Small Beaded pin

 It's just a little bitty thing

A pin

A request

Took almost no time but so satisfying

Brownie Spirit

She looks comfie enough to sleep on doesn't she?

I am getting better at swirlies too!

Slough Spirit

What is a "slough" you may ask?

Pronounced sloo,  it is a swamp or wetland or a side channel or inlet, or a natural channel that is only sporadically filled with water.

We have a lot of those  around here in high summer you can walk on them just fine

but throughout the winter and spring one can sink up to ones knees into them and not only loose your shoes but your pants if you are not careful!

We have been very, very wet around here this year.

Sprouting Spirit

Every March I start to get that feeling of potential in the air

Things eire beginning to pop up throughout the yard

and Spring is just around the corner

So in celebration of that  this spirit doll is sprouting

Go Vote people!

A new Spirit doll I call her Voting Spirit

I am trying to stay as upbeat as possible, even though all the candidates I wanted to win, have all dropped out now.

*Sigh*

Maybe we will get a woman next time around

Who knows, maybe The next guy to win will set things right.

I have sopped saying "It can't get any worse"

because the universe seems to be taking that as a challenge .

















 there are a couple more inchies too

Making inchies

  So I'm back doing some small beaded things 

 I decided I would try doing some inchies 

 They are the perfect size to do while bingewatching something



 and so to challenge myself



 I chose to do the first few  from the bead soup pile




 Just to get started

 My first spirit doll

 for the bead journal project this year is also from the pile

with some opaque white seed beads to fill her out






 This one was not

from the pile and was supposed to look like flames



but she turned out a hot mess instead







 the next one is better and from the pile

I have a lot of purple seed beads!

I call her #9 




 Dottie is next

made from a broken pukka shell ankle bracelet

from a Hawaii trip and the last of the bugles

and the random seed beads in the pile

I also found another bead soup box


I wonder what will come from that?



this red one is all new beads from the box

she's a little lumpy but I think the lines are getting better

I am going to add some little  gold bell dangles to her bottom
when she is backed and pinned

I just noticed I have to finish her head though





 Then there are these two little embroidered guys

a bunny and fox for a later CQ project

I haven't decided where to put them yet but I am going to do more like this







They are fun little patches and will fit on anything  as they are inchies too.

I sew them on felt with an initial outline in a daisychain then fill it in with satinstitch and stem stitch for a  rougher texture

I'm Having so much fun with this!

paris! CQJP 2017

Starting a new project is always always little difficult.

Where do I start?

There's nothing to work off of, no stuff to build on.

The yawning chasm of the blank canvas.

Sometimes design comes easy, sometimes, not so much.

My advise, just start. Roll the dice, pick a few random numbers and pick a book, choose choose a design and go for it.

 I love the sre basket of flowers and the blue bird

The pretty floral bonnet is felt sewn down with floss and sre accordion rose


I wanted something to fill in but not take away from the  lavender fabrics it seemed to not be playing well well with the rest of the block

I did a lot of beading on this piece as well

 Every year I challenge myself with something new or something I need to work on

Year one was stitches and beading

Year 2 was living through the year

This year it's sre. I don't do a lot of  it so this year I've challenged myself to do more, bigger, blousier sre.

Also to do more inn the way of embroidered scene motifs

Like the bird and the bonnet

Then integrate that within my style of over zealous beadwork and intricate seam treatments 

The bjp got dropped on the floor last year

So I will try to pick that up again as well with something over beaded like the pink, blue and green trim in the bottom right hand corner

Though I still need to work on that idea

It's  the best I have so far

October CQJP/BJP done

 Little did I know at the beginning of this month

that this block,
covered in Holbein stitch this month,
would be perfectly placed for my daughters wedding.

there she is with my lovely dear darling  husband.
 this months BJP is the wired dragonfly on the left,

not much to look at but I was a bit busy this month


the other one I mad from what is left of a pair of cloisonne earrings that I lost the rest of the dangle to and a blue dyed pearl

a little more folded ribbon and many more beads

to finish off the many corners
holbein stitch creates









 a little more beading and some ribbonwork to round out the last little empty spots and there you go

CQJP for september

 This month is chainstitch and it's smaller cousin lazy Daisy

  I like before and after pictures don't you?

 Before everything else is thrown on and it's just the main stitches


and after embellishments, embroidery, beads and other stuff is thrown at it

 She's very blue this month

  again

The green barely shows up in some places                  
I like that vase motif I have used it before.



 What is your opinion on using motifs/seams over again?
               I try not to do it too much. partly because I get boared with the same old thing over and over and partly because I like a challenge. I think I've mentioned this brfore using the same thing, seems like cheating.

  Now I know some of you don't like spiders, so fair warning but I couldn't resist

We in the great northwest are in the middle of hella spider time. sometime between end of august and whenever first frost decides to decend, we get spiders everywhere, bushes, trees porches.

Some days it feels like they are trying to catch me.

Isn't she sweet?

where did the summer go?

Benny RIP 11th may 2015

Until this weekend our weather has been inordinately nice.

 I am not used to all this sun

Wait, what?Is she complaining about nice weather?
                                      Yes I am.

So it just takes 6 years for you to become attuned to your new environment to the point that you're complaining about the weather like a native. Huh.

That I lived my first 45 years in Chicago, this makes me a little giggly.

Now, I know I haven't bogged anything since June, this is due to many things.
The death of my cat Benny, a visit from my dd#2 for a month, in which we did a lot of sight seeing and the moving in of my son to figure out his life post army.

my little helper

 Phew!
I was prepared for the daughter and son invasions but Benny's death threw me.
he developed an inoperable cancerous tumor, poor baby! he wouldn't eat and dropped 2lbs in a week. so we had to make the difficult decision to put him down.

Anyway it has been a little difficult to get back on my hobby horse with all the hoo-ha.

I did finally finish Julys cqjp/bjp and have been teaching a class every second Tuesday on embroidery and cq, which bless me has kept me more or less on an even keel.

I love my ladies!They make me giggle. Last class we all ended up singing campfire songs, now given that I am the youngest in the group and was able to keep up, this also makes me happy.

 anyway, the July CQJP/BJP is fly stitch and lots of blue

which goes with the weather we have been having.

Lots of beautiful blue skies

I did a folded 13mm silk ribbon  tacked with little blue teardrops
(my wish for rain)

I'm rather pleased with how the upper right seam treatment came out.

BJP July

 and the little brown bug in the lower right hand corner is for my BJP portion.


here is the whole thing finished

my sweet boy Benny