STITCHED THE STITCH BOOK

 I had all of my Stitch Book 2026 pages sewn into groups of four and they needed to be stitched together.  I thought I would do something like a Coptic stitch.  But, that didn't work out.  So, I just used a basic Pamphlet stitch and I added some beads between each page to space the pages.

OWL AND CACTUS

 I've been working on this 100 Day Stitch Book page since before my trip to Tucson.  I finally finished the beaded eyes today so I could call it done.

It commemorates the Saguaro Cactus, the Great Horned Owl and the Snow Moon which occurred on February 1st, the night I arrived in Tucson. 

BEAD SORTING

 Home again.  Unpacked, laundry done, things caught up on, I finally made it up to the studio.  I began by sorting through the things I bought and collected on my trip to Arizona.

Here are the beads:

GEM SHOW IN TUCSON

 Every year there is the biggest Gem and Jewelry Show in Tucson.  It takes over the whole town.  Our class left at 11:30, loaded into two vans and went into town to experience and look for treasures we could use in our beading.

We spent several hours in the Expo Center then loaded back into the vans and went to the African Village.  There were quite a few venders set up in a parking lot with tents and their wares.  They had cloth, fabrics, crafts, clothing, beads, furniture, artifacts, masks, statues, jewelry and much more.  This was a lot more fun because of all the beads.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

BEADS WITH CHAIN STITCH

Another kind of stitch, the Chain Stitch with beads.

 

BEADS WITH BLANKET STITCH

The next pages in my Exquisite Bead Book are using Blanket Stitches and adding beads to them.

 

All of the pages will need edgings added to them.

BEADS WITH BACKSTITCH

I'm finally working on the pages for my Exquisite Bead Book.  I'm starting out easy and working my way to the more elaborate embroidery stitches.

This first one is using the Backstitch and adding beads.

 

MADE A BEAD SPIDER

 I made a spider with beads.

I'm going to dangle it somewhere.  Live long and prosper.

DAY TWO OF WORKSHOP

 Day Two of the Exquisite Bead Book Workshop.  First thing, we rinsed the dyes from our fabrics then set them out to dry.

And we began beading on our practice pieces.

We began with stitching what will become the binding on the pages

It's a blanket stitch with a knot added.

EXQUISITE BEAD WORKSHOP

 I left home at about 7am heading north to La Conner for the Exquisite Bead Book Workshop with Gail Harker.  

I arrived a little early even though I stopped several times including at Starbucks for breakfast and coffee.

The workshop was in the Civic Garden Center, which is right across the street from the Quilt Museum.

The Pacific NW Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum

The LaConner Civic Garden Club

The first day we dyed the fabrics we prepared and brought, wool and silk organza.  Each reacted differently to the dyes.  The wool took a lot of dye while the organza needed very little, but it didn't spread very well for either.  So, we massaged it to get the dyes to move in interesting ways.

Dyes prepared.

Gail explaining to us how we'll do it.

And we dyed some perle cotton thread that we'll use on binding our books.

Here are some of the others fabrics - we set them out on plastic to leave them overnight.

And my fabrics.