The Necklace...cont...and maybe you can use some of it in quilting..

If you are making a quilt that could use some embellishing, think about how you could string some beads, sewing the ends of the string into a section of the quilt, then adding to the string making a frothy lace effect like I've done with the white beads. You could also sew in some shells into the frothy bits and they will start to look like surf instead.These photo's are of a fish I painted and then embellished with embroidery to see what it would look like. I could also add some beads in the background, making them look like seaweed or corals or anemones....anything's possible... ;-)

This is a fish I painted and then embroidered...I could bead it too...

Close-up of the face

All sorts of different stitches.

The outline stitch is called Pekinese stitch.

This will be going into my Turtle quilt.

So maybe you can use this idea on your next quilt...make certain sections of the quilt extra special with some embroidery, or beading or by sewing ribbons in and around and about. :-)

I promised to show you how far I'd got with my necklace, so here are a bunch of photo's for you to look at...:-D

Looking a little fuller.

A bit closer..

Top right side...as you wear it..

Centre right side.

Middle..I've taken the big green beads off.

Going up the left side.

Further up the left side

Near the top ..left side

Going round the back of the neck towards the clasp.

Well I haven't got to making the clasp yet..that will be the last thing I do. I hope this gives you some inspiration to play and see what you could do...
Maybe you could use the frothy lace type of beading if you made it larger to accent a corner of a block on a quilt...sewing the occasional section down to the fabric so that it doesn't flop around a lot. Even using shells on the quilt and then adding some of the lacy stuff around it so that it looks like surf frothing around it...adding some of the pearls into the froth....I really think that it could make a huge difference to a quilt that would otherwise be ordinary :-) The frothy lace is made by stringing beads onto some thread...then going back and picking up a new bead, going through the second strung bead, picking up another bead, missing a strung bead and going through the next...and so on till you get to the end of the string..turn back and pick up a bead thread it so that it sits in the gap made by the previous row...carry on till you get to the end..turn back and pick up 3 beads go through the next bead..pick up 3 beads miss a bead then go through the next one...carry on till the end..turn around and pick up 3 beads and go through the center of the previous three beads, pick up 3 beads and go through the center of the next three..you'll start to see the 'frothyness' building... If I haven't made much sense...let me know and I'll try and write it again with pictures to explain it...It's just that it's 1am in the morning and I should go to sleep...:-) see ya sometime.

Sigh..what can I do?

I'm so sorry for being such a bore! I haven't managed anything for quite a while. What I have been doing is sailing on a 5 day trip and even though I had grand plans of doing some art work whist traveling across the ocean I was just too tired. Sailing does tend to take a lot out of you..anyway that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. :-D
Having said that I did manage some beading just before we left Huatulco...I'll get my A into G and take some photo's for you. I'll try really hard tomorrow morning to up-load them.

After I finish that we will be leaving Nicaragua....to sail to Costa Rica where, I'm hoping we'll spend more than two days. We've been involved in sorting out the boat and customs and immigration and all that so there hasn't really been much time for me to play....

Sunrise 23rd Jan 2011.

So please don't give up on me..I'll be Back! I promise.

I'm Back.... :-D

I told you on the 'chat' blog that I was going to try and make a necklace similar to the one in the photo........well I've started it...If you can't remember what it looks like..scroll down to the Chat blog..it's after the Mermaid blog....and have a look.......

So this is the first bit you do...

 Actually the width of the initial band of beads is almost double what you see here, but it's all up to your own preferences. That's the great thing about this..they give you an idea and you can then run with it...quite fun..

A close-up of a section and some of the shells and beads .

I am using fresh water pearls as well as glass beads and David has been drilling tiny holes in the shells for me so that I can thread them into the necklace...

I've woven in three shells on this bit..more to come...

Sometimes the pictures are a little blurred because I'm taking photo's on the boat and of course the boat is never still..ha ha...

 This one is better. It's a bit further down the string. I've also got some really nice fresh water pearls in this section.

A Cowrie shell and some more fresh water pearls.

The Cowrie shell is rather a nice specimen. I found all the shells on different beaches in Mexico. The big green beads at the bottom...are gonna go..I don't like them.

Making bridges..the sections that are semi attached...

So the pattern that you download from the internet tells you how to do all this stuff. I'm having a great time with it all and as I go along I'll keep trying to take 'clear' photo's...grin...

Yes I know where are fabric art things...well I've been working on those too. I have the Elephant and the Rhino stencils cut. I'm trying to finish cutting the others before I actually do some painting with them...or maybe I'll get the urge to paint and you'll get a surprise..:-D
Cheerio for now..have a wonderful day..I know I'm going to.

Learning Beading....

Hi there everyone :-) Happy new year to you all! 

I've started to learn how to do beading because I want to be able to embellish my quilts with all sorts of things. Have a look... :-)

Earrings using glass beads and shells.

Some close-up's...

I wove the beads through the shell.

The other earring's shell detail.

The twirl of beads climbing the black center.

Top View.

The catch, made with stringing various shells into the beads.

The shells have tiny holes drilled in them by a predator in the ocean...I use these holes to thread the shells into the design. The bracelet is made from three separate strands of peyote bead stitch, 4 beads wide...then you plait it and add more beads at the end to join the three ends together, next to each other. This part can be tricky but when you're done it looks rather good. I made a loop at one end so that I could thread the beads and shells through it, completing the clasp.

So that's what I've done recently... I'm not sure how I'll be using this new knowledge on a quilt but I'm sure that one day I'll figure it out. *grin*...so come on now people haven't you got any comments???