some new work in progress

it's done

I finished it Saturday afternoon and listed it this morning on my Etsy store --- if you want to take a closer look, there is a link there at the top right side of this blog

I'm pretty pleased with how it came out!!

so I jumped right into this piece

it's been a while since I did a piece that could be described as "bead painting to wear"!

lots and lots of size 11 and size 15 glass beads

this is for a challenge that has a deadline in September --- I think I have enough time to get it done

started sewing on the next hasp piece

it doesn't look like much yet, but I'm pretty happy with the way the colors are working

the packing continues -- slowly

the label on this box is from the move my daughter made into her house a few years ago

we're packing boxes here

since this one is already labeled, I'll try to put the appropriate items in so it doesn't have to be re-labeled

see, there's a reason to hang on to some things!

very slow progress

the fringing at the bottom of this piece is done -- yeah!

it's been a while since I did long fringe over the bottom edge of a piece, so I had forgotten how labor intensive it is

I really like the way this looks -- I used a small crystal bead at the tip of each strand and alternated a deep bronze and a teal green -- I like the way those little teal ones pick up and echo the teal in the center and at the top

the beads for the necklace part are all finished too, so now it's on to stringing it all together

this is a drawing for the next piece of bead embroidery

my plan is to do it so the trees are actually raised up from the surface

I'm not quite sure how to do that yet, but it will be interesting to try it

last night I finished the hand stitching on this piece -- another in the series

when I started on this one I wasn't sure how how I was going to create the big shadow area --- in the end I used two layers of black tulle -- and I'm pleased with the way that worked

this is the next drawing I'll be working from

all of the work that has been done this week has been handwork --- my back has not been willing to let me sit at the sewing machine for any long time to do any work

in fact, I've not been able to accomplish much of anything else --- certainly dealing with a log of frustration at not being able to get anything done --- oh, and as for having control of anything --- forget it

I'm really ready to be done with this issue!

Struggling along

I'm struggling along this week

over the weekend, I did something (no, I do not know what!) that hurt my back

which means at this point about all I can do is continue the gentle stretching exercises, the ice packs and rest --- I could take Tylenol, but for the back pain it pretty much does nothing, so why trash my liver with it?

it does not make me happy --- we have a lot to do yet in packing, painting, etc to get ready to market the house and I'm basically worthless on that account --- not a good thing

while sitting in my recliner with the ice pack I have been working on this piece

I'm working on the fringing at the bottom --- it had been a while since I fringed something and I had forgotten how time consuming it is

and I got it this far and decided that I wanted all of the fringe to look like it was the same length at the bottom, so I took out a lot of it and started over

definitely time consuming!

as usually happens, working on one project in the "slogging along" stage means I'm already thinking about future pieces

I did this drawing yesterday --- it will need a lot of materials that I don't have on hand, so it will need to wait a while

I'm also thinking about another piece that will be something very out of the ordinary for my pieces --- I don't even have a rough sketch on paper for that one yet

meantime, the work on the next lock/hasp piece is progressing too

today we need to run some errands ---- time to get to that

catching up

this week I've tried to spend some time catching up on projects that I intended to do 3 weeks ago!

like a little utilitarian sewing at the machine

two pillow cases there for the curved pillow my daughter uses, and a pair of very colorful summer weight pj bottoms for her too

the necklace that I did as a commissioned piece all finished

the lady I did it for was thrilled

this was a fun project, and it's always a nice bonus to know there is someone that wants to buy it at the end!

once I finished the commission piece, I went back to this piece

the bead embroidery is done and now I'm working on the many little tube beads that I need for the "chain" part

since I had finished the hand sewing on the last "hasp and lock", I've been working on this one --- using a whole different approach to part of it to create shadows

yesterday's planned work was pre-empted by an impromptu visit from Mr Cute and his mama

he is just so adorable --- he had a great time playing with the toys at our house -- Tinker Toys (which he calls "tinkers") are for the creating of all kinds of fantastic wheeled objects

his fine motor skills for a 3 1/2 year old amaze me --

I'm all for having the "scheduled work" interrupted by a visit any day!!

.....and now we return to our regularly scheduled program --- back to work!

making God laugh

yes, the past three weeks have been an ample example of the old saying "if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans"

those plans for the last three weeks were to take the DH for his Mohs surgery on June 26, then head off to my daughter's house on June 27 to spend 10 days -- partly to house and pet sit while she went on vacation and partly to do some fun things with her and my grandson, then to return home and jump right back into both packing and house fix up

the Mohs part went really well -- the doctor took her "slice", checked it out under the microscope, told us all the edges were clean, bandaged him up and sent us on our way

while we were there I did this little pen and ink sketch and left it as part of a challenge an art group I belong to had posed -- I was happy to see it be picked up by someone that liked it and wanted to have it for her own

the next morning, however, I had to make a visit to the emergency room when my nose began bleeding and I could not get it stopped -- the ER doctor used silver nitrate and sent me home, telling me it was okay for me to travel the 2 hours to my daughter's, so off we went

little did I know that was just the beginning of a saga that stretched over several more days and involved a ride in an ambulance from the Kaiser clinic to the local (to my daughter's home) hospital

(did you know that your eyes and nose are so interconnected that a really bad nose bleed can make the blood come out of your eye?  Scary!!)

by the end of the story I had been in and out of the emergency room FIVE times (I'm dreading when those bills come rolling in even with my insurance!)

at the end of this story, I had a visit with my own doctor's office in the last week and have been told to stop taking the fish oil capsules (I had already been told to stop taking any kind of aspirin) as it can cause the same issue that aspirin can and apparently I'm particularly sensitive to it

while I had a lot of sewing projects I had planned to do while I was at my daughter's, in the end I was able to get only these two pair of shorts for Mr Cute completed --- these was some John Deere licensed fabric that I picked up and they made cute shorts

there is still some of this fabric left, so I plan to make him a new sun hat from some of it too

the DH was more productive than I was -- he rebuilt this little table that my daughter and son-in-law use next to the couch to set their computer on

and he finished putting the wind mill together so it could be installed in their back yard

it's hard to believe this is what it looked like when he started!

since we've been home I've finally gotten back to working on projects -- the pieces of stone for the necklace commission are all ready to be assembled

the machinery on the new sweater form Mr Cute has been knit

and the applique work on another "lock" piece is done --- now it's time to use paint and thread on this one

I'm trying to get back into a routine --- these things take time