SESAME STREET PODCASTS!
(You can subscribe at iTunes.)
You can also watch them on your computer, which I am doing right now as I type. “Newspaper is the word on the street.”
Here is more done. I have put on the large crystals and started making “points”. So far so good. I have been commissioned to do some waterfall/chandelier earrings to match. Fun stuff.
You might notice that my “What I’m Reading” is full of dragons right now. Naomi Novik’s 4th book came out today. I adore her Temeraire books. I have long been a fan of anything with dragons – I think I have read Anne McCaffrey’s books almost once a year since I was 12. I am waiting just a few days to go and get my copy of “Empire of Ivory” as I just started re-reading the first three books in anticipation. This is only my second read of these and I am still loving them. I frequently reread books (unlike Andy who never does – weirdo). I like the way you can relive a good story, I don’t ever mind that I already know how it ends. Anyhow, I recommend them to anyone who needs a little dragon in their life.
The Framework
This is silver coated copper wire. It is very stiff, which is great, but makes it a bit of a challenge to work with. It seemed a little heavy here or somewhat cartoonish but the more beads I add, the better it looks, as you will see.
Here I have started to add the base of beads. I am putting more color towards the band and less as I go up, so this is full of purple, amber, green and orange. I think I am probably working with about 30 different kinds of beads. I have them sorted out by “layers” – large beads and more saturated colors towards the base and smaller, sparkly and more transparent towards the top.
The winner of our “Sewing Stories Contest” is…
kenyetta
Please email me at beckarahn {at} gmail.com with your mailing address and I will send your prize.
Lucy did the name drawing. She loves paper.
Step One: Materials Acquisition
I volunteered to make a tiara for my sister for her upcoming wedding. Yesterday I went on a little shopping trip to add to my bead supply and get a few extra things. Who knew that this…
was such a difficult thing to find. I have removed the white headband so I am working with just the comb. Next, starting to build the wire “crown”.
My bead collection for this project is mostly in the frosted/white/clear range, but I am adding purple and warm coppery amber to the mix for the base so it has some color. Her flowers are all warm autumn colors and we, the bridesmaids, are in deep eggplant purple, so I am working with those colors in mind.
…red fish, blue fish.
There was a thunderstorm last night and they say you should go to the basement if it’s hailing and stuff like that, so Lucy and I went to the basement and made these earrings. Can’t stop creating just because it’s raining!
Well, stitch me to the mainsail and throw me over! It be talk like a pirate day and I didn’t even know it! Methinks some pirate talk would have brought a little sparkle to me day.
In celebration of discovering my new-old favorite sewing machine, I am going to give away one of these little ornaments…
(your prize will be made up special just for you, so the fabrics won’t match this photo exactly)
To enter, just leave a comment about your favorite sewing or crafting tool (sewing machine, thimble, scissors or humble seam ripper? You tell me!) I will randomly draw for a winner on September 24.
And her name is Singer.
My sewing machine is ailing. It made a horrible strangled noise and quit this afternoon. I had just spent all of a couple of evenings cleaning the lint out, replacing the needle and all of that good stuff. To her credit, she had started to squeak, which is what made me think that I ought to do a good cleaning, so I did perhaps have a little warning. I don’t think the problem is anything I did while cleaning (or putting her back together) but I am afraid, judging by the amounts of lint I pulled out, that a big blob of yuck has jammed in some plastic gears someplace I can’t get to. This machine and I have a love/hate relationship. I spent a lot of money on her. She has a nifty thread cutter (which stopped working after about a year). She has a wonderful walking foot that makes me smile while making quilts and a buttonhole gizmo that works like a dream. She has an overlock stitch which is super nifty and dozens of fancy embroidery kinds of stitches (which sadly I use next to never). However, she also has a tendency to eat and/or tangle threads at the beginning of whatever you are working on, no matter what you do to prevent it (no, holding the ends doesn’t work). She also likes to eat fabric if you get too close to the edge and groan about too many layers of fabric. She is computerized and so you can’t get to or see anything. She is a Babylock QC700.
Today I had declared that I was going to work on puppets. It is time to get my butt in gear if I am going to have them ready for holiday show season. I lost a couple of evenings to cleaning the Babylock and Andy is off playing with the boys today, so I made a pot of tea, got out the gingersnap cookies and was ready to cruise through the 60+ puppets that are cut out and waiting for me. Approximately 1/16th in to one puppet Babylock uttered her death cry. (I am pretty sure she’s not really dead, but it will cost me to get her revived.) I grumbled some choice words, shoved her under the end table and headed to the basement.
Several years ago, I got a couple of vintage machines as a “payment” for some costuming work I did. I got them home and admired them. Even cleaned up the 1952 Singer (so pretty) and figured out how to thread and wind bobbins. And then promptly put them away. Who needs an old Singer when you have the new fancy expensive machine. HAH! If I had only known! I am completely in love with the Singer. She sews beautifully. Best machine I have ever used. No thread tangling. Sews through layers of fleece like butter. Feed dogs that feed! Perfect tension. Fast – twice what my Baby lock can do! I finished something like 30 puppets just this afternoon. I may make fun of myself later for making all of this fuss, but for now I will just enjoy that new machine buzz.
