 pages/quilt blocks. (9 x 9 x 3″) Opens to about a yard square. Eccentric edition of 9. $900

Two Sewing
Hazel Hall’s poem “Two Sewing” animates this flag book. The lovely text refers to the wind as an embroiderer and the rain as needles, so Hedi Kyle’s flag book seemed like an excellent structure to give the feeling of a landscape opening out. The books were screen-printed and embroidered, mostly using fabric and threads from from my stash. (I did have to buy the silver thread and some of the interior stiffening.) Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2021, Kingston, ON. 28 flags. (14 x 7 x 3″) Eccentric edition of 5. $900

Zipper
Zipper's pages must be unzipped to read the text. As the title indicates, Lorna Crozier's poem and this book are about the characteristics of a zipper – its uses and connotations: Zippers are "sexiest on the back of a dress a woman can’t do up on her own. She lifts the hair on her neck and arches her back while someone behind her slowly pulls the metal tag up over vertebra after vertebra to the top.” The text is screen printed with Thermofax-generated screens, thanks to Peta Bailey. Poem used with the permission of the poet. Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2018, Kingston, 5 1/2 pages. (10 3/4 x 7 1/2 x 2 1/2″) Eccentric edition of 10. $900

Zipper: A Suite
Terry Ann Carter's suite of 5 five poems were written in response to viewing Zipper for the first time. I have never had a poem written about my work before: it is even set in my living room, with a reference to the large abstract painting by Sharon Thompson, a painter who lived for many years in Kingston, and now resides in Calgary. There was so much imagery in the poems that I asked if I could create a bookwork using them. The fabric for the covers is created from zippers sewn together. Poem used with the permission of the poet. Photo credits: Chris Miner.
2019, Kingston, ON. 10 pages. (8 3/4 x11 3/4 x 2″) Eccentric edition of 10. $900