Beading the Border Blocks, Part 3

We are marching right along here! This morning I watched one of my all time favorite movies as I worked, True Confessions, with Robert DeNiro and Robert Duvall. Made in 1981, it's a tough story about two brothers...an ambitious monsignor in the Catholic diocese of 1940's LA and his cynical police detective brother...and the hypocrisy and redemption in both their lives as a horrible crime that involves them both gets solved. The story is from a novel by John Gregory Dunne, no slouch at telling the wicked, wicked truth. It is fabulous...if you haven't seen it, do!

Some of the beads I used were really small! These are mixed sizes 20 to 24. (Sorry I wasn't able to get any other way of sizing them while at Beadcats. You can just call these "dust" and it would be pretty accurate.)

Top row, left to right....

I am going to have hell to pay, getting this all evened up properly, I know....

I had to put that airplane in for Robert, of course.

One more row of blocks to go!

Yesterday we got 1.75" of rain, while Seattle got 4". Twenty miles of Interstate 5 are closed both north and south, and several hundred people are still stranded by flooding in our region. We are sending out prayers to them!
But meanwhile, it is clearing up......

Beading the Border Blocks, Part 2

We've got a corker winter storm underway here in the Northwest....hurricane force winds on the NW Oregon coast and flood warnings for all rivers and streams in our region. The best thing to do is to hunker down and bead!

That's my bead soup in the upper right.

The left hand side of the quilt's border is now beaded...starting from the bottom and moving up....

Ah, Elvis. How did he get here? He sure is cute, isn't he? And that looks to be a handknit sweater he's wearing....

My friend Willa gave me this butterfly fabric, and it always makes me think of her...

Halfway done now with the border blocks!

I have to apologize...I sailed out the door yesterday to go to the Beadcats open house and as I was barreling down the driveway I realized I had forgotten my camera. Being in no mood to turn around (having just made my great escape from husband and son who were disappointed I would not be around all afternoon), I just kept going. Plus, it was pouring! Sorry about that...

I did find some beads that may very well end up along the inner edge of my binding. What's another week of work at this point, right?
Stop laughing at me!!!
And thanks for all your viewing suggestions...it all sounds good. My inclination is to start with "Deadwood"....

Thankfully, most of these were deeply discounted....we'll see how they work. Nothing like designing in the heat of a shopping trip.....

Beading the Border Blocks, Part 1

To keep the overall texture consistent on the crazy pieced areas of my quilt, I decided the border blocks had to be beaded. So I have begun the slow march around the perimeter of my "H" quilt. A-beading I must go! This is a time for discipline and perseverance!
What I really want to do is play with all my (as yet untouched) new supplies from Houston, which are imploring me to use them from a nearby table.
However, committment is committment!

I am varying the size and spacing of the beads in the border blocks as I did in the central section.

It was fun putting that flag in there for the Old Marine.

That little gold fan opens and shuts...it is interactive!
These pictures constitute only one quarter of the border blocks to be beaded. I need to watch a looonnngggggg mini-series to get me through this. Any suggestions?

My eventual reward!...
Many of these supplies were given to me by their manufacturers in order for me to review them for CQMagOnline next year, and to create samples using them for their booths. I wouldn't have been able to go this insane with my credit card....
Isn't that flocked fabric on the right cool? It is felt made from recycled water bottles!

So I am motivated to finish this beading.....

Learning Opportunities

Word by now has gotten around the blogs about Sharon B's new challenge for next year, but I want to weigh in that I think she has a brilliant idea for how to keep stitchers pushing on their artistic and design development. http://sharonb.wordpress.com/take-it-further-challenge/
There's the link to her thorough description of what will be involved...but basically this is a monthly challenge where Sharon will present a key concept (shape, color, or maybe theme) and encourage stitchers to apply that to fabric, developing and pushing it towards a resolved design in a finished piece....whether a crazy quilt block, a page in a fabric book, whatever one wants using various techniques. As usual, Sharon has structured this challenge to be open-ended so that it can fit in well with the individual needs of the participants. Those who join in are encouraged to blog their progress weekly, sending links of their work to Sharon's comment section so that everyone will have an easy way to see how others are taking up this challenge.
All in all, it sounds really interesting...and even though I am such a one-tracked person when it comes to my projects, I am going to really try to break away and work on these challenges month to month.

Another opportunity to hone ones' crazy quilt and fiber arts skills is being presented by the Texas Federation of Fiber Artists. Their Dallas chapter is hosting their 2008 convention on February 1-3 at the Southfork Hotel in Richardson, Texas (a suburb of Dallas). Judith Baker Montano will be teaching two courses, and registration is open to the public, i.e. non-members of the federation.
http://dallasfiberartists.org/index.htm will get you to their home page to learn more about the convention and the organization putting it on. I've taken a few classes with Judith and she is marvelous!

And finally....this isn't about learning, this is just plain fun...a great UTube video my son sent to me that is so cute and sweet, a handsome hunk rapping about his little kitty. "The Mean Kitty Song" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qit3ALTelOo
Enjoy!

Filling In With Beads

The more beading I add to the interior of the patches, the more the cumulative effect has me excited. I still don't plan on beading the fans or the letter "H", but the little border blocks are starting to tell me--insistently--that they want the beading treatment too.

We all know I don't want work on this quilt to end, so I am starting to listen to them. Plus, my favorite local bead supplier, BeadCats, is having an open house this week-end. Normally they only sell online, but before Christmas they literally cover every square inch of surface area in one of their homes with their beads so people like me can come and buy. (I don't know anywhere else locally that has the supply of size 15 seedbeads I am going to need for the border blocks either.) I will be sure and take my camera so you can see the open house in action. It's a lot of fun.

All the black area around the central H is now beaded with flat black #11 seed beads.

The same beads are used in all four corner backgrounds. The spacing is by eyeball...close enough!

Once I got all those boring black beads out of the way, I started to have some fun varying the size and spacing of my colored beads. Much of this was already done; I am now filling in all the patches that are still "blank".

Some of my choices got pretty big, too!

And some of the beads are stacked on those itty bitty black sequins, just for some contrast, and to tie in a little more black.

I still have another day on the interior patches of the central section...and those border blocks won't take that much longer, will they?

Chainstitch on Trim Complete

Well, that was a fun little 3 day chore! All four corners are finished now.

There is still so much work left to do on this quilt...I've decided to bead the rest of the patches in the inner section, though not the fans. And the background of the central "H", and the black corner sections will be beaded as well...this is my equivalent to adding quilting.
So that's quite a bit of beading....
And then there is the label going on the back. But it is not going to be just a label. I want to have some photos of my Uncle Hal from a few different periods of his life, and my favorite one of him and me...and the watercolor he did, 55 years later when he was finally able to face his experience in paint, of landing at Iwo Jima....I might arrange these photos like a page from a graphic novel.
Anyway, it will take some time to do...

And then there is the whole process of structurally finishing the quilt with the false back, fancy back, and binding....which in this case is going to be ruched. And then there is the hanging sleeve...If I am done by Christmas that will be great!