busy as a bee

I've just started the "Sumptuous Surfaces" course taught by Sharon Boggon on Joggles.com. The first lesson involved designing your project - a novel idea for me as I tend to just jump in feet first and paddle like a puppy. This weekend I've spent the majority of my time sketching and doodling, manipulating images on the computer and trying to come up with a 4 x 6 inch design for my first project. Initially I was at a loss - plan something? how novel is that? And once I had what I thought was a plan, the notion of tranforming it into a stitch pattern simply boggled me.

I visited a nearby shop this afternoon to collect some new fibers for the project. The first project is monotones - preferably whites/ecrus and those colors just aren't in my vocabulary and I really didn't have many 'fancy' fibers to use. I went to the Shibori Dragon - oh my! it took my breath away - honestly. There were such beautiful fabrics and threads and I didn't even venture into the knitting room. I purchased some silks, rayons, overdyed cottons, wools and one skein of thread made of bamboo. They also had wonderful little bags of scraps for crazy quilting, so I had to add a couple of those to my pile. These bags were crammed full of wonderful treasures - most too small for me to use in my style of crazy quilting (read here - use BIG pieces of fabric to accodomdate big and clumbsy stitching) but this is just what I have longed to have in my fabric stash for fabric collage pieces -

When I came home I had a much better idea of what I wanted to do and came up with this:

Now to wait until the next class on Thursday to begin. I think though that it wouldn't hurt to work up a little stitch sampler before beginning the class piece.

The new puppy

is quite a joy - even though he loves to steal my bobbins of thread and vials of beads and though on two occassions i've found him with my pin cushion with the needles and pins spread out on the floor around him (it's a wonder he didn't get hurt) he still brings me a great deal of laughter. He is quite a sweet little one. Well, he's not so little anymore - he is growing and growing and we fear he'll be huge. I've been working on two quilts and a few more beaded projects but there's nothing worth posting a photo of quite yet - hopefully this weekend - but to entertain you for now - here's another picture of the little guy.

My latest diversion

I have been working on a couple of new art projects, but mostly I've been playing with this little guy - a puppy is just the best thing in the world!

January Bead Journal Project Page - Completed!

This afternoon when I came home from work the bead I'd ordered for the January page was in the mailbox so I quick like a bunny, finished the page. I guess it is rather unorthodox to embroider a full page while leaving a 'hole' for just the 'perfect' bead but that's what I did - I guess I'm pretty lucky to have found something - the 'perfect' bead would be the lampworked lentil in the center - made by an amazing artist on etsy. I'm happy to have this done - I may be travelling unexpectedly as I received a call today that my mother had fallen and broken her pelvis and was hospitalized. She lives in Phoenix so a visit would be a bit more than a 'day trip'. In any event, the page is done and I'm quite happy with it. It's much more sparkly in person.

January Bead Journal Project Page

Day one of beading
I've been sick with the flu for the past few days but spent a good deal of time working on my January page inspired by the Nutcracker Ballet - sort of a combination of dance of sugar plum fairies and dance of the flowers.


Day two of beading.

Hello 2008!

I started and finished my December Bead Journal Project page yesterday. I had a vision in my brain - my memories of Christmas with those old funky ornaments that were bonuses for filling up your tank with 28 cent a gallon gas. Rows and rows of lights that were those old giant bulbs, not fiber optics or chasers or faux icicles. My memories of going to the nutcracker ballet every year. I had a great vision in my mind, but as sometimes (or oftimes) happens my fingers wouldn't do what my brain had in mind. I didn't like the page at all in the beginning but I wanted to try Robin's suggestion of just beading on, past the dislike for the page. So I didn't rip anything out and I just kept beading. I still don't 'love' the page, but I don't hate it either.

Happy New Year.