bracelets and dinos and quilting (Oh My!)

since the Eye of Horus necklace is complete, I'm starting on the bracelet I designed to go with it

the glass "eye" has been attached and the beginning of the bead embroidery started

the plan is to create 3 bead embroidered panels -- the center one with the eye and the other 2 with embroidered ankhs

and I wanted to connect these with a hinge at each side, but I didn't want to use any metal pieces -- so those pieces of bead work in the other picture are the hinge loops (gold) and the hinge pins (blue)
more knitting happening on the dinosaur toy

I've finished the neck and the body and now I'm working the continuous decreasing rows that create the tail

after that the legs are knit separately and attached


oh yes, the quilting of the accompanying quilt is coming along nicely too


finished quilting the autumn panel of the four seasons piece

and both end strips are quilted too, so all that is left is the stripping at the top and the bottom

and the binding

I think I will have this finished this week




and having that piece finished is a good thing because the first cut has been made for the Hoffman challenge piece

let the stitching begin!!







my daughter took this picture of Mr Cute in his high chair with paper and crayons

we're encouraging that artistic spirit!

another piece complete

the necklace is finished

TA DA!!

of course there will be bigger photo shoot as soon as we have a day that there is actually sunshine!

I'm really pleased with how this came out -- it was worth the wait to finish it with the right materials

and now I'm going to start on a bracelet that will be a coordinated piece

oh...cool...







and work continues on the dinosaur toy

it definitely looks more dinosaur like now that the head has been stuffed (and yes, it is still on the sticks, and stands up on it's own quite nicely)



feels good to see progress being made here too

finished, progress and new stuff

last night I finally finished the scarf I've been knitting for the DH

the yarn for this piece is a soft alpaca blend, and the pattern is just something I came up with based on a stitch repeat -- it's basically ribbing worked diagonally

it has a nice texture which gives it some "zip"

and I'm pleased with how this came out


having this finished means that there will be more work done on the dinosaur toy, as it will be the knitting project that moves into the scarf's time slot

progress being made on the necklace part that goes with the Egyptian medallion

I had done some of those center beads this time last year, and now I need to make up a few more of them to create a necklace that is long enough

and I'm struggling with that -- layers of reflective gold seed beads built one on top of another -- my eyes are having a hard time seeing that even with my magnifiers, so it's moving along slowly --

hopefully I get the last four of those done today

the last two pieces of malachite that I had ordered have arrived

these pieces with the others that I have should make up into some really nice items








and then there is this project

I started this one last year too, started working around this great piece of picture jasper and had tentatively named this piece "desert dreams", but at that time I couldn't find a bird to put into the design where I wanted it that was a price I could afford

this stamped brass bird came from a shop on Etsy and it was very reasonable

so this piece is back into the "work on it" line

yesterday I finished all of the taxes, so I can use the time that was being spent on that to work on other (more fun) things -- YIPPEE!!

time to get to it

another finished object

the front and the back of the fourth hot pad made for my daughter's kitchen

I love this pattern because it lets me use up little bits and pieces of cotton yarn from other projects

looks like there will be a "squishy" in the near future to be sent to her house (I have an outfit for Mr Cute to send along too)

I'm making progress on other projects too -- the necklace on the Egyptian piece is moving right along, the quilting of the autumn panel of the four seasons piece is almost done and I'm nearly finished with the scarf I'm knitting for the DH

this morning it is cold and gray -- BLEAH! I'll be happy to work on something bright and colorful in the studio today!

did I do that?

it's one of those moments when a piece actually comes out even better than I imaged it

now I'm hoping the "chain" part will work equally well





laundry today -- and some house projects -- then back to the projects!!

on the fringes

that is I'm working on the fringes

as always, the fringing takes nearly as long as the bead embroidery does

the plan is for the fringe to run all the way across the bottom edge of the piece -- creating a sort of beaded curtain behind the figure

after I get that done I'll start attaching the necklace

moving right along








and the quilting of the center panel is moving right along





onward!

enraging the weather gods

about now I should be scurrying around the house doing last minute tidying so that Mr Cute could visit

the weather gods have declared otherwise

just too much snow and ice between our house and his for safe traveling, so the planned visit will have to wait for another weekend

RATS

my daughter sent me this picture of him yesterday as they were having their snow day

he's wearing one of the pair of flannel pants I made him for Christmas

sooooooo Cute!!

I'll just have to console myself with working on more projects

like this one maybe

this is the top of the head and the mouth of the knitted dinosaur toy I'm making to go along with the dinosaur quilt

it's coming right along


progress being made on other things too -- working on beads for the Egyptian piece, and all of the pieces I order beads for have been kitted up so I can start on a new project as soon as the current piece is done

I'm working around the "frame" of the center dinosaur on that quilt, and have almost finished the sky of the fall panel on the four seasons piece -- chugging along

and I'm working on taxes --- all of the sales tax reports are done and out of here -- YIPPEE!! now it's on to multiple schedule C forms

time to go make breakfast

project work continues

this morning I was awakened by the sound of my cell phone telling me I had a text message

my daughter was telling me that she is having a "snow day"

and so are we -- we have between 6 and 8 inches on the ground now, and it's still snowing

good day to spend more time working on the bead project

the medallion is finished now, so it's time to do backing and fringing and of course building of more of those beads to make up the necklace part

notice that the bead on the right side is a bit smaller than the one on the left -- I need to do a few more of these and then step down again -- and possibly again from that -- we'll see how that all goes

the beads that I ordered last weekend arrived late yesterday afternoon, so I'll be adding them to the inventory list and setting up the kits for the new pieces I'm working on -- good snow day projects

and of course the quilting projects continue -- I'm actually working on the quilting of the dinosaur quilt -- the center block is nearly finished

and the sky portions of the fall panel in the seasons project is moving right along too

yup, we'll just settle in and work on projects until this big winter snow storm gets done!

the eyes have it

heh, right

this is looking pretty good

I'm getting very close to having the bead embroidery finished on this piece

which means it will be back to creating more of those beads

fixed, changed, completed

a busy day all around

here we have the panel that I picked out and re-quilted

on the left side the old way

on the right side the new way











and here are the three panels that are all finished

I'm really happy that I decided to pick out that middle panel and change it

I'm much happier with it now







I went to the local quilting store yesterday

of course the fabric that I had in my stash is no longer available

the nice clerk let me pull out practically every bolt of fabric that they had in the color family I was looking for

after a lot of playing around with different things (and even briefly considering using something in the green family), this fabric is what I settled on

so now I can start working on the real thing

just as soon as I get a couple of other things finished


I was able to get the thread I needed to do the quilting on the dinosaur quilt, so the quilting on that has begun

work on the Egyptian piece continues

this is looking pretty good









these 3 pieces of malachite arrived yesterday

I'm working on a design for another bracelet and maybe a necklace too, and I got these for very reasonable prices



I finished the second front panel for the sweater

now it's on to the sleeves (which I'm going to change because after all this I'm really not interested in knitting them in endless rows of plain single color

there are plenty of color charts to use instead

new projects

once I got to sit down and do some beading, this came together pretty quickly

the "eye ball" is a glass piece that I got in a trade with another artist from Springfield, MO, a few years ago, and have just now figured out how to use it

(actually there were two of those, so I'll be making a second piece on this theme at some point)


I have 10 of these already put together to be part of the necklace for this, but I'll need to make some smaller ones, so there is a lot to do on this necklace beside just the "eye"





started on the dinosaur toy that will go along with the dinosaur quilt

this is the top of the head

interesting pattern

I do like the green/brown colorway, however -- and this yarn does make interesting patterns as you knit

neat


and I've nearly finished re-quilting the spring panel in the four seasons piece -- almost back to where I was when I decided to tip toe through the lily pads with the frogs and "rip it" out --- yippee!

somehow in the last 12 hours I've done something that my back did not like (I was fine when I went to sleep!) so my planned activities for the day (laundry, a trip to the local fabric store, picking up some groceries) will be slower and more painful than usual --- GRRRRR! one more of those reasons I want to be nearer to my daughter so I could actual get some help when I need it

morning glory

what a glorious sunrise this morning!

(and it is so amazing what the new camera captures!)

just had to share








the quilt top for the baby quilt is finished

it came out really well

and I already have the backing (bought it on sale a couple of weeks ago), so probably this afternoon I'll put the sandwich together and get it ready to quilt

which I won't start until I can go to the local quilt store and get some thread that will go with this fabric (the front, that is) -- I went through my "stash" and I just don't have anything that works -- I'll be looking for a purple/green/brown blendable

I'm real pleased with how this top came out


and the verdict is

terra cotta

so when I make that trip for the thread, I'll be looking for a piece of fabric that will work since the only piece I have is part of a fat quarter, which is just not enough to do what I need

this is already feeling like one of those "did I do that" moments

I hope it still feels like that when I get it finished



last night I started working on a piece of jewelry -- that I had actually done some work on about a year ago and then set aside because I needed "parts" to be able to finish it -- pictures soon, I promise

onward!

no more blind dinosaurs!

the center block is complete

today there will be trimming and the stitching of the quilt top

and maybe even the pinning of the "sandwich" so the quilting can begin

sooooo cool!







time spent with the colored pencils yesterday

this was the result of the fiddling


I think this is what I'm going to do -- although I'm still thinking about a sort of orange-y terra cotta color behind them

my plan for the next step is to take some photo copies of the actual fabric and do a cut and paste sample with paper

this project has been a whole new approach to creating a quilt -- a much more "painterly" approach -- sketching, changing, more sketching

I'm hoping this refining at the front end will mean fewer problems as the piece goes together




the final package arrived!

there are two of these great vintage glass pieces -- each one is about an inch tall

my plan is to use these to create a bracelet for a challenge on using filigree

as I was going through the boxes of beads I found that some of the vintage beads that my mother had given me are exactly the same color as this, so I'll be using them in this project along with some other ones

now that this is here I'll be finishing up that bead order from Fire Mountain

and I really need to spend some time writing the bills for February, and working on the taxes (BLEAH!)

better get busy

2 steps forward, 1 step back

last night I finished the quilting of the summer panel

and now I'm in the process of taking out the quilting in the spring panel

the problem here is that after I did the winter panel and the summer panel by creating a swirly pattern that accented the clouds in the sky portion of the picture, the quilting in the spring panel, which doesn't do that just looks -- well, wrong

so I'm very carefully picking out the quilting in the sky portion and will re-quilt it using that same cloud accenting swirly pattern

yes, it will add some time to the project, but it will improve it and even more important, I will be happier with the piece -- otherwise my eye would always be drawn to that panel and I'd be unhappy with it

I've been working on the drawings for the Hoffman piece

I like the colors of the vases (and those will be some of the Hoffman coordinate fabrics), and the roses in the purpley-pink and the pinky-purple will be cut right out of the challenge fabric

but I'm still struggling with the background

do I want 3 different colors there?

or would a dark wall with a light colored table cloth be better?

and then there is the question of "where is the light"?

and where should the shadows be?

I'll be spending some time looking at images of classic still life paintings to work on learning more to do this


meantime, the framing of the center dinosaur is going really well -- I hope to have that finished today

and I spent a lot of time yesterday afternoon playing with beads -- and determined that I will be making a small order to Fire Mountain Gems for some wider clasps and some beads that will go with those spring/leaf green and chartreuse cameos as well as that carved floral piece -- both of which are colors that I haven't worked with before so I just don't have anything in the stash that works

I'm still waiting for one more order to arrive, so I'll probably wait to make that bead order until I can see if I need anything to go with it

lots of fun stuff happening in the studio!

drawing revisions

just a small tweek -- now the 3 vases are at 3 different levels so it sort of flows

now it's on to doing something so it doesn't look like these vases are just floating in air

which is why I've printed out a sheet of these that I can play with

oh yeah, and I moved the flowers in the vase on the left a little closer to the rim of the vase

I think I'm going to move the two taller vases so they are a bit closer together too -- perhaps touching there behind the front one

then there will be the discussion of what colors these are all going to be

yesterday afternoon I finished putting the face on the dinosaur and started working on the framing around him -- hopefully this afternoon I'll get that finished

I want to spend some time putting together some "kits" for the new jewelry pieces so I can figure out if I need to order anything (other than the clasp I know I'll need for the cameo bracelet) and so I can just get started working on something!

got to go pick up a prescription and an ink cartridge for my printer first

valentines and dinosaurs

just a "sneak peek"

I've been working on Valentines

which of course involves glitter (soooooo much glitter)

got them all finished yesterday afternoon -- all ready to be addressed and mailed!

it's a blind dinosaur

yesterday I got the other two legs and the head stitched on, so now I have only the eyes and the frame

which means that by the end of the week I should be stitching the blocks together and moving this to the "ready to be quilted" stage

whoot!

so cute

and I've located some yarn in my stash to knit the dinosaur toy -- it's a variegated green --- PERFECT!


more work being done on the design for the Hoffman challenge

and here is where I've used one of the features on my new camera to do some of the work for me

I free form cut the three vases out of plain paper, and the roses were traced directly off of the challenge fabric

laid it all out on a big sheet of paper on the table and did some other drawing -- like adding the stems on the roses -- then took pictures of it with the new camera in "sketch" mode

I'll be printing out a sheet of this so I can do some additional sketching to work out background details

once I finish doing that I'll be able to print a full size pattern too

I do love being able to use my technology to help with my art!

another of the packages of goodies I had ordered arrived yesterday

I plan to make these little green cameos (they're about an inch tall) into a bracelet -- four separate links strung together with beads

I'll probably have to order a clasp for this, so I'll be perusing the Fire Mountain catalog



this morning we're heading off to Costco for our monthly run -- time to get moving!