Look at the beautiful roving a friend gave me. I'll use it as one of my backgrounds for the Bead Journal Project.
We went to a bead store, and here are the additions to my stash. I have lots of seed beads, so I try to find other sizes and shapes.
Next to Craft Warehouse where they were having their pearls on sale-great colors and styles. We ended up with lunch and then went in our opposite directions to get home before too much traffic. Nice day.
http://www.threecreativestudios.com/ has a Technique of the month that they give directions to and then draw for a prize from the people who submit photos of something they have done with that technique. I found this lovely postcard from Vicki for the painted fabric technique. It has fuzzy places, smooth ones and is fun to touch. Thank you Vicki. Not only that, but I've salvaged some ugly fabric by painting over it and creating something usuable.
This month's technique was painted lace that is fused to Tintex. I made a cuff and decorated it with antique buttons. Beads always appear on my work, but I didn't want them to detract from the buttons, so they just echo the path the buttons take.
One of the ladies at quilt group had been to a bead show and bought us each a necklace. It matched my outfit perfectly, so I put it on immediately. Mine is actually violet, but the computer refused to show the real color no matter how I tried to manipulate it.
I've just finished knitting a chemo cap. I knit at night when my mind is tired and doesn't create. The caps I do between other projects. The fur kind my son's Mother-in-law liked, because they give fullness and the illusion of bangs. Hopefully, now of you need one, but if you do, let me know.
This week Sharonb at http://www.pintangle.com/ introduced us to the Portuguese Border Stitch. It's worked on a foundation row of straight stitches and goes wherever you take those stitches. First I worked it traditionally, then curved it and used different colors for the two sides. Next I tried it in a circle to create a flower shape. Then I did just one half of the stitching reversing sides in the middle. I like the curved one best. 
The technique of the month is painted lace at http://www.threecreativestudios.com/ It's bonded to Tintex to create a piece stiff enough for a cuff which I'm now working on. I used Dynaflow paints and like the effect. I was ambitious and have lots of it left to make a book. 
Here's the next quilt block I'm using with the motif from Friday's post. By stretching it, the look changed completely. The fabrics are a commercial batik and cotton.
I'm taking a Whisper Felting class at Electric Quilt University and learned to dye roving with food color and vinegar. All the food color I had in the cupboard was 2 bottles of red plus dried up green and yellow. Putting water in the green and yellow gave me enough dye to make it work. It was fun and safe for the heat setting in the microwave, since food products were what I used. When it is first washed out, it looks like matted dog hair, but after carding, it is nice.
Here are 4 black and white blocks of a motif I'm playing with. I think it has possibilities.
I made it up in black and 2 African fabrics. The one with the gold is so dominant that it is almost hard to look at.
I've been doing the stitches that Sharonb has had on her blog http://www.pintangle.com/ She posts a new one each Tuesday. The first is last week's and is Loop Stitch.
This time the challenge word was communications. There is very little direct communication anymore. Most involves a device that has a circuit board, so here is my circuits. The photos were taken by my husband of a board he built for his train set. I transferred them to fabric and fused them to a background.
To cover the edges I used antique ribbon to recall the time when we actually talked face to face. Ultrasuede shapes convey the idea to and and nan gates-used in designing circuits. Hanging from below the photos are parts from a circuit board.
The glass circle is attached with a heavy metallic thread, then the center was filled with beads.
I had a nice floral and decided to use that. The number of blocks I cut and framed was determined by the amount of fabric I had. I think it will be a cheerful quilt.
Those were stitched down in two layers. The center was beaded-not even too hard with all the layers and fusible. 
This is some fabric painted with metallic paints. It saved an ugly piece and shimmers nicely in person. It is the Technique of the month on http://www.threecreativestudios.com/ 
It will be quilted in a very basic manner. It's a quilt to be used and will be by grandchildren and granddogs. It's fun to do something that has no pressure involved.
