Beaded Bling for Quilts

Taught a beading class on Saturday—oh, yeah–I already told you that was happening a bunch of times, didn’t I? And, as usual, I did not take any pictures of the class. I didn’t even remember to ask someone else to take pictures for me! I do this all the time.

I do have a picture of a pile of stuff as we were starting to pack up!

Everyone brought a favorite fabric to work on and dove in as soon as they knew the first steps to take. It was stitch, stitch, stitch all afternoon and talking and laughing and just so much fun! I always have such a great time teaching–I hope my students have as much fun as I do!

Thanks to all of them for giving me a wonderful day!

Artsy/Craftsy ADHD

Artsy/Craftsy ADHD. Yep, that’s what I’ve diagnosed myself with. I’ve been on vacation and only brought some beading with me. No sewing, knitting, painting or other projects to keep my hands busy. And it’s been boring. That led me to realize that I function at home by jumping from one thing to another on a daily basis. While I wait for paint to dry, I quilt. When I’m not sure in which direction I want to quilt, I piece. When I’m tired of piecing, I knit or bead…there are always a variety of things going on in my studio. Being able to jump from one to another keeps me from ever being bored.

Not so much on vacation…

I was able to do a workshop for the Cabin Fever Quilt Guild this weekend. It felt so good to be working with fabric after more than a week away from my ADHD studio activities. The ladies were super and, as always, each project is totally unique. Also, as usual, I don’t try to report their names and connect them to their projects because I always goof up when I try to do that. I apologize if I missed anyone! I will just leave you with glimpses of their projects on their design walls. Hope you can enjoy with me the beauty of their choices and their work.

Uh-oh–teeny beads!

I’m continuing to make samples for my beading class, but I’m running into a little problem. I’m using teeny, tiny beads. My  intent was to have the students learn with larger beads, which are easier to handle and for many people easier to see. I’ll admit that at one time I thought I would never bead with beads this small, either.

The first two projects, which I showed you here and here are more in the way of eye catchers for advertising. The plan is for the rest of the samples to be small, easy and possible to do with a single color and size of bead. That’s apparently just not in my wheelhouse!

Oh, yes indeed, this could have been done in a single color and size of red beads, larger than the beads I’m using. But this just looks better.

I’m trying to convince myself that interesting samples are inspiring, not intimidating, and that they will make students want to learn how to do the beading. I’m hoping, anyway, ’cause single color, plain, big beads are just sounding too, too boring to me now!

We’ll see how the next one goes. It should lend itself more to a single color/size, but I’m thinking that the size could end up teeny again. Okay, just get out the strong magnifying glasses!

Feels like a new year…

I’m having some extra time this week since we are in a Christmas routine, not a regular routine. Getting out of the routine makes it feel like a brand new year already. It’s also enabled me to finish my little beading project that I fell in love with. Or is it finished? I’m never quite sure when to stop. I started out just wanting a few beads to use as a sample for a class.

The more I worked on it, the more I thought I could add. There were so many good places to put beads! Then I thought it would look better with some simple hand stitching. People are right when they say hand stitching adds something good to any piece. I liked it a lot better as I added the handwork.

At some point though, you just have to draw the line and call it done. But there is so much more room for beads, for hand stitching…

This part is pretty full, trying to be the focal point.

This part has room for lots more.

The whole thing is only 11″ square, and I had lots of time to work on it last week. That made me realize that it took that whole week to get it this far done and I was supposed to be working on a simple sample for a class. Whoa, Nellie!!! Time to put the brakes on and take a serious look at how long it takes to do beading.

All those samples that I got ready to work on when we’re on vacation…hmmm…maybe I shouldn’t wait ’till vacation to start working on them. It might take longer than I think, especially if I’m doing more on vacation than sitting around beading!!!

Maybe it’s just an excuse to start working on some just-for-fun projects instead of those things that I said yes to when I should have said no! Doing some ‘want to’ things instead of ‘have to’ things. That almost sounds like a new year’s resolution…

Life is short; follow your heart!

New beading class

I’ve decided that I need to try and entice more people into beading on their quilts. And I think the best way to do that is to teach it in the easiest possible format…utilizing the prints on commercial fabric.

A simple little block with a fabric you love…any fabric…can be used to teach the basics of beading.

However, I have so many great fabrics that I’ve accumulated over the years that I spent a good part of the day yesterday gazing at and fondling fabric.

I finally narrowed it down a bit, but there are still so many from which to choose!

I was going to try and make samples that would fit a standard size canvas or frame, but when I found these two, the standard sizes went out the window.

This one will be mostly outlining with beads, but there are some nice curves and some spots to show some clusters of beads or lines of beads for shading.

The appeal of this one is that there are areas for outlining, areas for sparkle, clustering for color, curvy curves…there’s a lot going for an 11 x 14″ piece of fabric!

There really is no size limitation on what you bring to beading class, but I don’t want to overwhelm anyone, so I’m going to put a reasonable limit on my suggestions. In the meantime, the more fabric I look at in my stash, the more possibilities I see!

I think I’m looking at a full winter of beading small pieces…I think my samples need to have more than just beads to be effective examples of what adding embellishment can do. So when I pack for our visit to Florida, I’d probably better include some hand stitching supplies and I probably need to bring my sewing machine. My mom’s machine is just a bit too ‘unused’ to reliably work with! Oh, and beads, of course.

And there may–just may–be the possibilty that I can find a piece or two of new fabric when we are there! Oh, and beads, of course!!!

I truly don’t think I will ever run out of things to do…ever, ever, ever!

Beaded Ornaments

Aren’t these ornaments cute?

I taught a small class of 3 last night and I think there are now 3 more converts to bead obsession! When you find out how easy it is to add beads to quilts…well, you are ready to head to the nearest bead shop and stock up!

As usual, I forgot to get my camera out until the end of the night and Barb had already left, but Marilyn and Maryann worked right up until the very last minute.

And you know that I absolutely love teaching, so I had a wonderful evening! Guess I need to get busy and set up some more local classes so I can do more teaching and have more fun…it’s a tough chore, but I’m willing to do it!

And perhaps I should make a little trip to the bead store, just to make sure I keep up on my stash of beads!

Class of One–Fun!

My friend Sue came over today to learn how to do free form piecing. She was awesome! Sue is an experienced garment maker, knitter and quilter and wanted to add some new tricks to her sewing basket. All that experience made her a quick study and a joy to teach!

Look at the fabulous selection of fabric she brought to play with.

How could you go wrong using any of these?

The way I teach this style of working is to start with using a rotary cutter and ruler and straight lines. I like the stack-slice-and switch method for 2 reasons. It automatically mixes the colors you are using and it gets you a lot of pieces in a short amount of time! Fast and easy…that’s for me. Sue started out with these components.

We added curves—also very easy. Don’t believe anyone who tells you they aren’t! Then come on over and I’ll show you how to do it.

She learned overlapping piecing, which is a huge aid in final assembly. It’s the main method of many improv piecers, but it takes longer to do. We were after quick results today.

We move pieces to the design board as soon as they are sewn and try out different arrangements. We audition fabrics used in the piece already, as well as additional fabrics that we may wish to include in the design.

Sometimes lots more fabric is added and sometimes additional piecing and additional fabrics—rejected! That’s what happened to the three fabrics on the far right of this picture. The fabrics themselves were fine, but they really added nothing to the overall design, so Sue stopped before adding them.

Almost done with the assembly and just before the decision to eliminate the extra chunks of color. Sue had a great time learning how to do this and she was so quick to pick it up! An A+ student, for sure.

She got the quilt top done! She will decide on how to quilt it, whether or not it will get surface design embellishment like yarn, what edge finish to use…all the finishing details that will turn it into a fine piece of abstract art.

I absolutely love this design and think she did an awesome job. And she can now confidently create her own designs at any time!

Design finalized-assembled-trimmed and ready for quilting. Way to go, Sue!

Class Quilt Top–Finished!

Lynda was one of my students in Saturday’s Pattern Free Quilting class. She sent me a picture tonight of her finished quilt top! Hooray!

This is a picture of her first set of elements.

She added more elements and sliced and cut and arranged—

She assembled all her pieces, made them fit and here is her result! Look at those curves!

A wonderful, free form, unique quilt top! Fabulous and she says she is ready to try more rule-breaking quilts.

I love it, Lynda. Thanks for sharing!

Love This Class!

Improv piecing–free form piecing–liberated quilting—whatever name you call it by, I love teaching others how to do it. Because it’s been my way of life as a quilter for quite a while now, it feels very natural to me. I have read the books by other authors and studied up on the methods and thought processes behind their styles. While I teach my own favorite way of working, this study gives me a wealth of ways in which to present ideas to my students so that they can become comfortable working outside the box.

My class yesterday was small, just the way I like it. Only 3 students, but they were all eager to learn the free form process. And oh, my—they did SO well! We really did get all the basics covered quickly.

Cheryl’s first set of elements

Lynda used larger pieces when she began making her elements

Karen had a great blend of florals and solids

They were all so happy to find out how easy it was to sew curves.

Curves!!!

Everyone got their elements onto the design wall with plenty of time to talk about the finishing part of the process.

Lynda was quick to slice larger elements into mix-and-match pieces that really worked to add sparkle all through her piece

A quick look at Karen’s elements–after that first curved seam!

Cheryl ended up with a lot of curved seam pieces, but even her first group of elements on the design wall gave a feeling of serenity

We had such a great time slicing and whacking and arranging and re-arranging. It’s a lot to absorb in one session when you are looking at a whole new way of making and assembling quilts. But it’s also a process in which it’s extremely hard to make a mistake, so it’s a lot of fun.

I know I had a great time teaching it and I think my students had a good time enlarging their skill set and becoming designers of unique quilts!

 

 

 

Bitty Bits…

Aren’t these cute little motifs?

That’s what we are using for the Basic Beading on Quilts class I’ll be teaching at Quilting Season in Saline in November. They weren’t finished when I took the pictures, but I got them done today. There are 9 different little motifs and they make adorable ornaments. Check it out if you are close and want to learn to bead. I’m also going to be teaching Quick Start Quilting there in Oct.

And even sooner than that is a class at the Quilt Patch, here in Tecumseh. (Web site being renovated, but all the info is here.) Sept. 15–all day workshop learning about free form piecing. No more patterns needed! I’ll have lots of examples, a step-by-step plan for you, and a firm reminder that no two pieces will be the same at the end of the day. Jump out of the box and join me.

And my secret project has a beginning, but I can’t show you more than this! I am not skilled at drawing, but I could manage a tree.

I’m happy with what I have done so far and as soon as I finish the secret project, I’ll show you everything! Promise!

Every little bitty bit done makes me feel like I’m getting somewhere and not just being lazy. In reality, I know that I am really procrastinating getting the BIG projects done by playing with the little ones! Sometimes I try to fool myself, but deep down I know when I’m goofing off a bit…just a bitty bit!!!