Friendship Bracelets

Years ago, I bought a little tapestry loom.  It's a beautiful little loom, called the Big Sister, but by the time it arrived, I didn't have time to learn to use it, so it went into the closet.  Things are a bit different now, still busy, but the Mirrix company who made it has been doing weave-a-longs to help us learn to weave, and Claudia did weave-a-longs on her blog and also a Craftsy class, which really helped me get it out and start weaving on it!

For my first project, I chose to do Affinity Bracelets, because they are small, simple and I could put more than one on the loom at the same time, while making each one a bit different.  The warp threads (thread that runs the length of the bracelet) are silk that was in my stash for hand embroidery, while the weft (thread that you weave back and forth with) varies.  For weft, I used more of my silk threads and C-Lon beading thread to weave the beads with.  They are simple bracelets designed to be tied on, but if I have time, I may try other closures that she gave instructions for.  What do you think?

Firefly Sewing Envelope is Finished!

My Firefly Sewing Envelope was begun in Sue Spargo's class during Quilter's Affair in Sisters, OR this past July.  It is the first time I've been able to get into one of her classes, and I had a wonderful time!  There are so many different textures to play with, and then you can take the embellishing as far as you want with embroidery, beads and ribbons.  It was one of those projects that was hard to pot down, although not possible for me to work on in the car.  I've been continuing to work on it, and have finally finished it!  She demonstrated many stitches and techniques in class and also taught us how to make the felted balls to decorate the zipper pulls, so I'm finally able to make whatever color I want, although it will be trial and error to make them in other sizes:-)

Anyway, this is my cover.  The bird off to the right is a covered button to keep it closed.

And here is the back:

It is a tri-fold design, so this is how the outside looks when laid flat.  The left section has pockets, upper ones have a flap to keep contents inside, while lower pocket is divided to hold tools / pencils, and the back cover is a large flat pocket that could hold a notepad, stencils or small cutting mat.

The inside of the sewing envelope has zipper pockets on each side which could be left as one large space, or divided.  I chose to divide each of mine in half to hold medium sized tools, threads, or other things.  The center of the interior has a needle book and a flower applique with a pincushion center.

All that's left is to fill it with my tools, so I can begin using it!

(I wonder if I could use the tri-fold idea to design something to take my sketching / painting with me - of course I wouldn't embellish it nearly so much.)

Green Beaded Bangle

Even though I started with more planning for this bracelet, I wasn't very happy with it until it was nearly finished.  Once I decided to add the flowers, it finally came together. 

Here's my green beaded bangle:

top of bracelet

 

side A

side B

Blue Beaded Bangle

This bracelet (and another) have been UFOs for too long, but now this one is finished, and soon the other! 

It all started with an online class at Joggles, where we were taught the necessary skills, and then we needed to design our own cuff, and although I started with a plan, I let it evolve as I went.  Being worried it might not come out, I decided to make two, just in case one didn't turn out, I would be able to toss it and finish the other using lessons learned on the first (back-up plan / escape hatch...).  Having two in progress was great for a while, but then they had to be set aside while I worked on other things, and I kept moving them every time they were in the way.  Well, I finally decided I'd better get them finished so I could the beads away, and here's the blue one:

top of bracelet

side A

side B

Another Bracelet!

Copper and furnace glass, what a beautiful combination!  I loved making this bracelet, and think I did a better job at scaling the jump rings and eye pins to a smaller, better size this time.  I still need to experiment with making the S clasp in a smaller size, as well as learning to make other types of clasps.

Stitch Markers

I've been needing  more stitch markers to use when I'm knitting, and when I found I didn't have some for a new project I had started, I decided now was the time to sit down and make them.   They're very light weight, and the tiny wires don't take up space between the stitches when knitting with fine yarns on small needles that I use to knit things like socks and mitts.

Wirework 101

This past Friday, I was able to take the beginning wirework class, Wirework 101, at Quiltworks Northwest, which is not just a quilt shop, but also contains a bead shop and is also my local Bernina dealer.  I tried working in copper and bronze and found these beads in their shop.  The tag says Howlite Mosaic Magnesite, and I thought they were the most beautiful beads! I managed to finish making this bracelet before I left:

I've still got a lot to learn, but loved the class, and have a new bracelet to wear!

Beading, Weaving, packing for Sisters, OR

The amulet is ready for fringe. I did attempt adding small beads to the sides, but was unhappy with the look (and needle I was using), so decided to gather beads for the fringe, and am still digging for more variety, and deciding what small beads I'd like to use - so it waits...

Ellen and I finished our shawl pins, and this is mine (sorry for the sideways view, I don't have time to Photoshop the pictures right now).

The rigid heddle warp is now set up for my first try at log cabin weave,

and the inkle loom is filling with bookmarks. I've got to try some others in different colors and patterns.

On the quilting side of things, I did put together the background for the Madrona quilt last weekend, but forgot to take a picture before quickly folding it up to bring home, and here at home, I'm working in a narrow hallway, so there is no way to get back far enough to take a picture.

I'm heading to Sisters, OR next weekend for a week of classes and lots of fun with other quilters, so I've been busy making kits for my class projects. In five days, I'm taking four classes, and have kitted up my supplies for three (yeah, it's the easy classes where everyone makes the same thing, in their own fabric choices), but the last class has me thinking "why did I sign up for this class?", although I do know the answer to that question - it's with Janet Fogg, and I'm dying to learn her design techniques, and design my own project using them. The problem is that her class sample is in a sort of 50's style, with lots of black and white, and the ideas for my project are quite different, and have animals. My son thinks I should do the one kind of animal with green leafy fabrics for fur, and the universe as tea in a cup. So what to do? My friend is going to come look at the piles, and piles of fabric I've pulled out and hopefully help me with a sanity check, because the last thing I want to do is pack up a ton of fabric and then wish I had chosen totally different ones when I am in class - it's way different than changing your mind at home!

Two kinds of weaving

Since the beads were already out, I decided to do a little rearranging, took some things out of the way that didn't belong and moved them, found some already bagged projects ready to start, and decided it was time for a new amulet. I haven't been wearing them as frequently as I have in the past, but only because some of them are in need of repair (mostly due to the neck strap thread breaking from wear against metal clasps, and I've since found French wire that will hopefully alleviate that problem in the future).

Anyway, this pattern reminds me of the quilt pattern Grandmother's Flower Garden. It is in the book Beaded Obsessions III, and has lots of beautiful designs (there are more on my to do wishlist) in the small amulet size I love to wear. I'm halfway finished, and will start working from the bottom down, which is actually the other side of the amulet, as this will be folded in half when the beading is complete, and sewn up the sides, and then fringe will be added to the bottom fold (sometimes I also add even smaller beads along the sides to cover the sewing).



On the weaving front, my first hand dyed warp is on the loom! It was a bit more difficult, because of the tangling that can occur when dyeing and washing out the dye, but I wound it on slowly, stopping to untangle as I went.



I'm almost halfway through the first scarf! This one has green bamboo weft, and I'm loving the way it almost dissapears in the warp! It's going quickly, but I do need to make more progress on the quilting side of things.

Water Quilt - finished!

I was working down to the wire on this one, as I really wanted it finished in time for the gallery opening last night, and managed to make it happen, but just barely. In fact, I wanted it to be there so much that I was up until 3am Friday night, finishing the beading, and then the binding and sleeve still needed to be done yesterday before heading to the galery to hang everything. Yes, I ran a few minutes late, but it was finished and ready to hang. Since I ran out the door the minute it was finished, I took this photo of it hanging at the gallery (hey, at least I remembered to take a picture).

Of course it could have been finished without staying up that late if I hadn't volunteered to bake cookies for last night's opening, but it turned out ok, the quilt was finished in time, and we had chocolate chip, coconut oatmeal, and ginger cookies to snack on too.

Now today is my day to put my feet up and take a break, but since it's really difficult for me to just sit and do nothing, I'm going to be knitting a christmas gift. Of course it probably won't be finished today, and I won't be able to post it for a while (don't want to spoil the surprise), but I'll remember to take a picture to post later.

Jewelry making

As you can tell, I've been busy making jewelry......

I love stone donuts, and here are just a couple things that can be done with them.

Green is one of my favorite colors to wear, goes with so much!

My bead version of a charm bracelet.

And a silver watch that can go with just about everything.

Watches with beaded bands

It seems we are always busy in our house, many things to do, places to go, and since the kids are older, most of us are on different schedules, running in different directions.

I'm working on another challenge quilt, so can't post photos of that, but I did manage to take a little time to do a little jewelry making, and can share that with you. The watch I wear every day needed a little repair, as the jump ring that attaches the band to the watch had separated, and as I was getting out the tools, I noticed some watch faces that were waiting for bands. After a bit more digging, I found everything I needed not only to repair my every day watch, but to finish these watches, as well as some bracelets. I just couldn't resist posting a quick picture of these now - instant gratification, you know.

Beading Kits Available

Some of the shops that carry my patterns also have my bead fringe kits that I developed to go with the Awesome Amulets pattern. They have beads for the main fringe, and larger, or drop beads for the ends of the strands, as well as beading thread and a needle.

Beaded Heart Mini-Quilt

The center of this quilt was beaded over a year ago, and hanging on the wall waiting for me to make it into something. After being asked to do a beading demo, it was time to finish up some of my projects, with this heart ending up in the center of a small quilt. The quilt is only about 12" square, and the tan beads filling the heart are size 14 and 15 seed beads, so that was the most time consuming in the whole design.

Beaded frog amulet

I think I actually finished the pocket part of this amulet before the kids got out of school in June, however family and other things had higher priority so it was put aside. While I was in a beading type of mood, I decided to finish it up. The pattern came from http://www.i-bead.com/ .

Awesome Amulets