Cairn & Quill

03/06/2026

The next Coptic stitch lined journal is officially underway 📖✨

Today’s little bit of bookbinding joy: two freshly prepared cloth covers, cut, shaped and ready for the next stage. They don’t look like much yet… but this is where the character starts creeping in.

As a fellow journal geek will testify, these neat edges, careful corners, and the quiet promise that these two pieces of board and cloth are about to become something useful, tactile and hopefully well-loved.

Next up: lined signatures, stitching, and the mildly dramatic moment where I try not to breathe while getting everything lined up properly.

Handmade in Aviemore, one careful step at a time.

24/05/2026

24/05/2026

I love this stage of making a book.

Just paper, folded by hand, one sheet at a time, slowly becoming signatures. It doesn’t look like much yet, but this is the very birth of a book — long before the covers, thread, stitching and finishing touches bring it fully to life.

Over the next day or so, this will grow in my hands into another Coptic stitch book, this time with lined pages. And like every handmade book, it’ll have its own tiny nuances. The little details only I’ll probably ever notice, but that make it completely individual.

Then, once it leaves my hands, it gets to become something even more personal — filled with someone else’s words, notes, plans, prayers, sketches, lists, thoughts, and everyday moments. That’s when it gains its real character.

No two are ever exactly the same — and honestly, that’s the magic of it. 📖✨

24/05/2026

Fresh off the bench: handmade Coptic stitch journal for Cairn & Quill 📚✨

This one is wrapped in a lovely olive-green book cloth, paired with bright blue thread and copper eyelets — because apparently I cannot resist giving a notebook a tiny bit of drama.

The exposed spine means it opens beautifully flat, making it ideal for sketching, journaling, planning, list-making, or writing down “very important thoughts” that may or may not be mostly book ideas and tea preferences.

Hand-cut, hand-folded, hand-stitched… and only mildly wrestled into existence.

I’m really pleased with how this one came together — rustic, sturdy, practical, and just a little bit handsome.

Coming soon to Cairn & Quill stock inventory.

24/05/2026

A little look at the bones of this handmade Coptic stitch journal 📚✨

This one has been built with cloth-covered boards, copper eyelets, folded signatures, and a very patient amount of blue thread. The Coptic stitch binding leaves the spine exposed, which means you can actually see the structure doing its thing - no hiding the hard work here.

Each section has been folded, pierced, lined up, stitched, tightened, checked, adjusted, and then mildly threatened into behaving itself.

The result is a journal that opens beautifully flat, making it ideal for sketching, writing, planning, or dramatically staring at a blank page until inspiration arrives.

I really enjoy this style of binding because the construction becomes part of the design. The thread, eyelets, signatures and covers all work together rather than being hidden away, practical, sturdy, and just the right amount of show-off.

Handmade, hand-stitched, and only slightly bossed around.

23/05/2026

Ever wondered how a Coptic stitch book cover gets its finishing touches?

Well… brace yourself… because this video is absolutely riveting. 😏

Today’s little bindery moment involved setting the rivets into the cover, which is one of those strangely satisfying jobs that makes the book feel properly sturdy, handmade, and ready for its next chapter.

There’s hammering, concentration, and only a moderate risk of me dramatically overthinking the placement of tiny metal things.

Also, please forgive the state of my hands — my 6-year-old boy decided they were a suitable canvas today, so apparently I’m part bookbinder, part walking art installation. 🎨😂

Another Cairn & Quill book slowly coming together — one rivet at a time. 📚✨

22/05/2026

Hello! I’m Blu, the hands behind Cairn & Quill.
I make handmade journals, restore old books, recover Bibles and generally spend a suspicious amount of time covered in glue, thread and tiny bits of paper.

I’m trying to grow this little handmade bookbinding page, so if you enjoy books, craft, stationery, restoration videos, or watching someone wrestle with linen thread like it owes them money — please follow along.

First goal: 100 followers. Tiny milestone, big happy dance.

21/05/2026

Another Coptic stitch journal is officially making its way into the Cairn & Quill stock inventory… after only a mild amount of measuring, piercing, folding, gluing, pressing, trimming, muttering, and pretending I absolutely knew where I put my needle five minutes ago.

This little green beauty is coming together with cloth-covered boards, hand-folded signatures, and that lovely exposed Coptic spine that lets the pages open beautifully flat. Perfect for sketching, journaling, plotting world domination, or writing down “buy more bookbinding supplies” for the 400th time.

Every hole is punched by hand, every section is sewn with care, and every stage involves at least one moment of “please don’t shift now.” Handmade glamour, basically.

Soon to be available as part of the Cairn & Quill stock — one journal closer to my workbench looking less like chaos and more like a very niche paper-based empire.

20/05/2026

“Making glue” probably isn’t the glamorous side of bookbinding… but this little pot is the difference between a repair lasting 6 months or 60 years. 📚

Tonight’s job: traditional wheat paste for repairing fragile pages with Japanese tissue paper.
Slow cooked, carefully stirred, and surprisingly satisfying to make.

One of the things I’m loving about learning conservation-style book repair is how much patience it teaches you. No rushing. No shortcuts. Just simple materials, used properly.

There’s something quite special about using techniques that bookmakers and conservators have relied on for generations to help preserve somebody’s memories, stories, recipes, notes and family history.

Also… yes, it does look suspiciously like I’m making wallpaper paste or porridge. 😂