This Blog

This is a blog to show off my needlework, mainly crazy quilting, beading and crochet. It makes me happy to create these things and even more happy to share the fun with friends. Pictures of my beading projects are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/37765046@N00/sets/72057594083565963/

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Pink Garden Progress


As promised, here are pictures of the orgami flowers along the bottom of the Pink Garden wall hanging. I used a pattern from Flower Origami by Kumiko Sudo. Coincidentally, Kumiko's books have recently been mentioned enthusiastically on the Crazy Quilt International listserve. This is the only book of hers I have. It merits the enthusiasm in my opinion. The flowers are fabic flowers and her instructions are very clear. I haven't been successful following directions for paper orgami, so I appreciate her descriptive skill a lot.
The brown flowers were purchased, made to fuse to fabric. I embellished them with beads. Getting started on this project feels great!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Snowstorm!! Bracelet Finished.


Got to blog about this record snowstorm for this area. It's being called snowmagedon, snowzilla or snowpocalypse. Over two feet fell from Friday morning until Saturday evening. Electricity went out for about 2 1/2 hours yesterday. My inside temperature fell from 72 to 64 degrees. I had wood in the fireplace for a nice fire in the evening but I didn't light it. Maybe tonight.
This picture is of the path I dug from the back side door yesterday morning. Another 5 or 6 inches fell and I had to dig out again, but it was easier than tackling the caboodle at once. Here's a picture of my backyard at the same time.








There was plenty of light in my studio for stitching and I have a battery operated radio so I could listen to my favorite Saturday NPR programs while the electricity was out. I finished the Jewel of India bracelet started in a class at my local Embroidery Guild meeting last Monday. This was taught by Susan Elliott from an article in the October/November 2004 issue of Beadwork magazine. My finished product sure shows the faults of a first timer. Not smooth on the edges. I do like the look of herrringbone stitch. I don't wear bracelets very often, but I'm thinking of adapting it to crazy quilt embellishment or bead embroidery. It was really fun during the workshop to see the different colors the students used. This pattern lends itself to some beautiful results. I just picked my colors from the 6 colors of delica beads I had in my stash. I was lucky to have four that went well together.
Today the sun is shining and the snow is beautiful. My good neighbors scooped my sidewalk and I snapped this picture of Jocelyn being silly behind the snow in their front yard. I had my fill of snow growing up in Iowa, but this storm somehow has been nice. It makes a cosy break from the routine, it brings people together to deal with it and it's lovely at the moment.

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