Sam's Beaded Bottle

I finally had a moment and Sam helped me figure out how to aquire photos. He has been doing it for his computer illiterate mom...Anyway, here are some photos of Sam's completed beaded bottle. It is a Carolyn Sherman design and he really enjoyed doing it. I did not help him at all. I told him that he could give it to me, but he said no. Rats!

Bottom of bottle

Base of bottle stitched.

Here is some pictures of my MIAC. I have been busy working on my spaces and corners.

This next picture shows the area I need tor rip. The light purple is just not right. It is ok, but every time I see it I think to myself, that needs to be darker. It has been loads of fun to stitch and a challenge to figure out what colors to use.

Finally Finished

After a lot of stalling, I finally finished my October Crazy Quilt Square. I still need to start my November square. I have a feeling I will be a little behind for a few months and then catch up after the holidays. I really want to finish my MIAC before the end of the year and I still have some Christmas ornaments to stitch.

Some changes in MIAC

I added some lavender to my MIAC. It definitely helps. I hope to get one of the spaces worked on soon, but I am trying to finish my October crazy quilt square. I need to start on my November square or I will be way behind for the Beaded Journal Project.

Crescent Claus was started and finished in a week! I think that is the fastest I have ever finished anything! My oldest son has claimed it as his for Christmas.

This Mill Hill kit took me longer. He is San Nicolo. He looks adorable in person. I love Mill Hill bead kits. They stitch up quickly and I normally have plenty of beads left over. In fact, I am using some of the extra beads on my crazy quilt. And one last plug for Mill Hill: the few times I have run out of beads, they have sent me what I needed with no questions asked. A great company!

Santa's almost done

As you can see, I have almost finished San Nicolo. He is a lttle Mill Hill bead kit that I've had in my stash forever. I try to stitch ornaments for each of my kiddos and some for a neice and nephew. So far I have two done this year and I am worried that I won't get them done!

I have also spent some time working on my MIAC. For some reason this picture came out blue tinted.... I spend a lot of time wondering if I even like my colors. The photo doesn't look too bad, but in person in looks stripey. I think I should not have put green in and tried to find a lighter value of the blue or purple. Too many medium values and not enough contrast. Sigh. Oh well, it is a learning piece and I used colors I don't normally use. My kids like the piece so I will keep working on it. I would have to rip too much to change it and sometimes I kind of like it.

I have finished stitching my October crazy quilt square; I just haven't had time to put any beads on it. Hopefully that will change this week!

Thanks for your Comments

Thanks for your encouraging words ladies. My finisher does such a nice job, but I hate spending the money on finishing when I could use if for stitching supplies. I am thinking about making next year a Santa year. I think I have at least 3 Janet Casey Santa's to do. If I stitch them, I may try (again) to finish them.

Why I hire a Finisher

As I promised, here are some photos of my attempt at finishing. A friend told me I could do it and that I should lace (not glue) the ornament together. She gave great advice, but it was wasted on me! I sewed some edging around my ornament, after I had trimmed the excess canvas off. But I cut too close to my stitching and somehow missed some of the edging while sewing and soon my santa was unravelling. Horrors! But I remembered that Pat and Jane both used glue so you KNOW what I pulled out....Yes, my glue. I was ready to cry at this point. All that stitching and time and money down the drain. But I took the advice that I always give my kids when they get frustrated: take a break. The next morning I was calmer and decided that I had no choice but to use glue for the project. It did not make me "bad"-just a lousy finisher!

I did sew the cording around the front, because I wanted to cover as many mistakes as possible. But the back was another matter! These last two pictures do not show the horrible job I truly did.


I ended up having to add another piece of cording around the back to cover some of the problems.

Yes, I used glue! This piece will never be shown at the state fair or at my local guild, but I did finish the piece and I will hang it in my home!

The moral of this story is find a good finisher!

Where has the time gone?

Well, I finally had a moment to retake a picture of my September Crazy quilt square and try to post. I hope you can see the spider I placed on my web. He was fun to stitch. I also finished a beaded lizard from Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch& Beading magazine (issue 68), but I forgot to take a picture of him before I loaned him to the library. He was supposed to go on the quilt square, but he looked too big. I can always add him later.

These next two pictures are of Sam's beaded box. We took the class through the Mississippi River Valley Guild of EGA. The design is by Carolyn Sherman and called Wildflower Box. Sam plans to show it at our local homeschool art show this month and I hope to enter it in the fair for him. He did a great job, and I am very proud of him. We will not discuss my box or the lack of progress I have made on it. Top view of Sam's box.

I have finally finished Part I of Gay Ann's Mystery in a Corner. I will try to post a picture soon. I also decided to take the plunge and try to finish my North Wind Santa ornament myself. Big mistake. Once it is totally done, I will show you why I pay big bucks for a finisher. Yes, I know Jane of Chilly Hollow can do it and so can NCPat...in fact, they encouraged me to try! (Not knowingly, I assure you.) But I am not sure that I will attempt it again.

And don't forget Gay Ann Roger's is having a sale starting October 15!!!