Swap/Give-away

Well, I've discovered that there are no would-be sculptors reading my blog. I've only had one response to my swap/give-away post, and she's interested in everything. I know I said I would pick a winner on July 31, but I changed my mind. I will wait until Friday, July 10, and I will close the give-away portion then. The swap is already completed, all the clay is gone.

I'm working steadily on my Chatelaine "Indian Summer Afternoon" and will hopefully be done with everything but the beads by the end of the week. Woo-hoo! I'll post a picture then.

New Piece of Art

Last night I was privileged to assist in the creation of a new piece of art. I provided assistance and technical guidance, but the colors were all chosen by another; the warp was all placed by another, and the weft was 2/3 placed by another.



Here's a picture of the artiste:



She's looking quite pleased because she was allowed to get up out of bed to pose with her masterpiece.

I was amazed by her concentration (she's 3 1/2). We finished 2/3 of the weaving before it got too dangerous to sit still for so long, and big brother was goofing off in the room. He did one row of weaving, and he was better at seeing where the "overs and unders" went, but did not have as much patience.

Momma is very happy to have such a good pot-holder; I'm hoping there's enough interest to make her another. When I was growing up we always ran out of loops before I was tired of weaving.

Swap and give-away

This is a picture of my box of polymer clay, Fimo and other brands. Since I've decided that I'm not planning on trying to become expert in another medium, I want to dispose of this. I had a brainstorm yesterday that I could trade these for threads! So here is my proposal: I will send you a block of clay for each skein of pearl #5 you send me, any brand. That is the swap part.

(Edited: 7/7 All the clay is gone!)



The give-away is that I have a pasta machine, an essential tool for working with polymer clay, and a bunch of other tools for clay, and I will give that away to someone who comments on this post. I will draw a name of someone on July 31, or when the clay runs out, whichever comes first.

(edited: 7/7 I will close the give-away portion on July 10)

I will send you my address if you e-mail me at jane dot compeau at gmail dot com with your address. I will be so happy to get my space back!

Tacky B.O.B.

No, I'm not talking about a former admirer, this is a tool for stitching that I find essential when I'm doing embroidery with beads. This is actually a "tacky box of beads." It consists of a small CD box lined with adhesive foam. The beads stay in place until you pick them off with your needle and stitch them on to your project.



This one is set up for my current project. It is very convenient that the pattern asks for 9 colors of beads. I scored the foam with a needle in a tic-tac-toe pattern to make 9 spaces, and carefully poured beads into each section. My biggest quandary right now is what type of thread to use to stitch the beads down. Right now I'm leaning toward a nymo (polyester) thread in gray. That will blend with all the colors, I think, and is strong enough so I won't be nervous about the thread breaking and beads coming off. I'm getting close to working with the beads again in my project, and I want to keep the momentum up. I'm almost done with the arbor on the "southwest" and with the gazebo on the south, leaving only the arbor on the "southeast" to be completed.

Thank you note

Yesterday I got a get-well email from a friend, and she included a thank you note and this picture of a sampler I made 12 years ago. I know I got a thank you note from her when they received this sampler as a wedding present, but it was wonderful to hear that they still enjoy and appreciate this.



I used to make a lot of wedding and birth samplers for friends and family, but I've been getting out of the habit. My sister dismantled a wedding sampler after her marriage ended, and I think some of the fabric got damaged. I had offered to remake it for her, but I think it was therapeutic for her to take a scissors to it; I have not had the heart to make too many wedding samplers since then. My grandson P got an afghan which was lost, so my granddaughter doesn't even have a sampler. She has had a smocked dress and doll clothes for her baby, so she isn't completely neglected, but I haven't worked on the dresses from her latest "order." Most of my recent stitching has been long-term, intricate, and for me!

Back to work

I started back to work on Monday; but I can tell I'm out of shape. Going up the stairs I have to slow down, so that I'm not puffing by the time I get upstairs. I made most of the day, but was able to go home a little early. Today I'm back, and I fell better, so I already see an improvement.

So I promised to show you what I accomplished while I was home. I'm actually a little amazed by how far I got. One more week of concentrated stitching (or a couple of months of after work stitching) and I will be close to being done. (I am going on vacation in July, celebrating my dad's 80th birthday, so I'm hoping to get some stitching done then too.)

Here it is!





You can see the comparison here. 3 of the 4 gazebos are done. 11 of the 16 arches are done. 3/4 of the outline scroll work is done, and more than half of the vines are done. Then of course... we have the beads. I guess I will have to talk about those in a different post.

Time of Recovery

I had a friend over last Friday to show her how to make temari. We had a wonderful time, except I ran out of energy before the lesson was over. I think she had a good time too, and she did have an almost finished temari to take home with her. I worked on this one while she was here; I got about half way done, and finished it on Saturday. I really like this pattern; this is the third time I have done it, and all three turned out very nice.



I spoke with my parents this morning, and my dad asked how I was doing with the time at home. I told him I thought I was enjoying it too much. Of course, having to take 2 days to finish a simple temari ball tells me I am a ways from having enough energy to work, but I am enjoying the days stitching, listening to books, and sleeping when I am tired. I'm afraid I won't have enough energy to stitch for a while after I get back to work, but in the mean time I am definitely enjoying myself.