Too long!

Well, it's been way too long since I have written in this blog. I have been doing some beading, but mostly my "other" life has kept me occupied. I am getting back into the journal pieces now, though. I spent 6 weeks visiting my daughter in Costa Rica, so that slowed things down a bit! But I am back now, and feel like beading! It was great to get some sun and hugs!
I did finish my November journal piece.
I am pleased with the variation in it. It was fun to do, but not very creative. I would like to change my mode for the second half. For the first half I have used photos of flowers I've taken and printed on fabric as my base. That has been fun, but I'm feeling constrained by the literal-ness of these pieces. I would like to take a more improvisational look at beading. It will be more creative for me. I will still use the same size that I started with, but these next 6 will be more spontaneous and interesting for me to create.

October Started

Well here it is the end of September! I can hardly believe how fast the days go. My daughter was here for 10 days visiting from her home in Costa Rica. She and her boyfriend have an eco-tour business there, so she comes to visit in their off-season. Boyerotours.com
I have finished the remainder of my August page, and added a really neat little dragonfly! I love it! It is attached by a loop at her head, so can spin around on top of the center stacks. It's a really fun piece!
I have also taken the opportunity of being ahead to work on my October page. I had thought I would use an orange or at least a peach colored flower to represent autumn, but the busy bee in this photo of my geranium just grabbed my imagination! He was so busy and stayed for a long photo shoot of that flower.... I probably have 10 shots of her on various flowers from that day!
I have begun to make ruffles on the edges of the petals, and am working out how to bead the bee herself.... stay tuned!

I have also made some little fairy faces to add to my flowers...... I remember the fairies in my childhood gardens. We used to have great discussions and they played so nicely with me! (last child and 4 years younger than my next sibling!)

I am so psyched! I am finished with my September Rose BJP page! I kept working away a little at a time, and pretty soon, it was time to sew the petals on, and then it was finished! It almost surprised me.... I had been focusing on the individual petals so much that it actually was startling to discover that when I sewed the final center piece onto the backing, it was DONE!

September Rose

I have begun working on my September page. I decided that I want the petals of my September rose to be three dimensional. I printed out the whole picture as I have for the others, then printed four more of the rose itself so I can cut those up and use them as the petals coming forward. I chose a compatible piece of fabric for the back of the petals, and used Steam a Seam 2 to put them both together. Then I cut out the petals one by one, and pinned them onto their twin on the whole piece. As you can see in the photo, I have three more roses to cut up for further dimension.



One thing I have learned is that you should not pin through this kind of fabric sandwich. It leaves holes..... I guess that means I just have to bead in those places. LOL! As you can see in the photo of the picot edged pieces, I am now pinning them in the already beaded area.

Even with the handling of the fabric, I am pleased that the edges remain nicely firm and un-frayed.
I am planning to do stacks for the stamens in center of the rose. I will do more edge stitching around the flat rose.... need to decide which beads... just got in two orders of beads -- one from Shipwreck Beads, the other from Fire Mountain! Can't wait to play!

Quilts

In July, I was lucky enough to spend time at the Sisters Quilt Show, and took classes in the preceeding week at THE QUILTERS AFFAIR. It's the one week retreat at the high school in Sisters in the week preceeding the annual quilt show.
This year, my sister Carolyn and I took the Sew Easy Circles class from Judy Johnson. I LOVE this technique! It's so fabulous!!!!
I am busy making everything using circles these days! I managed to finish my class sample to enter into our county fair this year. It's called "Earth's Orbs" as I think it looks like the earth from space. The technique is incredible, and easier than you might think.
At our fair, I began playing with an old piece of fabric that I had been saving because I didn't know how to use it.... it's been in my stash for over 6 years, I think. I cut 18 circles from it and put them into some background pieces, and am pleased with this top as well.

I don't know how I will quilt this one.... maybe around the wisteria blossoms.
Currently, I am needing to work on some paying quilting jobs. I am replacing some pieces on an antique quilt for a friend. It's a wool log cabin quilt that was made by his grand mother, he thinks. He is over 70 himself, so we figure it's nearly 80 years old. He wants to leave this quilt for his children, and knows that they won't put any money or time into it, so wants it done in his lifetime.

End of August

Well, it's been a while. I just can't seem to get into this blog thing. I have been working on my July page, and finished it. It was really intense. I started out thinking that I would only bead part of the purple on the page, but as I did more, it became obvious that I had to fill in all the purple. That little 6x6 is really heavy!!! A little more "literal" than I had wanted, but I am pleased with it. I have been listening to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on tape while I've been beading..... really helps my concentration, and I find that I tune in and catch things I didn't get when I read it the first time.


In the month of August, we also had our county fair. It was a fabulous experience as usual. It's an old-timey little fair, and we get to visit with friends, acquaintances and neighbors that we don't usually get to spend time with. This is a picture of my friend Megan showing her mother, Betty, the quilts and other displays in our department. They were so sweet together. This photo represents to me the best of our little town and fair.

I am co-superintendent with my friend, Christy, of the Textile Department. This department includes all quilts and anything sewn or made that STARTS with fabric. I have been a superintendent for over 25 years, and it's almost second nature now. I am blessed to have a great group of friends and fellow-quilters who help with the logisitics of the department. We are so thankful to have them! The weather was cool, but only rained one evening during the fair. We had a wonderful five days!

So since the fair, I have begun my August page for the Bead Journal Project. I started out with the center of my sunflower. I wanted to do something three dimensional, so chose some little gold colored washers and made stacks of brown beads with a gold bead on the top of the stack. I really like the way it looks, but as most of you have already learned, if you do the stacks first, you get tangled in them for all the rest of the beading you do! LOL! Well, I am still glad I did them, because I like them soooo much that it keeps me working on it. I am enjoying the process with this one more than the previous two. I think I am also growing in terms of my beading technique.

So, since then I have outlined each petal, and filled in part of them with a variety of fan-like beading images. These were tricky to do since the petals are a variety of widths, and the square beads I was using for the "center" of the fan are a variety of sizes and shapes. So I decided to have the fans stack in a random kind of way. I also realized that I might not have enough of the SAME beads to use in all of the petals, so decided to do 9 of the petals intensely and figure out what to do in the alternate petals later. Maybe something a little different.... maybe nothing at all. I will be glad to take suggestions! ;-)

So that's where it stands as of this moment, until I get to a big bead supply. I live out in the boondocks..... literally at least 2 hours from anything! We do have a bead store in town, but it's limited, and when you know what's out 'there", it makes it hard to settle for something just because it's here. I did find some little metallic stars to use around the edge of the center of the sunflower. I am playing with how to mount them..... the hole goes in one side of the star between points and OUT the other side on the point, so it's hard to get them to sit any particular way. I may have to touch them with a dot of nail polish to get them to stay!