AND EVEN MORE EDGINGS

 I finished two more edgings on the beaded pages today.

MORE EDGING

 It's raining like crazy here, so no walk this morning and probably not tomorrow either.  So, I'm up in the studio working on the edgings of my Bead Pages.  I only got one done today.  I've been trying to figure out a few things on Procreate so I can play with the colors of possible coping strips on the African Sampler that's on the design wall.  I don't use Procreate enough and I needed some refreshing on how to navigate in it.  But, with help from Darrell, I managed to get done what I wanted so I can audition different background colors.

EDGING THE PAGES

 I got one of the eleven Bead Pages edging stitched on today.

  Then I quit that project and went and straightened up my batting mess.  Too many batting scraps and they were taking up too much space.  I bagged up the smaller ones to be rid of and organized the rest by type - most of them are Dream Cotton natural select.  And I found I have more wool battings than I had thought.

TRYING DIFFERENT LOOKS

 I moved some of the pieces around.  Then moved them around differently.  Then did it again.

This could be an endless exercise.

MIGHT BE INTERESTING

 I chanced washing the little fabric squares of the found African fabrics.  I added a Color Catcher and caught a little red which I thought might happen.  But, there was little to no ravelling of the edges.  

I pressed the wrinkles out and put them up on the wall.

It looks better than I thought it would!  Now I'm thinking about what color to use as the filler.  Maybe different colors for each area?

FINE FEATHERED FRIENDS

 I fused some black wool onto the back of the wool piece I've been working the birds onto.  This will hide the knots from the applique stitches and decorative embroidery on the front.  After it cooled I cut the birds out leaving a quarter inch outline around each.  I decided the legs were wrong on the wren, so I will need to unpick them and re-stitch them before I cut it out.

They all still need to have a blanket stitch stitched around the outside and a ribbon or string attached which to hang them with.

ANTWERP STITCH

 I watched a video so I would understand how to do the Antwerp Stitch correctly then stitched it onto my Exquisite Bead Book pages using the hand dyed perle cotton #3 thread I made in the workshop.  I have eleven pages so far and I need to make another for a cover. 

And I need to add beading to the edges of each page.  But, the project is moving along.

FOUND FABRICS

 When I was looking around for something else, I came across a bunch of African fabric sample pieces.  What a treasure.  What shall I do with them?

ANOTHER BEAD PAGE

 I've finished another bead page.  This will be the last one like this.  Soon I need to start on the edgings.

STORAGE FOR THREAD

 I've had storage boxes for my Aurifil thread for years now.  But I was stacking the boxes on top of each other and it was a pain to pull out the one I wanted and to put it back in it place afterward.  Then I saw that Darrell had made himself a a cabinet for his little storage boxes and offered to make one for my aurifil boxes.

And here it is:

It is very nice!  But, I have more than just Aurifil thread.  I have a lot of Wonderfil, too.  And, since there is room in the boxes I've decided to incorporate them all together.  I think I'll sort them by color using the Joen Wolfrom color cards.  And I have space for 24 boxes, which coincides with Joen's number of color categories.  However, I will need a separate box for neutrals.

This will be so nice!

BEADING PAGES

 I'm making progress on my beading pages.  And I think I'm getting a little better at the whole process of beaded embroidery.

MORE BEAD PAGES

 I finished two more bead pages.

JINNY'S QUILT IS DONE

I sewed the newly made binding onto the back, then pressed it to the side and top-stitched it down on the front.  This quilt is done.  I've been calling it Jinny's Beach Blanket.  Terri Nussbaum who came up with this quilt design called them "Beach Blanket Bingo".  I think this quilt deserves a better name.  But, I can't think of anything.  But, the fabrics I used that have the border prints on them are a Jinny Beyer fabric.  

So it's Jinny's quilt, it is 55" by 72".     

It is finish #18 for the year. 

SNOW GLOBE ORNAMENT

 I made a Snow Globe ornament for the granddaughter Victoria.  She has been collecting them since she was young - real ones, not felt ornaments.

I got this pattern from whatacurlylife.com along with some more Christmas themed ornament patterns.

I gave it to her today when we went to her and her mother's place for Thanksgiving dinner. And a good dinner it was.

QUILTED THIS ONE

 This is one of the unfinished quilt tops I found yesterday in my container of UFOs.  It's a 'Beach Blanket'.  When I found it, it was missing the two short side borders.  But, the fabrics for them were with it, along with a big length of a go-with fabric for the backing.

I got them sewn on, then made the backing yesterday.

Today I loaded it all onto the longarm and set up a pantograph and got busy watching Erik work.

He finished it despite the ruffly border (without any pleats) and it's  off the machine.

COUNTING UFOS

 I've done really well this year finishing UFO projects.  I've finished all 12 of the ones for the Quilting Mayhem UFO Challenge.  So, today I thought I'd see how many I have left in the UFO containers hiding under the longarm.

I found 13 more quilt tops that need backing and to be quilted.

Here's one of them.  It's a Christmas quilt started in December of 1994.  It's a round robin - each border pieced by a different person, I provided the some of the fabrics to keep it consistent and made the Feathered Star in the middle to start it.  Everyone did such an exceptional job of adding to it. 

I'm a bit intimidated about doing the quilting for this one - all those open areas deserve something special.

BEADED CHRISTMAS TREE

 I started making this beaded Christmas Tree today.  There's a lot of counting and paying attention to what I'm doing.  I think the pattern calls for 17 layers.  I made it to the 7th today.

GNOMES

 I saw one of these in a local yarn shop and stole the idea.  I made these guys today.  The tall one is abuot 5" high.

SNOWMEN DONE

 I made the binding and sewed it onto the Snowmen quilt today.  It's done.

This is finish number 17 for the year!

FINISHED QUILTING SNOWMEN

 I was a bit hesitant to start up the longarm; was it going to work after crashing?  I had to give it a try eventually and find out!  But, I was happy to see that everything seemed to be okay.  I changed the needle and finished the last little bit of the program to finish the Snowmen quilt.  It quilted out just beautifully.  The Snowmen quilt is quilted.

This quilting design is perfect for this quilt.

SNOWMEN QUILT QUILTING

 I loaded the Snowmen quilt onto the longarm this morning and set up a pantograph that has swirls and snowflakes.  Everything was going just great.  The panto was stitching out beautifully until we got to the last row when things started to go awry.

First, there was two thread breaks for no apparent reason.  Then *crash*  the machine made a horrible noise and stopped with a alarming icon saying the machine was jammed.  The needle had come down onto the plastic cup of the #74 foot and was jammed there.  Using the hand wheel I was able to lift the needle up, but the foot's cup was broken (of course it was, it's a poorly designed plastic cup and this is actually the second one I've had that has broke- at $150 each). I gave up for the day and shut it down.

I don't understand what happened.  How could the needle move enough to not go down in the stitch hole, but move over and strike the cup?

Hopefully, the needle bar isn't bent or something.  

BIRD LEGS

 I've been working on the Fine Feathered Friends wool embroidery project.  I've appliqued all of the pieces down and today I embroidered the legs onto the birds.

DARRELL AND THE TREE

 In 2005 we planted a tree in front of our house in Renton on Darrell's birthday.  And I've been taking a picture on this day ever since.

2025

2020

2015

Planting day 2005

SCORPION

 I made a Scorpion from beads for my Scorpio husband's birthday.

CORAL STITCH WITH BEADS

 Continuing on with my attempts to learn beaded embroidery, the next page uses the Coral Stitch.

BEADS WITH CHEVRON STITCH

 Back to work on the bead book pages.  Today it was the Chevron Stitch.

STAR BOOK

 I watched the replay of a live video from Tuesday that I couldn't attend.  It was with e bond, she showed us how to make a Star Book.  I followed along and got it done during the video.  It is a simple and fun little project.

It involves folding the papers and gluing them all together somewhat like an accordian.  Then when you open it up the pages for a star.

MORE BIRDS

 I worked on the Fine Feathered Friends again today.  I got them all cut out and fused down, then began appliqueing them to the background.

Fusible attached to wool, ready to be cut out.

I thought some of the fabric choices that were included with the kit were not quite right.  I dug into my wool stash and found some better colors and used those instead.

I was using Sue Spargo wool thread to applique the pieces down and a spiral eye needle.  Unfortuntely the thread would occassionally get caught on the eye and start to shred and tangle.  

FINE FEATHERED FRIENDS

 I bought this wool embroidery kit called Fine Feathered Friends a month or so ago.  Today I had the urge to start it.  So I did.  I should have been working on my bead project.

I cut out and fused two birds today.  There are five birds.  They will all be fused onto this black wool background, then appliqued and embroidered.  Another black wool piece will be fused to the back to cover up the threads and then the birds will be cut out.

BEADS WITH CHAIN STITCH

Another kind of stitch, the Chain Stitch with beads.

 

OFF TO PORT TOWNSEND

 Darrell, Jelly and I left early headed to Port Townsend.  Darrell is going to Edensaw to pick some lumber for our front gate project.

We caught the ferry from Fauntleroy to Southworth.  The sun was coming up behind us while we were on the ferry.

Very few folks making this early trip on the ferry.

Arriving at Southworth

Crossing the Hood Canal floating bridge

Seen in the Womens Room at a gas station in Chimacum.

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I dropped Darrell off at Edensaw.  Then Jelly and I headed to Fort Worden for a walk.  It was a beautiful morning.

Then we went back to retrieve Darrell and we headed to Water Street in Port Townsend.  We had a few minutes to kill before anything opened at 10am.  We walked up the street and back enjoying the old buildings and window displays.

I wanted to make a quick stop in the Art Toolkit Store.  I have a couple of their watercolor palettes and needed a few tiny pans.   I forgot to take pictures of the store though.

Then we went back to Bazaar Girls yarn and wool store that I had spotted on our walk.  I bought some felted wools and a pin kit and spotted a few things for inspiration.