when ripping out is progress forward

 you may remember a couple of blog posts ago that I talked about this necklace that I had been working on

I had spent quite a few hours working on it, and I liked the general design, but the more I worked on it the more it began to "cup", until it became very clear that it would never lay flat

which meant it would never be a really "show quality" piece

so earlier this week I took it all apart

everything except the bezels around the stones was removed and I started over

which meant I could keep the parts of the design that I liked best and even improve on them -- like that basket weave look there around the center stone

I have a couple more rows of beading to do on each side and I'll be putting the round stones back on

liking the way this looks even better -- and YES, it will lay flat

and this piece got finished and listed in my Etsy store -- for the first time I can remember, my piece was the first one entered in one of these online challenges

I especially like the eyes on the cat!

progress on this piece has been slow

as I was saying in my last post, after I painted the back deck, I was in a lot of pain

almost 3 weeks later, I'm still hurting, and my doctor has not been able to figure out what the issue is

so I haven't done much work at the design wall

but earlier this week I got back to it -- I'm really pleased with the way it is going now -- the bottom left corner is complete, so I'm on the home stretch!

the quilting on this got delayed too, but I have now finished all of the field parts

next up the rest of the fence then the road

it's coming along!

when I posted the last time I had just begun stitching on this piece, and that blue edge there right beneath the blades is actually the horizon on this piece, which means everything below that will need to be something that is either the wood frame holding up the windmill or drying grasses

so before I headed out to the local fairgrounds for the big Colorado Quilt Council's annual show yesterday, I told the DH that we were on the lookout for "dry grass"

I came home with a nice variety of patterning and color to use on this --

Yippee -- the work can continue!

time to get to it