Rework.....

When we did our inventory at the end of the year for taxes, there were a few pieces of jewelry that we pulled out for reworking.



This is the first of those items to be redone.

Originally this was strung on chain with just a few of the black and crystal beads, and it just didn't display well.

Yesterday I took it all apart and created this more substantial necklace that I think looks a lot better.



And this is the second piece.

This one had just been on a silver chain, which looked ok, but I felt this could be a more "unisex" piece if it had a little bolder looking necklace.

The colored beads in this are a sort of rainbow finish glass that were given to me by another crafter at a show during the fall season. When she gave them to me I had no idea what I would do with them, but when I put them with the black cube beads it just fit this piece.

The next projects are to take apart 3 heart shaped pieces that had also been necklaces on chains, and make them into pins. Pictures to follow!

I'm working on ideas for an accessory (scarf, vest) for the sheep. I tried out a purple "fluffy" yarn for a possible scarf last night, and after about an inch of knitting vetoed it as "too fussy". Now that the DH has chipped away the ice in front of our storage shed so I can get in to it, I'll be looking for some other yarn to make the item out of.

Work on the quilt continues. I finished another arc last night.




Time to get something done.

something finished ... and almost finished ...

Meet Stella II

Now here is a sheep with a lot of attitude. I think her cantankerous mood is due to a small identity crisis .... I made her out of a silk and alpaca blend fabric ...

Who knows, she may just spit....

I haven't decided yet if I really like the sort of mauve colored nose ... I may yet pull that out and replace it with something more sedate -- like a steel gray. I'm letting her sit and glare at me while I think about that.

She also might need a sweater vest....after all its cold and she has a fresh "hair cut".




And I finally finished all the fringe on this piece.

Now its on to figuring out what to use to create the necklace part. That may take a day or so.






I finished 4 more arcs the last couple of days.

My routine is totally hosed this morning.

When we got up the house was cold -- like 52 degrees, so I had to call for someone to come and repair the furnace. Fortunately, he came right away, and because I had given him such an accurate description of what was happening, he had the part in hand when he came in the door. The repair took about 20 minutes (the ignitor on the electronic started had "blown up" -- it just looks like a looped piece of flint, and it is a fragile part, so it doesn't take much to damage it) and cost just under $200...OUCH! But as I sit and write this, I'm hearing the happy sound of the furnace running -- which it will do for a while just to get the house back up to our tropical temperature of 62.....meantime the dog is roasting herself in front of the fireplace....and she really like the repair man (who has 3 labs of his own).

Time to try to get something done.

slogging along -- and its the weekend so its snowing

I'm in the stage of the necklace project where I feel like I'm stuck in "Ground Hog Day" .... fringing looks wonderful, but it is a mind numbing experience to create. I just didn't know it before. Now I look at the front of the current Fire Mountian Gems catalog and have a renewed respect for the brave person that created that necklace, it must have taken FOREVER!!



I'm feeling more positive about this piece, however.

When I did the little pins earlier in the month, I discovered that I had to do less touch up work at the end of the project if I colored in the design first, which is why the field looks green even where I haven't beaded yet. The only down side is that it doesn't make as good an "in process" picture because there isn't so much contrast between where the beads are done and where they aren't. Oh well!

This one is right on target for being ready for the show in 2 weeks.




Meantime, the mittens are done!

And not a moment too soon, I might add. When the dog got me up at 6:30 this morning, it was snowing....AGAIN!! For the 5th weekend in a row......I may run screaming .... not that there is actually anywhere I HAVE to go, but the enforced "you can't go" is really annoying. (Actually we had planned to go visit our daughter this weekend -- and last weekend -- and the weekend before that!)

Maybe next weekend {ok, I'm crossing my fingers, rubbing the rabbits foot and adjusting the horse shoe over the door!}







Moving along on quilt pieces too.....4 more arcs complete, we're now to 31 -- 1 more to go to be 1/3 of the way on the arcs.






time to get a move on.....

taking a sick day....

I woke up yesterday morning with some sort of stomach complaint and spent most of the day laying low.

I worked on the second mitten some, it is now up over where I split it for the thumb.

I did start on the next bracelet -- I'm working on the malachite one. Doing the bead embroidery was easier than working on the fringe of the necklace.




I did manage 4 more arcs for the quilt. This makes 27, and today I will need to break out the iron and the fabrics and set up some more pieces. Its coming along!






Today I'll try to get back to normal work load....we'll see

Monday morning stats....

Well, last week just flew by, and I can't quite believe that its Monday again.

We've been taking down Christmas decor, and it takes us about as long to take it down as it does to take it up, so we're about 1/3 of the way done. (Taking a day out for doctor's appointments did slow the progress slightly)

So, here is the status on the animal projects:

small dog -- closed, ready for face
mouse -- DH is stitching
small wolf -- machine work complete, ready for hand work
flamingo -- stitched, ready for turning and finishing
open mouth bear -- stitched, ready for turning and finishing
fish -- DH is working on this
black sheep -- stitched, ready for turning and finishing
white sheep -- stitched, ready for turning and finishing
open mouth polar bear -- closed, ready for face
horse -- stitched, ready for turning and finishing
penguin -- stitched, ready for turning and finishing
toucan -- laid out
6 assorted miniature versions of animals -- laid out, read for stitching

I'm working my way along on the fringe of the primavera necklace. I had done about and inch of the fringing then picked it all out (must have at least ONE trip to the frog pond!) and started again putting the fringe closer together, and it looks better.

Today I will probably also start on one of the bracelets I have set up.


I finished the first mitten!

Doesn't it look warm? This was pretty much work out the stripe pattern as I went along, but I did make lots of notes, so hopefully the second one will be a close match.

This has to be a record for me in getting a mitten done -- hope the second one goes as fast.






Three more arcs done -- that makes 22.

Today's chores include laundry and more de-Christmasing -- time to get to work

work complete and work continues

I finished this one last night.


The whole piece measures 1 3/8 inches by 1 5/8 inches.

Now the challenge is to write up the instructions with pictures and drawings to submit to a magazine.

Meantime, it goes into the inventory for the next show, and I go on to work on finishing the necklace.

Progress is being made on the necklace. I got all of the edging beads stitched on last night, so now its on to the fringes -- which should be interesting.






Two more arcs complete! That makes 19.




I worked on my mittens last night too. I have the first on worked up almost to where the thumb splits off. I'm using up scrap yarn from some other projects, and working some patterns in as I go along. The real challenge will be rather I can make the second one match, but I'm not real worried about that ... the point of this whole exercise is to keep my hands warm!

...time's a wasting....

I'm back.....

been very busy the last few days with doctor visits, taking down Christmas and working for my accounting client, so I just haven't gotten here!





We're in the deep freeze here. These pictures are of the trees in our yard, and that's NOT snow on them, its ice -- the result of heavy fog in 10 degree (or less!) temperatures. Pretty nasty stuff.





This is another in the series of little pins I've been working on. The piece of goldstone in the center I have had for about 40 years, and just now figured out what to do with it.

Odd factoid for the day: Goldstone is not really a stone at all, its glass!

Anyway, as I worked on this one, I took pictures of each step. I'm hoping to write up a complete instruction for it and submit it to a magazine.



And I have now finished the field of this piece -- and yes, this is definately right side up.

Next step is to figure out what kind of fringy edge to put on it.









Two more arcs for the quilt complete, that makes 17 of 96. We're chugging right along.


After our excursion yesterday into the cold, I have decided that its time to knit something for myself -- so I have a pair of mittens on the needles. I have some lovely fleece gloves, but in this weather, they just aren't enough, so I'm making an oversize pair of mittens that I can wear OVER the gloves.....got almost all of the ribbing on the first one done last night.

Time to get to work!

W.I.P.

Here is the progress so far on the latest piece of jewelry. I've pretty much decided that this is actually right side up, even though in the original plan this would have been upside down, but I like it better this way.

So you can see, I'm on the down hill side of this project!

And, I can report that the white sheep is once again all stitched and ready for turning. She has morphed into a suffolk (you know, those white sheep with black faces?), and I do like the contrast. Maybe it was meant for this one to have an identity crisis...after all, I used an alpaca/silk blend pile to make this one, and certainly the fiber conflicts are confusing her.

I spent a lot of time again yesterday working on taxes. Went to the local Borders and picked up a reference book put together by Ersnt and Young, an item which has stood me in good stead for years in getting this project done. The last couple of years I haven't induldged myself with this "security blanket" but this year I'll be doing a few more returns than I had the past few, so I thought a refresher course was a good plan. So now we're at the "plug the total numbers into the spread sheet from the detail spread sheet" stage. Tedious.

Today I will "reward" myself for being so diligent by allowing some time to work on a new design drawing I'm working on.







And another arc of the quilt is done too.

Yesterday morning we began the "un decorating". We always leave Christmas up until after January 6 for the Feast of the Kings, but now its time to put it all away. We hauled all the boxes out of the corner of the garage, and while we were at it, we pulled out a rug that we want to use after we replace the family room flooring (more about that later), and a box of punch bowls which we'll probably need for a wedding reception in August.

I put away the wreath from the front door so even if it takes us another week (and it probably will) we don't look too nuttsy from the street.

Today's excursions include a trip to the pharmacy and probably the gas station. I feel like a bear getting ready to hibernate, stocking up to hide out for the week end since the highs on those days are forecast to be in the SINGLE digits (that's less than 10 degrees, guys -- WAY too cold!!)

....we're off!

Now we know what frustration looks like...

In yesterday's blog, I said that the white sheep was sewed, turned and ready for joints.

Well, that's what happens when you assume.....this is the picture of frustration

After the sheep reached the aforementioned state, we decided that the white face just wasn't enough contrast, and would have to be reworked. And we do mean reWORKed! Each piece had to be turned inside out again, then all picked apart.

We're now in the restitching stage, I finished redoing all of the legs last night, and today I hope to get the face and the ears done....[sigh}...for all the "rip it, rip it" sounds, you would have thought I was working on a frog!!





I'm annoyed with the city.

In the entire time since the first of the 3 storms, we have not yet seen a snow plow.

Consequently, the storm drain in the cul de sac just down from our house is totally blocked with ice, and nothing can go down it.

These are pictures of what the street and sidewalks in front of our house look like. We had cleared the sidewalk after every storm, but now we have all this ice on the sidewalk again because the mail truck and the trash trucks drive through the snow pack/ice flow in the street and push it back up on the sidewalk.

Meantime, the snow is melting and running toward the storm drain but it is just making a huge, (cul de sac size!) puddle, that turns into ice every night and will become unbelievably dangerous when the next storm comes on Thursday.






Two more arcs done last night!



We need to go to the DMV today and get the handicap tag for the car. We got the forms from the doctor's office in the midst of the 2nd storm, and just haven't made it to the office to turn them in and get the tag. That should be fun. In the same area is a bookstore, where I'm going to look for a tax prep book to help guide me through my least favorite time of the year.

Time to get moving.

Taking stock of projects.....

Here it is, Monday morning, and its time to take stock of what stage each project is in.



This picture is the fish my DH is working on for the polar bear. He drew this on a piece of paper so I could "scale" it down on the computer. He will be putting it on to fabric so I can stitch and stuff it.

Progress on the critters:

small dog -- closed, ready for face
mouse -- DH is stitching
small wolf -- pinned and ready for machine stitching
flamingo -- stitched, ready for turning and legs
open mouth bear -- sewing complete, ready for turning
black sheep -- sewing complete, ready for turning
white sheep -- sewed and turned, ready for joints
open mouth polar bear -- closed, ready for face
horse (new design) -- pinned and ready for machine stitching
toucan -- laid out






The second grannie square is complete. My own variation on the theme.

Now its back to the knitting of squares. I have a new one on the needles.


I worked some more on the beaded piece. It is now almost half done.





Have 3 more arcs finished for the quilt.







Yesterday I made a trip to the fabric store and picked up some yellow fabrics to use for the ends of the arcs. Those will be easier to cut, just stack up a few layers and whack with the rotary cutter.

Today's projects include laundry and shipping off an animal I sold off my website -- the first one to actually be purchased on the spot there!

(It has generated special orders, but this was nice because I already have the animal in hand and can just ship it out the door.)

Time to get to it!

baby steps

One more little arc stitched.....

I did set up some more template pages on freezer paper, so sometime in the next few days, I'll be preparing some more fabric for stitching.




Progress continues on the beaded necklace. I have about 1/4 of the field beads in, and its looking pretty good. Still have had no real "inspiration" about the edging, and at this point I'm not even sure which direction will be "up" on the piece...(yes, I can hear the witch saying "all in good time, my pretty, all in good time"!)

I have about 2/3 of the other grannie square done too....these do go quicker than the knitting, but my hand is suffering for this little digression....

worked on taxes yesterday ... you can see my {whine} about that on my Random Thoughts blog


This is the original sketch I did back in May, 2004 when I was thinking about making this into a piece of jewelry.

That was before I decided that not all bead work needed to be worn, and now I'm thinking of something on a much grander scale than a little necklace.

This project has now made it to the "work in a folder" stage which is always the beginning of the actual making of these big projects.

Into the fray!!