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......