Some Beaded Bracelets

Yesterday I took a class offered by my bead club (Don't Worry Bead Happy, and learned to make this fun wrapped bracelet by Off the Beaded Path in North Carolina.

I chose colors from my stash and made a two-wrap bracelet. Opens were given to make it wider and longer. It was very easy and fun to make and I learned a new Peyote technique using super duos.

Apparently, it got me into a mood to bead, so I picked a project from my bead box and made this Garden Path bracelet.

It is a kit from my local bead store:  Bead World called Turquoise and Bronze Garden Path Bracelet. It was a complete kit and lots of fun to make. It was not very hard but warning, it is a two-needle project. I have had this kit for a while, so not sure if it is still available. 

Happy Beading!!!

Beer... Finish Finished

 I last told you a bit about this project on April 24. It is on the fabric I used for finishing.

I stitched this one on white for my hubby and stitched another on different fabric. Since I only had one charm, I stitched a pretzel in its place. I used both of these to teach a flat-fold finishing class today. 

So, now I have two finishes!!

The top photo below is on the darker fabric that I plan to sell at our Oct. 5 EXPO. 

Below that is the one I am keeping. 

The bottom photo is both of them side by side. 

I used different purchased cording on each and finished them differently. 

!

I guess that is all for now!

Happy Stitching!!

Festival Stitchers EXPO Stitching

In our community, we have two Expos a year where clubs can show off what they do and possibly attract new members. The craft clubs can sell items their members make following certain rules.

One of the rules is that members cannot make more than $500 a year (among all clubs). So, our club table at the Fall Expo will look kind of stark since our best contributors sold well at the Spring Expo and can't put as much out.

In our case, and other clubs as well, the member keeps 90% of the sale and the club gets 10%. Sales help the club and in order to have our table look fuller and help our club's coffers, we came up with something members can make and the club will sell at 100% profit - Luggage Tags. I made two examples to get an idea of design size.

My design using DMC 991, 993, 356 & 754. I call it Southwest Luggage Tag 1 (so creative)!

Gecko on Wall by Jenny Rasmussen.

I had to adapt the Gecko design by moving the corners to fit the tag, but I think it came out ok. I used DMC 993 and Kreinik #4 braid color 027.

Not all of our members want to stitch to sell stuff, we have about 5 people who consistently sell.  But many of those who don't want to stitch to sell, are happy to make smaller items for the club. We did combine this with learning something. For example, last year we made wool applique stockings and learned the blanket stitch.

With the luggage tags,  we are learning how to work with perforated paper and if desired learning to find or adapt designs to fit the tag. 

The club provided the luggage tag, perforated paper and an identification card. 

I printed out an information sheet which included information about the best design size to use. I also provided some designs of my own and other freebies they could adapt if needed.

The club purchased 25 tag holders and after one meeting we only have eight left! I am sure those will be picked up by those who were not at our last meeting. 

I also stepped up my game and stitched this towel to sell. The design stopped after two arrows on each side of the bird, but I thought it looked empty, so I added more. The towel is a light sage green that does not show up so well in the photo.

Happy Stitching!!

Bees and Baseball

This happened last week, so you may have heard about it, but I am entering it here in my blog for posterity!! Ha Ha.

I enjoy baseball having grown up with the Dodgers during the Garvy, Lopes, Russell, Cey era and I lived in places (NE, IA and NC) for 10 years that did not have professional teams. Although when we lived in NC we were close to the double A Carolina Mudcats and those games were fun. When we moved to Colorado I was thrilled (all the major sports teams were in Denver) and then with the move to Arizona I became a Diamond Backs (D-Backs) fan so I could watch my team all the time.

I also enjoy stitching while watching games. I sure wish they would bring back stitch-n-pitch.

Well on April 30, I was all set to watch the game (on TV) and stitch, when just before first pitch bees started to swarm behind home plate and took up space at the top of the netting 30 feet up. It was not safe for fans, or the announcers who could look down at the swarm, so they postponed the game.

I could hear when they made the verbal announcement when he asked the fans to "be patient". He did not emphasize the be, so not sure he actually knew he was saying a pun, but it was a good one.

They had to call in the expert who was in Surprise (about 45 minutes away) at his son's final T-ball game of the season. Here he is vacuuming up the bees to be released off-site.

Before each game they give this information about weather, the roof and the panels. An extra line was added for this game!

The bee guy's son may have been upset that he left, but his father got a standing ovation when he was driven into the stadium, he threw out the first pitch, he had a press conference and the next day or so I heard that Tops if creating a baseball card of him!

The D-Backs even had a buy one get one for their next weekend series if you used the code BEEGUY.

The game ended up starting  an hour and 55 minutes later, the latest a game has ever started at Chase Field. As you may guess, I got a lot of stitching done!

I googled "bee guy chase field" and came up with these if you are interested.

‘Thank you bee guy’: How the Diamondbacks handled swarm at Chase Field (msn.com)

Diamondbacks' social media team gives buzzworthy bee delay performance (azcentral.com)

Beekeeper who saved Dodgers-Diamondbacks game from swarm gets to throw out first pitch (nbcnews.com)

Fans react to the Bee Guy at Dodgers game (msn.com)

Thanks for stopping by!!

Saguaro Sunrise Finish Finished

I decided to be brave and finish my Saguaro Sunrise into a needlebook after all. I did not use the provided fabric because it would fray. I used some ultra suede I had in my stash and the corded edging technique from Marion Scoular's book (page 72).

For this technique, you remove one thread of canvas next to the stitching. You then stitch the outline stitch in the "ladders" left behind when removing the thread. A thicker thread than used in the stitching is required. I used the Glisten from the kit. 

The final result gives it a nice corded edge.

I have a snap insert tool, so I used that as my closure. Also, if I don't initial and date in the stitching and it is possible, I use a thin black Sharpie to write them on the fabric (upside down in this photo).

I used my sewing machine to sew in the wool felt needle pages.

I guess that is it!

Happy Stitching!!