In the Mirror

OK, I was bored, so I decided to take a picture of my chest after all.  Here's my first bead-weaving project, made into a little pin.

Then I got carried away, taking pictures into the mirrored closet doors.

I also figured out that I could hold the camera backwards and see the viewfinder in the mirror.  I thought I was having a good hair day, but it doesn't look so hot here!

Enough silliness.  This morning I finished another little beaded project.  Well, the beading is finished, but I have to work in the loose ends.  This time I used size 11 seed beads.

The base of my river challenge is also quilted.  From a distance it looks about the same.

Here are a couple of detail shots.

Now I need to add some flora and fauna.  I'm not sure yet what methods I want to use.  Guess I'll sleep on it.

Along the River

A week or more ago, I showed the beginning of my quilt that I am making for The Pamlico River Quilters Guild quilt show in Sept.  I started by cutting a cotton batting base slightly oversized, then selecting a number of fabrics and adding fusible.

Last night, I pulled it out again.  I trimmed a little, rearranged a little and came up with this basic design. 

At this point, everything is fused, but that's all.  Next - a lot of quilting and embellishment.

I wore my little beaded pin on Saturday when I attended a guild meeting in Rocky Mount, NC.  I didn't take a picture of my chest, so you will just have to take my word for it that the little, kind of primitive looking pin looked good on my denim jumper.  I've started another, slightly larger design.

The first pin was made with delica beads, that are more precisely made than even the nicest seed beads.  The delicas are squared off, so they fit tightly together in a woven fabric.  Unfortunately ,the delicas were furnished by the instructor and I don't have any of my own.  I do have a LOT of seed beads, so I can practice until I get my hands on more of the other beads.  Not a problem, I have a LOT of seed beads!

PS.  I worked on my selvage blocks all day Sunday and the count is up to 60.

Making a Yarn Bowl

There's a new product from Clover that I have been anxious to try out.  They are called Basket Frames and come in a variety of sizes and shapes.  This is  my first, made with a variegated, hand-dyed wool yarn and it turned out pretty good.  I've got the kits in the store now and there is a great Youtube video that shows just how to do it.  

Last weekend I worked on the selvage blocks again.  I have about 45 so far, but probably need about twice that many if I am going to make the quilt big enough for the bed.  Here is a picture that was shared previously, of four of the blocks finished and trimmed.

During the past week, I didn't have a bit of time to work on the river challenge.  I'll get going on that next week!

Finished and Finished

One of kitties woke me up REAL EARLY today (hairball) and I couldn't get back to sleep.  Soooooo ....


I finished the binding on the little quilt that I machine quilted on Tuesday.

I am thrilled, thrilled, THRILLED to have this finished.  Not because it is a traffic stopping, super duper design, but because I have many more like it - tops that were made as class samples or to sell kits or just because.  I will always love the hand work, but it seems amazing that I pushed myself to do this machine quilting and now it's DONE!


Last night I worked on the little beaded project.  I had longer threads left on one end than the other, so those became beaded fringe.  Kind of psycho looking beaded fringe.  I cut a rectangle of felt to fit the size exactly and whipped the two pieces together,  tucking in the left-over threads at the top.  All I need to do now is add a little pin to the back.

I wish that I would have framed the design with darker beads.  Live and learn.  Hey, this was my first ever bead weaving project.

Little Bitty Beaded Project

Here is the result of Saturday's bead weaving lesson.  Ta da!

It's every bit of 1 1/8" x 1 1/4".  What will it become?  With luck it just might become a little pin, backed with wool felt and with beaded fringe on one end.


I decided that it was high time to quilt a class sample that has been floating around for a while.  I have another, finished version, made YEARS ago in dated, pale dusty pinks and blues (looks like a baby quilt).  This is the pattern that I have in the store and teach from:

The top has traveled to quilt shows and has been pinned to the wall so many times that it was beginning to get kind of raggedy around the edges.  Time to quilt it.  I am not a very good machine quilter on anything over table runner size - but here goes!

The quilting will take me all day, but if I was quilting by hand, it would take me all month!  And a miracle happened when I found the brown binding fabric safely tucked away in the closet.  I should have a finished product to show SOON!

Bead Weaving

It's the first Saturday of the month and that means ARTRAGEOUS QUILTERS!  We have a wonderful, creative, loosely organized group that really enjoys exploring new techniques, etc.  Some ideas are OLD, but if you've never tried it, it's new to you.  That was the case with today's activity.  Dr. Christine Zoller, an art professor at ECU (Greenville, NC) gave us a presentation on bead weaving.  She showed us some larger sample pieces, but to learn the technique, all we needed was an "Indian Bead Loom" to get started.  As you can see, folks were really watching intently.  Hopefully I will have some finished items to show at a later date.

Now it's time to take off for the weekend.  In addition to playing with beads, I hope to work on that selvage quilt and finish a book or two.  Lately I have been enjoying  a light-hearted mystery series by Lawrence Sanders featuring the character Archie McNally.  Last weekend I read Money in the Bank by P. G. Wodehouse, a favorite of my sister and I will definitely be looking for more of them too.  So much to do, so little time. 

10,000

10:54 PM EST.  The counter stands at 10,000 exactly.  How cool is that?