Tis The Season

This is my latest cuff bracelet, it is an original design created with Bead Tool 3.

I haven't actually worn it out in public yet, have been waiting for Thanksgiving to be over and start the Christmas Season.

Yes it actually has a bell for the closure, it is really fun, it jingles when you move your hand.

Don't know if I will sell it at the LBS or keep it for my self, it is an advanced pattern and I'm not sure I would ever make another one. I am not fond of mass production and that is one of the reason I have never gotten into craft fairs or even art shows. I love the challenge of creating a design, but once I have accomplished that task I lose interest in repeating the project.

I have decided to have a drawing for a free PDF copy of this original design (color chart and wordchart too) on December 23rd. If you would like to be entered leave a comment and your name will go in the hat.

Swimmingly

This is my Granddaughter Sabrina, she has been swimming a little while now and is doing fantastically. This was a big event that took place on Halloween Weekend. she was in six events and did a great job taking a few seconds off each of her times.

She is really concentrating on her technique.

Here is the result of the concentration............ready to touch the wall.


Grandma and Grandpa are really proud......especially Grandma who only learned to float and dog paddle.

Giving Thanks

No this is not my apple pie, this pie was made by my son Mike! When I was in CO visiting after the birth of Tobias I spent some of the time each day baking. One of the things we made was apple pie, I made one for the friend of Mike's that picked me up at the airport and drove me to the hospital. I did a simple fall leaf pattern on that pie and Mike took notes. This was his rendition of apple pie for Thanksgiving Dinner.

This is Tobias at 8 weeks old, he is growing like a weed and is cute as a button, and that is the unbiased opinion of his Grandmother.

This is a new hat that grandma made, the knit ribbing can roll down and cover ears and neck when the wind starts to blow.

New Projects

As promised here are the pictures of my Rivoli project.

The earrings are 12mm rivoli, with delicas, 15/0 & 11/0 seed beads and 4mm bicones. The earwires are solid copper.

The pendant is a 14mm rivoli, with delicas, 15/0 & 11/0 seed beads and 4mm bicones. The cord is light brown silk rattail. The bail is brick stitch,11/0 seed beads with a 15/0 picot edge. There are 18 bicones around the edge that gives it a dimensional effect since the bicones can shift to the back or the front.

Just in time to add bling to the holidays. Now if there was only some event to wear them to.

Latest Bead Project

I was inspired to design a peyote cuff bracelet with African mud-cloth motifs. The Smithsonian website has an interactive design section where you can go through the steps used to make a real piece of mud-cloth.

So here is my interpretation of the motifs in delica beads.......

I like the way it turned out and it was a fun project to make from design to execution.

I'm working on a project using Rivoli, they really sparkle and look so sophisticated. Should have pictures to post in a day or so.......

Food and Babies - What could be more fun!!

It is fall and nothing is more Ohio, than apples and leaves. This is a deep dish apple pie I made a couple weeks ago. Took time to take a picture of the finished pie, but haven't taken the time to post the picture. It was as good as it looks too, vanilla ice cream and all.....



And this is the latest picture of Tobias. Cute as a button, and Dad says he is growing like a weed, approximately 12 lbs now at 5 weeks old.


I have been doing some sewing, baby accessories to be exact. We are having a baby boom at church so need to get a head start on gifts.


Bib that pops over the head, keeps cloths clean and can't be pulled off by baby.


Receiving blanket 36 in sq with crocheted edging, with matching burp cloths that are peanut shaped to fit over your shoulder.


Made a pink zebra jasper necklace for a friend for her b-day. She now has a set, flat spiral bracelet and earrings and the necklace. I don't usually like plain stringing projects , but this one turned out pretty well.

I have a peyote cuff bracelet to post pictures of but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Need to get to bed......working again tomorrow and probably most of the week.....

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet.....

The month of October has flown by.... We were awaiting the arrival of our 4th grandchild and had made plans to make the trip to Colorado when he arrived. I had a short window of opportunity since October is a busy month at work with Quarterly Payroll Reports due by the 31st.


Tobias Evert Uncapher arrived on Oct 1st, his arrival was a little less than conventional, so I booked a flight and was in Colorado on 10/3 and helped bring the not so little guy home from the hospital. He weighed in at 8# 13 oz and was 22in long. For the next nine days I helped out by doing laundry, cooking, cleaning and baking treats for Mom and Dad. It was really a great experience to hold a newborn baby again.

This is a picture taken this week..... 14 days old!!!!

He is such a sweetheart......he has his Dads hands and feet (Dad is 6'4") and I don't know were the dark hair came from..... although his Aunt Amanda had dark hair when she was born, but it fell out and came back in blond, maybe Tobias will do that too.

I have been home since Monday afternoon, back to work and have even started on another beading project, so will have more to post soon.......maybe even new pictures of Tobias.

New Beads

To date I had never made a "set" of bead work, I usually go for individual pieces. These pieces started with the cab, when I finished it I decided to make a rope to go with it and then the bracelet and by the time that was done I just kept going and did the earrings too. The closures on the necklace and the bracelet are more of my vintage mother of pearl buttons, ear wires are 14K gold.


The pearls around the cab are fresh water and all the others are glass.

The earrings are not me, I don't do dangles. I don't want to break up the set, so they will probably go on consignment to the Bead Shop where I teach. Price $90. Right now I have all the flat spiral bracelets there priced from $35 to $45 depending on the bead cost, labor is the same. Anything that doesn't sell will probably be turned into Christmas gifts.

You wouldn't believe that it is the first day of fall.......the high today was 83 and it is still 71 at midnight. I still have green tomatoes so I guess it is OK that it hasn't turned cold yet, I can always use more tomatoes in the freezer.

Projects turn into Gifts

You may remember we are due to have another grandchild (probably a boy) very soon, and we have had two new babies in our Church family with more due in the next few months. I have started to work on some baby things. I'm knitting another blanket, but it is slow going, I just can't get into the pattern. So I decided to try out some other ideas for a few useful, but quick projects to use as gifts. This bib is one I am working on........
Terry cloth with a little embroidery. I didn't want to use bias tape as the edge finish so tried to do a satin stitch. It was OK , but the terry and t-shirt fabric both were a little too stretchy and it gave me a ruffled effect on the edge. I think I'll try a blanket stitch next time....

The next two photos are of a sweater I made for Sabrina for her B-day next week. It is in the mail so she should have it in plenty of time. I don't use a light box to take pictures so the colors are not really as intense as they should be, the wool yarn is a hand dyed sport weight I fell in love with .......I hope she likes it.....it is a very bright. It looks small in this picture, but it is supposed to be the short crop style that is in right now.

Close up of the neck and yoke detail. Top button is for looks and does not button.

Sewing

This is a table runner I made for Tony (one of the guys I work with) and Andrea as a wedding gift. The block pattern is broken dishes.....appropriate don't you think?


The bride chose the colors, and the rest was my choice, fabric, block design and quilting motifs. Since their wedding was today and fall is in the air here I decided to use a fall quilting design, oak leaves and acorns.


The blocks had a double leaf and single acorn design, and the end triangles have a single leaf and acorn design. No, I am not that good at freemotion quilting, these are embroidery machine quilting designs from The Embroidery Library. It still takes some work and talent to get the designs to workout correctly, but you don't have to worry about thread tension and all that other stuff. Actually it is more challenging to do this kind of work than to do the longarm quilting that is done by computer.



I also designed a label for the back........



The wedding was this afternoon and it was beautiful, we had a great time and Andrea was radiant and Tony was so happy........They are both great people and deserve all the happiness in the world.

Music and Stuff

Steve Jr, our oldest son, works for Julianne Hough. September 4th they were at the Flag City Music Festival in Findlay Ohio. Steve arranged for us and Kelly & Ivan to attend the concert. We had access to the VIP section and got to meet Julianne after the show. I took several pictures, but I'm only going to post the pictures with my son & Julianne in them here, don't know what the protocol is and don't want to cause any problems.

If you are interested in seeing more pictures try this website, they are for sale there and will support the kids program that sponsored the event.

http://www.fatbottomproductions.com/index.html

Steve is the person that keeps all the Guitars/Instruments in working condition and sees that they are on stage at the right time, in the right place. Here he is getting ready to hand Julianne her guitar for the next song.



Helping her with the guitar and the pick



Ok, couldn't resist, just one shot of her big smile.......

We had a great time, got to see Steve and spend some time with him which is a treat since he has been on the road a lot this year. We even got to give him an early B-day present..........

Some Beading

I've been working on some flat spiral bracelets as samples for a class coming up in a couple weeks. This is one patten that is addictive, it is easy and you can use a variety of beads and they all look different and great.

Pearls

Crystals

Crystals and Cubes

Toggles and loops

Should be a fun class, it is always interest to see what everyone chooses to work with......

Bathroom Curtains

Steve seemed to think it was time to change the bathroom curtains, can't imagine why? We have only lived here 16+ years and they looked fine to me. I decided that if I were going to change the curtains it would be on my terms......
1. I was only going to use fabric from my stash.
2. I was not going to buy a pattern, I was going to wing it.
Of course neither of these conditions included spending money so he was all for doing it my way.

I think both sets of curtains turned out pretty well considering the aforementioned conditions, but the challenge was how to take pictures and prove I really accomplished the task. Have you ever tired to take a picture facing into a window? It doesn't work...... so I waited until dark and tried again. They aren't masterpiece pictures, but you can get the idea.

This is the downstairs bathroom, typical window treatment................

The upstairs bathroom has tile, so the curtain rod is one of those tension kind that fits inside the casing.

Well it was a fun diversion, but I won't be taking any commissions for curtains, so don't even ask.

Hummingbird Stories - Truth or Fiction??

Well here is the hummingbird story I promised. If you have read my previous humming bird post you'll remember that the Alpha male had performed his intimidation dance in front of me while I was watering the garden. He did the same thing one time after that, and I squirted him again with the hose. Now before you yell at me for being mean I should tell you that the hose has a setting for shower and that is what I use to water the garden and flower beds. The flow is very gentle and wouldn't hurt him if he was right up against the nozzle.


Up until last week we had not had any rain to speak of for over two weeks and things were pretty dry, big cracks in the ground all around the house and in the garden. One evening while I was watering Alpha male(now named Alfie) came by and sat on a branch near where I watered. He flew at me but stopped about three or four feet in front of me and hung there like he wanted to get my attention. He didn't dive at me or even squawk at me, just hung there. I held the hose up so that the water was near but not on him.....he flew into the shower and hung there a few seconds and then went back to his perch on the branch. He fluffed his feathers and shook himself off and then flew back to the spot he had gotten showered before and hung there.......so I slowly moved the shower over and he again hung in the water and then went back to his branch, shook off the water, fluffed his feathers and buzzed away.

Now is that one smart bird or what??? He knew I would squirt him, but he also knew I wouldn't hurt him, so he got a much needed bath without having to share the birdbath with all the other dirty birds.......

They still have their hummingbird wars, and he stands guard on a branch near the feeder waiting for the unwelcome dinner guests. But I guess that is just the way it will be, Alfie is after all Alpha male and in charge of this house, garden and feeder and the occasional handheld birdbath shower.

New Work

Wow, it's been almost a month since I posted last!!! Today is August 1st, the summer is flying by, I don't know how I could have missed June and July.

This post is about the beading I have been doing this month. A week from Monday I'll be teaching a class on the Dutch Spiral technique. It is an easy stitch that can be used for bracelets or for necklace ropes. When I did the Recycle project I did a dutch spiral for the rope for the large center cab.

This green one has a toggle and loop closing.

This red, white and black one has an antique glass button and loop for a closure.



I've also been working on this odd count peyote stitch cuff bracelet. The pictures don't do it justice, most of the delicas are metallic hex beads and they reflect the light and make it hard to get a good photo. I have about half an inch left to bead and the I need to add some beads on the outside and decide if I will use two buttons as the patten suggests or some other type of closure.

I love the way the designer had incorporated the triangles and the curved lines. Pattern is from Bead & Button Magazine and the designer is Eileen Spitz. You can find it on the B&B website.

This bracelet was really fun to do, I think it was 14 colors of delica's all together. The pattern is from the Bead iMag, a UK publication you can subscribe to and read your magazine on line and print all or just the parts you want. They have some really interesting projects and with a subscription you have access to all of the issues ever published plus all the ones published during your subscription term.

I have some bird news and pictures of the new awning on our deck to post too. Hope to get to that later today.......

For the Birds

We have four bird feeders, including one for Humming Birds. I started feeding them last year, but took the feeder down within a week as we had one male that was dominating the feeder and chasing the others away. After I talked to several friends that have HB feeders they said this was normal and that they all have one guy that ruled the feeder.

I put the feeder back out this year and sure enough he was back to his tricks from the start. We have several bushes and trees near the deck where the feeder is hanging, and this little bully sits on a dead twig and watches for another HB to come around and try to get a drink.

It is so funny, he sits and his little head turns from side to side constantly patrolling the area for another HB to just try.

I have seen him back one of the females up against the house and dance back and forth in front of her just daring her to move towards the feeder. If someone just flies by he will give chase.

About two weeks ago I was watering the garden in the evening and he came flying up and started doing his little intimidation dance in front of me, well he got a shock when I turned the hose on him........he hasn't tried that again.

We also have loads of Wrens, Steve build several houses for them winter before last and they really seem to be thriving in the yard and woods. We found out that they will hatch at least two clutches of eggs if they have a different house to move into, they don't use the same one twice in one year. They do love to sing and are not much afraid of you, so they come up on the deck and sit on the rail and even walk around on the deck while we are out.

This guy was singing and didn't have his tail up...... they are so cute.

We have loads of birds, so we always have bird stories..........