overcoming the fear factor

if you've been reading here for very long you might remember this piece

or not -- it's been a long time

this was the first piece of bead embroidery that I did that was not intended to be jewelry

inspired by the style of Russian icons from the 1700s, it's relatively small -- only a little over 3 inches by 5 inches, and it is truly a mixed media piece -- the faces of the Madonna and Child are polymer clay and the "trim" around the neck of the baby's robe includes three real rubies set in gold settings

after I finished this piece it traveled to several art shows (back in the day when we were still doing quite a lot of that) and got pretty positive responses there, but I've never tried putting it in my Etsy store

recently I realized that there was another non-jewelry bead embroiderer in one of the groups I belong to on Etsy, so after some thought, I decided to just put it out there

it will be interesting to see what sort of response it gets there

yesterday afternoon I spent a little over an hour basting the "sandwich"

I think it will probably take about another half hour to finish (I'm running a grid of basting lines about 2 inches apart over the entire top)

after that I can start with the actual quilting -- probably beginning there between the two vases since that is about the center of the piece



but first laundry and errands -- time to get to it