Gift, beads

Our friend has been gone for a while and did a lot of beading during that time. She gave each of us in the quilt group a necklace she had made. This is mine. Isn't it beautiful?

I had to make a trip to Seattle on business today. It's strange but the car automatically takes the exit at Lacey and goes to Shipwreck Beads. Here's a selection of the ones I bought. I have to decide before going what type I'm going to focus on or all is lost. It is the size of a warehouse for those who haven't heard of it. This time I bought lots of Toho beads, seed beads in other sizes, and the four strings of decorative beads.

Take A Stitch Tuesday, fleece

Just when I was comfortable using the blog, the rules changed. It's taken quite a while to figure out how to upload photos the new "improved" way. At 5:30am my mind doesn't want to learn new tricks.

Sharonb at http://www.pintangle.com/ gives us a stitch every week to try. This week it is the Raised Herringbone Band. It's another interesting one and can actually be sort of curved-right side vertical band. It takes a lot of work to give us these challenges and I thank her.

I dyed more roving with food color. It is easy and satisfying, but I seem to be heavy into the red. The yellow batches looked too brown which is not a color I'm fond of, so I added red and have plenty now.

Thank you everyone who commented on Passages. The challenges make me experiment and try some of the things I think about and don't get around to.

Quilt

http://www.threecreativestudios.com/ has a quilt challenge every other month. The latest challenge was the word Passage. I added an s and came up with Passages.

The photos are of gates and doors I took in Germany and transferred to fabric. They are strip pieced and machine quilted. Every time I tried to embellish the hanging, it said no. All my tries detracted from the photos.

Block of the Month

Here are the latest two quilt blocks from the Block of the Month featured on http://www.threecreativestudios.com/

It's amazing how much the light violet brightens up the block.

Take A Stitch Tuesday, Technique of the Month

This week's stitch from Sharonb at http://www.pintangle.com/ is the Fancy Hem Stitch. The top line is the original way to do it. I made a grid by expanding the distance between the rows and filling the centers with a French Knot. The threads were Perle Cotton, floss(fuchsia), and Ostara.

The Technique of the Month from http://www.threecreativestudios.com/ is transferring onto fabric. I had this piece in progress. It's the negative of a flower in front of our house. First, I machine stitched on it, then hand stitched using French Knots in the center.

The group doing the postcards from the last post is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unlimited-textiles/  It's a Yahoo group that started in Europe. I'm hoping mine gets to England. The poor people stuck in airports. At least now some are getting to fly home.

Postcard, bird

Unlimited Textiles is exchanging postcards again. This is the one I'm sending out. It's done on a wool background with Misty Fuse used to hold silk flowers, fleece, and fabric scraps to it then covered with tulle.

Momma Robin has really been busy keeping her eggs warm.  We have tried to stay away from the back door as much as possible. She wasn't happy about having her photo taken, flew away but then came right back as soon as I left. While she was gone, it was too much of a temptation to photograph the eggs.

Take A Stitch Tuesday

The Rope Stitch was the one for this week posted on Sharonb's blog  http://www.pintangel.com/ The small sample below the fold is the one I stitched then realized that I had done a larger sample higher on the piece. It's a stitch that moves nicely and can be varied.

That's to everyone who commented on my last blog. Night Fire is the perfect name for the hanging and will be going on the label. As soon as I read it, I knew that it was right. Thanks Carol.

Quilt

One of the Bead Journal projects from last year used a rust batik that I had a piece left from, so I decided to make a quilt from it. I used another batik with it, beaded the center heavily and bordered it in solids.Here's a detail of the beading. My problem is that I have no idea what to call the hanging-a total blank. That's always the hardest part for me. Any suggestions?

Take A Stitch Tuesday

The stitch last week for Sharonb's Take a Stitch Tuesday was the Buttonhole Eyelet Flower. It's a buttonhole eyelet in the center surrrounded by bullion stitches. The small one is done in Perle 8 and has 2 rows of bullion around it. The blue one is done in Ostara-a soft thread of larger scale. I bought it many years ago and don't know if it is still available. It's a lovely thread.

In the comments for the last post I was asked about online classes. I just enjoy taking classes and find these have a lot to offer. I don't need to haul supplies only to find that what is at home is what I need. I don't have to leave the house. We live in the country, so it is more of a trip plus traffic when I get near Portland, OR. There is more choice in the classes. When you've taken as many as I have, it's hard to find new ones. I still take local ones too when something comes up. I just love to learn!

Bead Journal Project

For April's Bead Journal Project I used another fused glass piece from a friend. The background is felted and Machine quilted with a metallic thread is rough rectangles to echo the shape of the glass.The glass is surrounded by seed beads and in the last row Delicas to hold it in place. The random sized/styled beads seemed to need to be in a rectangle too.

Quilt

Yet another quilt top with the same motif. Years ago a  friend gave me a fabric she painted. I've been saving it for a special project and decide it was time to use it. This one is arranged in a new way, and I have another idea to try today.

Isn't it surprising how much different the same block can look depending on the fabrics and arrangement?

Quilt

That motif I've been working with-shown here-has lead to another quilt top.I had just made it as wide as 3 small repeats but decided to see what happened when it was made large. Then I needed to make more small ones to border one side. I think it is an interesting motif and will play with it more.

TAST, Wildlife

It is week 5 already in Sharonb's Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge http://www.pintangle.com/ This is the Knotted Buttonhole and is easy to work and vary.Look at what we noticed by the back door. Two robins built a nest. It is very close to the door that we use all the time. We have been using the front door to try not to disturb them but have to go by it to get in the garage. Sometimes they are there; sometimes it looks like they deserted it. I hope they stay, so we can watch them.See how well it is hidden from the outside, but if you look closely, you can see how close it is to the door.