being edge-y

this is a close up of the way I usually finish off the edges of the bead embroidery pieces I do

its clean, orderly and is a nice smooth line along all of the edges of the piece


the rock garden, however seems to not be the place to use that smooth finish

after all that Fray Check on the back dried, I cut the bead work free of the rest of the stitching fabric, added the upholstery fabric backing and started working my way around the edges with a whip stitch -- picking up two seed beads with each stitch

usually I work all the way around the piece this way then go back and run another thread through each of the beads on the bottom layer and the top layer to create that smooth edge like the orange one above

but I really like this look on this piece -- the edge is still covered (which was why I started using this technique in the first place), but on this piece it just looks like the rock garden is surrounded with a field of nice grass

who knew?

this does mean there won't be any fringe (because that gets added with the thread that runs through to line up the edges), but I'm okay with that because I like the way this edge looks

if things go well I should have this piece all finished in then next couple of days -- all ready for the photo session

I've been adding stuff to my Etsy store every day, and this morning I decided it was time to go ahead and put some of my original quilt pieces out there too -- after all, no one is getting to see them while they are sitting in a box in my studio!

we'll see how that goes


it's Monday, it's wash day -- and I need to pick up milk and a prescription and some stamps (time to write the monthly bills again) -- then hopefully back to work on that grass edge