by the skin of my teeth

I managed to start the March BJP page during the actual month! This page is representative of St. Patrick's Day - the historic perspective of this day that is really a day of religious intolerance in many ways. The driving of the snake from Ireland being symbolic of driving out the old pagan ways. I'm trying to learn more about the world and so did some reading on the history of Ireland and its' long history of discrimination against the Irish people - both in their own country and when they immigrated to America - not all that long ago signs saying "No Irish need apply" were commonplace - can you imagine that happening now? Okay - enough with my history lesson - here's the beginnings of the March page.


I'm off to ArtFest in the morning for my annual battery recharge - lots of eye candy upon my return.

FINALLY!!

February is finished - I don't know why it took so long but it did - Time to put all the beads away and start on March though I think that I may start April and take it to ArtFest with me to work on there.

*still*

plugging away on the February page - I came very close to finishing it on Saturday - I sat and watched "A Streetcar Name Desire", "The Corpse Bride" and "Frida" while I beaded. I always cry at the end of Frida - you'd think I'd know she dies. Anyway, I beaded while I watched movies and long into the night but when there was maybe another hour or so of work to be done - I just couldn't go on. I was soooo tired. Hopefully I'll get some time after work this week to finally finish. Here's a photo of the 'scene of the crime' - the mess I develop when beading. I have a giant studio with tables and countertops that my beloved built for me but do I use it? NO! I work at a tiny tv tray table. He (the beloved) screwed a larger piece of wood onto the top of it because he got tired of seeing me work in such a small space.




This past weekend I also finished up with the seed bead organization. It is so nice to be able to actually *find* things and it's ever so much easier to put everything away when I'm finished. This process helped me to learn that I have far too many blue-green/teal beads and hardly any brown or gray ones.

Still plugging through February

I'm still working on the turning in circles February BJP page - I've never been this tardy before - I feel like I work on this page all the time but it never seems to get done - I know I'm making progress, it just doesn't feel like I'm making enough progress. Hopefully the March page will go faster - I already have an idea for it but I don't want to start it until February is finished.

slow progress

First off - let me say I am so tired of snow - It snowed again here in the Pacific Northwest, the place where it doesn't snow - remember? that's why I moved here from Detroit?


I've got too many irons in the fire - the Bead Journal Project, a class on Joggles.com, getting ready for ArtFest, a collaborative necklace project. . . and making slow progress on each of them.
Here is the work to date on the February Bead Journal Project page.

and updates on progress on 2 of the six projects for the joggles.com class - I'm so far behind on that one - thankfully my boss at my day job is going to Mexico next week so I'll have more free time. (yay!)




I really kind of like the back of the painted quilt - I might try doing something like this in the future - just free motion line drawing on muslin - pretty fun huh?


So that's where I'm at this second week of May - behind on a lot of things and just rather discombobulated - If I owe you a phone call or an email response, I'm sorry - I'll get to it as soon as I can - life is just rather annoying right now.

My poor neglected blog

I have too many projects in process at one time. The class on joggles.com involves a different mini-quilt technique each week. Somehow my 'mini-quilts' have turned into larger projects and those coupled with my Bead Journal Project page, working on a couple of round robin projects I'm participating in, getting trades ready for Artfest and oh yeah, my day job that is 40 hours a week with an added 10 hours of commute time and I've really felt like I'm burning the candle at both ends. Hopefully, now that the days are longer I'll feel like working more when I get home from the office rather than just curling up with a good book. Speaking of good books, I just received The Crafty Chica's Guide to Artful Sewing and is really is a fun read and true candy for the eyes. Everything Kathy does is so bright and colorful. And she quotes ME in the book! What better recommendation could I give you than that?




Now on to the works in progress. I finished a second landscape quilt. It was really fun working on these and I hope to do a larger one in the future.






Another class project was a painted quilt - I selected my puppy Zakk as my subject (and no he didn't hold still, I used a photograph). The painting process was really surprisingly easy once I got the hang of it. The quilty is pinned together now, waiting for some machine (and possibly hand) quilting.



And yet another class project was a felt applique quilt - I got a little carried away with this one - la Catrina is very big - about 20 - 30 - Since this photo was taken, I've removed those pink leaf sequins, added a turquoise felt 'flounce' to the brim of the hat and a garden of bead and sequin embellished flowers - I'm thinking la Catrina might be done by the end of the month. After the surface is done, I'll still need to quilt her and finish the border. Now you can see what I mean when I said I got carried away with these projects - the class format was to do 8 x 10 inch sample quilts - I should have followed directions.





And last but not least is the little applique bird quilt - I came closer to following the size suggestions this time. I think I'll finish this one with some hand embroidery and free motion machine quilting - all in yellow threads. And maybe some shiny black buttons to finish it off.


Work also continues on the 'turning in circles' February Bead Journal Project page, though I've been remiss about taking in progress photos of the page. I'll try to do that soon.

So what have YOU all been making?

Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear comments and/or suggestions for my quilties.