Memory picture for a friend - original

Over the years my friend has sent me beautiful pieces of fabric, treasures of lace and beads and also shared her love of life and travel.  I have combined this in an anniversary picture and sent to her as a gift from my heart to remember those good times with.  It was a very rewarding project to work on.

Beading Along at My Own Pace.

Needless to say I have gotten a whole lot behind on my journal and left it as a " slow work in progress ", and now I am bringing it to the forefront and working on it with vigour again.

I loved the challenge of making new and creating and learning new techniques and had to set it aside due to more pressing committments, but now the space is mine.

Today I continue on the journey and tomorrow I hope to post another finished object.

July

This is my July project, which I am proud to say is an original, and it is shown in sketch form further along in the blog.

I wanted this to represent the beautiful lilies that grow down the outside ramp that leads from our patio deck. All that was left to do were the few leaves at the bottom to be filled in. This is stitched within the constraints of a cd rom pattern. It also has the bottom left so that this portion can have an adorment of a tassell, beaded, or charm at some time.

I just started to work on August's " A Daisy A Day " yesterday and will keep posting as time permits.

June Project

This is a Ruth Wilson design that was destined for a bookcover, but as I have learned so many new techniques and added a few of my own along the way have decided to include this as my first piece of work in the Challenge. All I had to do was the leaves yesterday and now it is done.

- Tulips Too Late

As you can tell this is a new adventure for me both in sketching and in creating with beads and fabrics.\\This will be the September challenge and will work on this as I go along and have to yet select the silk fabric, back it, and pick out some unusual beads and techniques to embellish with.

A Daisy A Day

I have sketched out the August flower of the month, being a daisy in memory of my mom, and one of her favourite songs " A Daisy A Day .' I am not sure if there will be little faces in them or rose centres and or what, but will work it as I go along. These are all sized as in the last two, same as a cd circle. Not sure what I am going to do with these when they are done, but that will come before I cut them out.

A little off centre, as the base of the leaves should point down, but it is getting there. I have had to sketch and resketch using the purple fad out pen as I went along as I did not want to use a permanent marker or pencil as I have a habit of changing directions mid stream.

This is in a six inch hoop and the actual line of the circle runs where the leaves are on the bottom in to the base of the crystallized ribbon and to the tops of the ribbon stamens and down the side. I am not sure if I will fill in or not or just let the beauty of the fabric show through. I love the way the petals jump off the background, and in this one I did use a metallic polish to tone down the colour on the centre but it is a reminder of a beautiful face cab from a beautiful friend.

I hope to work all in cabs, and may leave this one once the leaves are done and start on a smaller scale until I decide whether to mat or frame this one as the front cover. I chose the lily as it is the only flower I have ever been able to grow in my garden. I now have sketches done for pansies, roses, daffodils etc., but want to lean in a different direction white on white. and pendant sized using the same chain on each pendant, same swage so that when closed the book would look like a bookmark and each page would be a different medallion that would fit into the tassel beaded fringe and match the beaded chain. Oh, well, that is for today anyway.

Atkins Challenge

Finally taking some time to get ideas on the blog. This is the sketch that I drew to bring out a different type of crativity in the type of work that I do. Normally, I am very structured when it comes to beadwork, plan it out and have a plan before I start, and keep it simple.

My first thought on a journal was to keep it in the round, and seeing as I had some cd's lying around decided to see what I could do to take advantage of these. First I sketched the tiger lily in on the right hand side as I remembered how many times I had cut one out in sane quilting, so the sketching for this one was simplified. I then added a small face that was a gift from my special friend " Leslie Ehrlich ", hope it is spelled correctly this time, she is from pinyoncreek blog. I just loved it.

I then remembered reading about coloured pencils and crayones being used to do in backgrounds for a general idea on colours, so off I went for some orange, green and darker tones of green and then the inspiration for the visual leaves came into play. I had already decided on a ribbon that would float across the design, under the lily and then end as falling from beneath it onto a smaller crystal and using some french beading techniques.

In my case more is better so I added more leaves than I thought I needed and knew that somehow I was going to have to figure out how to make the petals stand out three dimensional.

I had just finished doing a few pieces from a Ruth Wilson book and in it she used a water lily with three dimensional petals as well as the outline stitch in a two to three bead drop, I loved it. I then knew how the stamens would be added.

On my first try it was all on white and no matter how hard I tried it did not jump out at me, so I pulled all of the beads off and decided to use some overdyed orange to pink silk as a top fabric and the pattern as a liner with some linen as a backing and I am pleased.

I have the face on, beaded around, all of the ribbon and crystals done, and leaves done as well. I just finished adding the petals and now I am working into what I want to do with this shape.....leave it round, or turn it into another shape, and that won't be determined until I decide for sure what size my next project will be as this could always be my journal cover.........and the next ones could be made smaller. I think this is probably the hardest part of the creating, trying to be original and keeping on track.

This is the beginning of a small clutch that will hold dangles from the centre beading fashion bead. All of these beads and sequins are readily available at department stores.......not to advertise any in particular and for special beads I have to purchase the little MH packets from the fabric stores.

I want to do this one on black with a larger feature going over the fold on the clutch. Once again this is from a Ruth Wilson design for the actual beading and she is a fantastic hands on teacher with her works. Her book on beading is out of print but her patterns appear is several needlework publications over the years and her descriptions are like having a teacher in your living room. No affilliation just share the same love of heirloom embroidery.

Whitework is an obcession with me lately and I have finished my first piece of french hand beading. It is done in the same colours as the original. It is a Ruth Wilson pattern from an older book and I have done mine on white linen. I want to turn this one into a forties style clutch purse with the hard shell and the snap closure. My favourite part of this piece was adding the collages of beads in groups of three and a sequin.

Day three and I have finished one side of the butterfly that I have been workingon. I must admit that I have fallen in love with this french beading technique and it is so well explained. I have about two more days work on this one and can hardly wait to start a new project by another designer to see what I can learn. I wish there were more books out there. So far, I have just tried this pattern by Ruth Wilson in an older Country Crafts magazine.

French hand beading is something I have wanted to try for a long long time and finally got the courage to start over the weekend. I must admit that it took a few times to get the stitches to lie down at an angle. I chose to mark the fabric with thread. Will not do this again as it is so hard to remove after without distorting the fabrics, but will mark lightly with an hb pencil. This is a design by Ruth Wilson published in an older issue of Country Craft. Her clear and precise descriptions made this a pleasure to work on. This is as far as I have gotten in two days and have it set up on the lap frame. I will keep posted as this seems to be my calling, this week anyway.