Luke 15:9

"Rejoice with me; I have found my lost [bead]."

I'm sorry to be irreverent, but I am rejoicing. Finally last night I pulled everything off my chair and moved it 3 different times. I never found the light blue sapphire bicone I lost on Monday (that was already replaced), but I did find the Indian red bicone I needed. It is already stitched on to the sampler so I can't lose it again.

I may be able to finish tonight!

I will be on vacation for the next two weeks. I am hoping to do some stitching, and I will try to post, but it probably won't be too often. We are celebrating my dad's 80th birthday!

Bead Emergency

I mentioned my bead emergency yesterday; I have another one today. I got the supplies for my Chatelaine project "Indian Summer Afternoon" in a kit. It came gorgeously packaged, tied up with ribbons, wrapped in tissue paper, all beautiful and nice.

The beads came in these little tin cups, with nice labels on each one that said what was in it; and it was nice not to have to scour shops and websites for the specific bead numbers I needed. The only problem is these little cups do not work for me. They did not stay closed in the containers I kept them in, so I have bead soup (a mixture of several different beads). Fortunately, I can tell the colors apart that did get mixed. Also, I tend to flip these little cups when I'm working with them; earlier this week I lost a sapphire bicone, and last night I lost an Indian Red one. I won't be able to finish the project until I get a new one.



Fortunately DD lives within a couple of miles of Caravan Beads, which carries all the beads I need. Unfortunately, the store hours and her schedule do not mesh very well. Fortunately, she has been bitten by the bead bug, and enjoys shopping there, and knows her way around; unfortunately we don't see her as often as we would like. Fortunately, I am on vacation next week, and there is a bead shop near where we will be visiting; if I can't get to Caravan I can go there, Bead Quest in Grand Rapids.

I told my mom last night I had a bead emergency. I had to repeat myself several times before she understood what I was saying, and then she laughed! DH understands the urgency, but everyone else just laughs. I'm so misunderstood!

G & Jane's big adventure

DH and I have lived near Chicago for all our married lives, but have only been going to the city for the past ten years or so. Going "down town" has been a big deal.

Seven years ago, in our own neighborhood, we witnessed a fatal traffic accident between a young man and a police officer. Both were at fault, but the young man was killed. Right at first we did not stop and make a statement, but within a week we called the state police and stated we had witnessed the accident. Two or three years ago the Village the accident happened in settled with the family, and today DH and I were subpoenaed to appear as witnesses in a trial. The police officer was suing the estate of the young man who was killed for the injuries she had received in the accident. We were witnesses for the estate of the young man.

Both DH and I were nervous this morning. This was a new experience for me, and at my age, I can go for months without a new experience! The courtroom was in room 2010 (20th floor) of the Daley building down town Chicago.



This is the view out the window on that floor. Lake Michigan was so beautiful shining in the sun, the rest of the city was under cloud cover.

While I was waiting to testify, I got some stitches in on my travel project, and I got to use my new Little Gems scissors. It is allowed on airplanes, so I was quite sure it would be allowed into the Federal building. It went through without a problem. (I got the fuchsia one.)

Both DH and I testified without any mess ups, but I don't know if we will ever find out what happened. After I was done the young man's mother got permission to speak to me and thanked me for being willing to speak up, and continue to do so for 7 years. I can't imagine having to deal with that type of loss for such a long period without being able to put it behind you!

After testifying we were free to go, but we had to wait down town for an emergency delivery from the bead store from my daughter. My beads spilled the other night, and I lost one of the crystals I needed to finish; fortunately DD lives near Caravan Beads and was able to stop there for me. So we walked around a little bit, saw the Picasso:



Another piece of art across the street:



The State of Illinois building (with a very nice Artisans of Illinois shop inside):



and all the local news vans gathering to cover the same story:



(The celebration of the anniversary of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities) Act.)

We also got to see our daughter, get the emergency delivery of beads, and have lunch together. I was going to stitch all afternoon after I got home, but I've been dozing on and off instead. I guess it's been too much excitement. I will get going now, I'm getting impatient to finish my Chatelaine "Indian Summer Afternoon" sampler.

From the "Smalls" Jar

I was going through some drawers of needlework, looking for a couple of pieces of embroidery for my new office, when I came across a couple of smalls that I haven't showed before. This is a small pincushion/pillow, one of the first "cause" embroideries I had seen. Since I am a breast cancer survivor, I had to make it. The kit came with silk floss, and it is one of the first times I stitched with silk. From such small steps an addiction is created!



This one was very nice to stitch, I really liked the pearl beads.

Finishing a Project

I'm coming to the end of my Chatelaine project, and I've been interested in watching my own responses to it. I talked about the feeling of loss; I got over that on Friday and spent the afternoon listening to a book and finishing the stitching. Since then I've found a couple of stitches that were forgotten/skipped, but I think I did pretty good.

Then I had to start the beading. Instead of starting right in on that on Friday, I procrastinated by "cleaning out" the basket next to my stitching chair. The reason I gave myself was that I was looking for my next project (and I was successful, stay tuned) but it was really procrastination. (I also knew the beads were in that basket, but it took a while to find them.) I found complete supplies for 3 beading projects that I purchased last year at the bead show, but I'm not in the mood to do any beading. I found a major finished project that I haven't blogged about (that I went through the same process with) and I will talk about that later this week. And I found the pattern for my next project (!): Quaker Turtles! You can see a picture of them here: With My Needle

I finally gave up on the procrastination and started beading. Here is the set-up I am working with.



I had to find the thread, the needle, the beads, and the tacky BOB all at the same time; I'm so disorganized that I would find one element, and then misplace it before I found all the rest. I was able to start beading by late Friday night, but I only got one thread done, and I was quite discouraged about how long the beading was going to take. However, by Saturday evening I had found a way to pin tacky BOB to my fabric and have 2 hands free for beading. That makes it a lot easier so my beading needle does not get caught on previous stitches.

So after this weekend I'm almost 1/4 way done with the beading! I am amazing myself, I thought it would take much longer. The beads are adding color and sparkle. I love the color; I'm worried that the sparkle is too much. I know some people who stitch Chatelaine projects use thread instead of the beads, and I can see why. But it is fun! But there is no way a picture will capture changes the beads make; you will have to take my word for it.

I am entering this give-away; I love stitching alphabet books. If I link to the give-away in my blog, I get 5 entries, so here it is! Violarium give-away I have a feeling a lot of people are going to be entering this one.