Earrings, a pin and a collaboration in progress

I am having the best time! In addition to making pins/brooches for a swap at the Bead Retreat, I beaded up a couple of items for a fund raising auction at work. Seems it's that time of year.



One last (for now) pair of earrings. They just might be my favorites. I've had these vintage German glass cabs for a few years and just love them. They look like Lily of the Valley flowers to me - what do you think?



They are tiny, all beads used are size 15. The ear wires are 14k gold filled and they are backed with brown Ultrasuede



Next, I finished a brooch. I started with a beautiful raku button by Lisa Peters, it has a brown swirl with blue flecks in the background - I love her 'stuff'.



I was having a little issue with glare on the day I snapped the photos, so 2 of them here - between the two of them I think the colors are well represented.



It measures about 2 inches including the outside beads, the dangle adds about another inch. It is backed with brown Ultrasuede.

I'm also working on a beaded pin as part of a collaboration with a couple of friends for a fund raiser for Candlelighters for Children with cancer in Portland. We have worked together on a couple of other quilted/beaded projects and always have a great time doing it. We live in different states (Oregon, Minnesota, Indiana) and manage to coordinate some pretty neat projects, all by email.

My partners... Bobbie in Oregon and Anne in Minnesota, they are sisters and between them have an amazing array of creative talents including (but not limited to) sewing, quilting, painting, knitting, beading, felting and creating pottery. Several years ago, we happened to meet on a volunteer vacation in Eastern Kentucky. I would be remiss if I did not mention Sammie (from Washington) - the woman that completes our circle, she keeps up laughing and very well fed when we are together. I would direct you to photos of their work, but alas - none of them have websites or blogs. They donate the bulk of their creations to a wide range of worthy causes. I'm lucky to call them my friends!

So the project we are working on now began with a large (approx 24 x 45 inches) Laural Burch panel - Secret Jungle. Bobbie will be working some sort of quilt magic and Anne will add her beautiful embroidery to the piece. For my part, Bobbie sent an extra panel of the fabric - I cut out one of the cat faces (I know... it felt so wrong to cut into it) and am working on beading it up and adding a pin back. It will then be attached to the larger piece as a removable/wearable component. The entire piece will be auctioned off at the Harvest of Hope Dinner in Portland, OR on October 24.

While I'm on the topic of kids with cancer, and if you're so inclined - please pray/send positive thoughts for a precious and brave little girl named Regina and her equally brave and precious family. They could use it right now. I don't know them personally, but have been following her blog for quite awhile.

A quilt square collaboration

Back in June I posted photos of a little square I beaded which was to be included in a larger quilt square. I collaborated with 2 friends of mine on this one and a third was kind enough to add the charms.

This was made for a couple that are very dear to all of us, for their western themed room. The square is about 14 inches not including the dowel from which it hangs. My friend Bobbie in Oregon picked out the fabric and sent me a little square to bead. Once I was done with the beading, I sent it back to her to work her quilting magic. Sammie from Washington contributed the charms and it was then sent on to Anne in Minnesota to add the embroidery and the dowel, she also attached the charms.

I am so pleased with the results. This is our fourth quilt square collaboration, each one has been a joy to help create.

If you are interested, you can see the other quilt squares here. You will need to scroll down toward the bottom of the post for the photos.

Quilt square - work in progress

Well... I've finished my portion of the quilt square. It's next destination is Oregon where my friend Bobbie will work her quilting magic and turn this into a 9-square quilt piece. I'm excited to see the results once it's all done. After Bobbie finishes with the quilting part of it - she will send it off to her sister Anne in Minnesota where she will work some embroidery magic and add the finishing touches before it makes it's way to it's final destination.

The beaded portion is almost 4 inches square. Here's a close up...



Before I began the beading, I basted paper to the back of the fabric for stability and when the beading is done I moisten the outside edges and tear away any excess. For anyone that is interested in seeing how the back looks... it's not pretty...

Work in progress - quilt square

I'm working on another collaboration with the same two friends that worked on the 3 quilt squares last year as seen in this post. We very enjoyed our first efforts so much and had talked about making more - the time seemed right to get started on another.

I don't pretend to know much about quilts or quilting (that's where Bobbie, comes in), but I believe this one will end up as a '9 square' of which I will only bead on the middle square. It will have a cowboy/western theme and will be in browns, golds and black with some flecks of red.


There is so much more of it done since this photo was taken. I've been working on it most of the weekend and hope to have it done in the next few days. As I usually do - I didn't plan out any specific design, just picked out some beads that appealed to me at the time and away I went. I'm including a photo of a portion of the work area at my bead station, where I happily spend so many of my hours. It looks sorta chaotic, but is actually fairly well organized and is usually the way I work when beading. I have the smaller beads (12-15/0) together in one spot, the sequins together, the larger beads in another spot and the 10/11/0's together. I won't end up using everything that I originally picked out, but I like having it all in front of me while I bead.

The road to friendship and collaboration

Last spring I was lucky enough to visit a part of this country that I had only read about previously. I had not taken a "real" vacation in a few years and it had been even longer since I did any serious volunteer work. Since it had been more then 10 years since I had combined the two, I looked up Global Citizens Network. This is an organization with which I had traveled in the past and enjoyed meeting new friends, seeing parts of the world I might not have otherwise.

I wasn't looking for a lengthy trip as some of their trips can be when going to other countries. Since I had already taken a trip within the Navajo Nation, I was looking for something a little different. When I checked their website, I found they had a new site - Faith Hill, located in Owsley County, Kentucky. About a 2 hour drive south east of Lexington, it is situated in the Eastern Coal Field region of the state, which stretches from the Appalachian Mountains westward across the Cumberland Plateau to the Pottsville Escarpment. I found the beauty of this part of the country breathtaking.

The site consists of wonderful old log buildings including a church, a Manse (house occupied by a minister or parson) and a hospital. They were built in the area in the 1930’s by missionaries from Pennsylvania. They served the community well, but were abandoned sometime in the 70's and fell into a state of disrepair. About 15 years ago, community members developed a non-profit organization to restore the buildings. In order to get to the site one travels some beautiful back roads in the hills and ultimately hits a gravel only road which takes you the last few miles to Faith Hill. The road pictured above is the gravel road that takes you to the site.

How does this relate to beading? I met some wonderful friends on this trip, fellow travelers/volunteers. We also met a few very special people in Kentucky. I formed a close bond with a couple of my team members - sisters, one from Oregon (Bobbie), one from Minnesota (Anne). Bobbie is multi talented, she knits, she beads, she sews and quilts. Anne is a talented painter, embroiderer and knitter as well. They are creative and inspiring, individually and frankly pretty fun to be around. We stayed in touch after our trip to KY and thought it would be nice to collaborate on something we could donate to be placed in the Manse were we had such a wonderful stay and made so many happy memories.

I started with bead embroidery, all I knew for sure was the shape with which I wanted to work as I felt this experience had a special place in my heart. After completing my piece, I mailed it off to Bobbie, where she added it to her beautiful quilting. Once Bobbie finished the quilting and added the beaded heart, she sent it off to her sister Anne. She put the finishing touches on it with embroidery, and a small rod from which to hang the piece. Once it was completed I was awestruck. To this day, it is one of my favorite pieces. The completed piece is about 14x14. I wish the photos did it justice, but I don't think that's ever possible.

The sad part of this whole thing... this was completed almost a year ago and it still does not hang in the Manse for which it was intended. As can sometimes happen, one person has it in their possession somewhere in Kentucky and has not had time to put it up. There is where our little creation with so much love poured into sits, with a promise that it will be hung at it's intended spot someday. I can only hope...

After this quilt square was completed, the three of us made two others. There were several special people at that site that helped us tremendously, they are hard working, kind people with generous hearts and loving spirits. They are the reason I have been back to this place 4 times since my first visit.

Two of them are brothers... Lonnie and Wayne. Lonnie has a cabin up the road from Faith Hill and Wayne is in the process of building one now. We made quilt squares for each of them to hang in their cabins.

The blue quilt square was made for Lonnie. Again, Bobbie did all the quilting, Anne the embroidery and I added the little beaded square once it was all done.

Wayne's square is based on the 'log cabin' pattern (I learned that from Bobbie - I know nothing about quilting). Bobbie gave the the measurements to bead the inner square and when I finished it - sent it off to her to work her magic in adding it to the quilt square. Anne, finished it off with embroidered doves.

I love each of these squares, what they represent, the people to which they were presented and my new friends that help design and create them.