from Bee to Zebra

either way there seems to be a black stripe theme going on here

this is the beaded bee I did yesterday that I plan to use on the Wild About Flowers piece

right now he has a stinger and eyes (what BIG eyes you have), but no wings yet --- I hope to get the wings made today

and if I do another one of these I will make it shorter and plumper -- this guy looks a little on the long and lean side to me

and this is the drawing of the zebra stripe that I plan to use for the bead embroidered bracelet

now I have to go through the box of black beads and the box of white beads and see if I have what I need to do this

(doesn't it look like a very cool zebra?)

the next apron has been cut out

this fabric is a satin backed crepe, and while this will be another "half" apron (or hostess apron as is the popular term now days) it will be only loosely based on this vintage pattern

and those trims -- yup, planning on using those -- I really like the whole strawberry theme going here -- and this means I'll be dragging out the size 15 red beads and making a little beaded strawberry to use as an accent piece


occasionally I actually make something for myself

there were two shirts that ended up in my hands -- one is a long sleeved white dress shirt that was my dad's and one is a black and gray plaid that was my son-in-law's

the plan is to take parts of each shirt, and maybe some of this very cool black and gray print and these vintage buttons and some stamping and painting and make myself a sort of light weight jacket of the sort that I like to wear

this doesn't have top priority, but I think it will be a fun project, and if I get it finished I can enter it in the State Fair (which is always fun)


the yarn fairy sent me another box of goodies!

a while back I was talking to my sister about a knitting project that requires 5 double pointed needles

let me say here that I've been knitting for a really long time (over 50 years) and back in the day that I bought my double pointed needles, they came in sets of 4, not 5

my sister has been knitting a long time too -- she agreed to "supplement" my needle stash for this project
well, you can't just pop a bunch of double pointed knitting needles into an envelope and drop it in the mail

Hello! paper envelope --- sharp pointy metal things!!

nope, this required a box -- and packing materials!

heh, yeah

I love her choice of packing materials

4 skeins of super cool baby yarn (I have a cute as pie bootie pattern with little animals to make out of this yarn); 1 more skein of this odd 1960's (?) made in Israel yarn; 2 other skeins of knitting worsted weight stuff

and this AMAZING purple and gold printed fabric -- about 2 yards worth

now this fabric looks to me like it could serve very nicely as the back of the in planning large African Animal piece

WOW!!


finished another strip for the afghan last night -- this makes 46 inches done -- 76.667%!

I'll probably take this one along with me this evening when I go to the quilt guild meeting -- it's good to keep my hands busy while listening to the guest speaker


and the Christmas Sweater is 28.293% complete -- at the next session I should be finishing the decreases for the shoulders and putting everything on the stitch holders for picking up the hood later --- moving right along!!!

ok, time to go get busy