Playing With Tilas

So-in the latest Beadwork, there was a project called Morrocan Tiles by Heather Kahn. Having recently acquired a small stash of Tilas, I thought I'd give it a go.


Of course, I didn't have quite the perfect color combination, but in real life, the red Tilas aren't nearly as red, and the black isn't nearly as black. Apparently AB finishes are really hard to photograph (especially with a cell phone :) ) Actually, the whole look is better in person. I promise...


The pattern was clear and easy to follow, although, starting out, usually there is a "string a stop bead" or tie into a circle, or what have you, but it seems that the natural thread path is the stopper here, which I found out after about row 2 and was pleasantly surprised.

The hardest part of the entire beading event was adding the accent beads on top. If I make another of these, I think I will add the accent beads during construction, as it was REALLY difficult to needle through the middle of the components. I only chipped one Tila, but I can see how the beader could easily break one, and if one is broken, I'm not sure how to even think about replacing it. You may have to unbead the entire bracelet at that point...eek.

It seems that you could do each tile separately, or all together, which is what I did. If you did them tile by tile, replacing a tile seems like it wouldn't be as difficult.

The base of the bracelet seems like it would really support many different types of embellishment, with the only trick being weaving through already woven tilas. Perhaps it would be better to work with a slightly loose tension? I don't know...

Has anyone else tried this design? If so, how did you fare?

New Stuff!

I may be a glutton for punishment...

My mom asked me if I wanted to try my hand at piecing a quilt top for her. It was the least I could do since she quilted my top for me. I said I would give it a go. It took me 10 hours on Saturday to complete a single block. OM-friggin-G. Why did I do this to myself? Anyone?

Although, it is a pretty bitchin block...It is aptly called Storm at Sea



This a quarter of another in progress. All the major stuff is done, I just need to join the four quarters and its ready for a new home...



This is a cuff that I finished beading Saturday after I became thoroughly frustrated with the Storm. It isn't finished, as it isn't backed and is just kinda sitting there on the felt stabilizer, but it is very nearly done.

It uses about a billion (actually about 20) different seed beads including 15/o, 11/o, delicas, Toho treasures, cubes, triangles, hex cuts, etc...

The focal is a Magic the Gathering resin cab I made. Don't ask what card it used to be, because I haven't the foggiest.


There are also labradorite rectangles and 4 cubic zirconia stones. The CZ came from a friend of my mother's who was cleaning out some of her stuff. Apparently she used to sell jewelry, and asked my mom if I knew anyone who made jewelry. My mom mentioned me and now I have a sack full of CZ, imitation sapphire, ruby, emerald, etc. in little brown envelopes. I'll post more thoroughly about those in the future.


This is a bracelet I made while playing around with RAW. I can't remember where the inspiration came from as I printed it out a long long time ago, but the final result differs significantly from the inspo.


This one was a bit of a pain in the ass, as it were. I don't do RAW regularly, so it was good to stretch my boundaries.


I like the colors, they are so vibrant and summerlike, but I'm not sure how I feel about the bracelet. Well, it was an excercise, and I accomplished what I set out to do, which was to play with RAW.

Bit disty around here innit?

Clearly I am not the bestest housekeeper :)

I am still around, and I have 2 or 3 things that I will be posting about very VERY soon, probably not this weekend though. I have to travel back to the Pitsbugh area for work, and for me. Every silver lining has a touch of grey...

My husband is working in Pittsburgh right now, and I am in Tennessee, which sucks for both of us, but he is working, so that is a good thing.

I get to see him this weekend, but I have a funeral to attend tomorrow, which is a huge blow to my family. My dad's best friend has passed away from a massive blockage in his heart. He was in a coma for almost 2 weeks. He taught me to play guitar. I still have one of his guitars. He told me to keep it as long as I practised. I am going to pick it back up. I miss it. I need to spend a few hours a week with it, just me and it.

Some of my earliest memories are times at Rick's house, playing with his kids. The last time I think I saw him was at my wedding in 2009. He said he was dressed as a mourner. I had a passing thought of attending his funeral as a bride, but I don't think anyone would get it. It will just be another good memory.

I think I may be one of those eternal optimist people, no matter how sarcastic or strange I may think I am. Yes, something sad or traumatic has happened, but what are the good things that go along with it? He is at peace. He is whole and hale. He is with his loved ones who have gone before. He hung on long enough to allow his family and friends a short adjustment period so the blow of his death has lessened slightly. That's a luxury many don't get, and it helps. It really does...

Actually, it's Thursday isn't it? I have a fitting piece of "from the vault" If I'm not mistaken...

I called this necklace "Touch of Grey"

The color scheme was taken from the idea of clouds, with silver linings, with a touch of grey...It's made from 11/o seed beads, and glass fish tank pebbles. I want to say the strap is chevron chain, but don't quote me on that.

Tomorrow...

My exam is tomorrow! I feel ready. I hope I am ready. I reaaaaalllly hope I am ready. I've done hundreds of practise problems, studied hundreds of hours, and spent more money than I would like to admit on study guides and references(seriouly, the equivalent of about 6 trips to Beyond Beads North worth of references, and y'all know I don't hold back when I'm in there...well, if you didn't know, you know now :/ ). I hope the exam has problems that aren't too insane. I couldn't study everything, so I have to console myself with studying as much as I could. (the study guide over a thousand pages, it would be virtually impossible to study everything therein...)


I'm relieved that it is finally here. I haven't done much of anything except study for weeks now. I haven't sewn a single stitch on my quilt, or stuck a needle through a bead.

If I pass, I get to put letters after my name(PE for Professional Engineer), but I won't find out until July whether or not I passed, so there is a bit of a waiting game.

I'm toying with the idea of going back to school and getting more letters too. I could have the longest name ever...Amy Marsspyder PE, MD, DDS, RN, PhD, ABC, ETC...And I'm totally kidding. Mostly...

Anyway, thank you for listening, and for your support, and hugs to everyone out there in blog land :)

Howdy!

I had a great aunt when I was younger who was wheelchair bound. She was my Aunt Edie and she lived in the back hills of West Virginia. Farther than that...little father...there you go, around there...She was this little old lady who was just as sweet as could be, unless you tried sneaking up on her, in which case, she would pull a shotgun on you. Or the pistol under her rubber seat ring.

Every winter my granddad would drive from Ohio of WV to pick her up, and she would stay with them for the winter. She liked to do arts and craft projects with us kids. Well, we liked to do arts and crafts projects with her in any event :)

One of my personal favorites was when we would make Minnie Pearl hats out of styrofoam bowls and we always made sure to add a tag :)

My in-laws came to visit us in SC this past weekend, and we took in the Aiken Historical Museum. Down in the basement I found this hat:


and this plaque:


"In March of 1939 Sara Ophelia Colley purchased this hat, a yellow organdy dress with a rounded collar and grosgrain bow, white sandals, and white cotton stockings at Surasky's Department Store from Miss Ola Hitt.

That night as Sara performed in her new outfit for the Pilot Club convention at the Highland Park Hotel, "Minnie Pearl" was born."

I wish I would run out of thread...

How often will you hear that come out of a beader's mouth (or any needle and thread kind of person's mouth)?

I like the quilt I'm working on, but I just kinda want to be done with it...I can't just put it aside. I need to finish it!! Why? Because I may have bought fabric for two more...And because I just, well, I just can't concentrate on my beads.

I started a bracelet, but I didn't enjoy it, so I listlessly dropped it back into the beading kit and said meh.

I need something to kick start my beading.

I've also been sadly, sorely, neglecting my poor little blog (and my bloggy friends!) Quilting is just so friggin slow! I can show you the 3 or 4 blocks I've finished since the last post, but they kinda look like the ones in the last post...

I secretly hope I wil run out of the thread I'm using to quilt this quilt. It's glow-in-the dark and I have only found it at Joann's and there isn't one near me.

If I run out of thread, I can start something else, right? :)

I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at trader vic's

His hair was perfect.

The same could mot be said about mine. I tried out a new conditioner, Loreal's new Everstrong Hydrating sulfate free conditioner, to be precise. The shampoo is great. The conditioner turned my hair into a bird's nest. Half a bottle of detangler later...

Anyway.

I haven't heard anything else about the situation in my previous email. We've recovered 230k of the 480k I had miscalculated. It's something...

Today I'm posting pictures of my quilt so far. I've pieced all but one of the star blocks and quilted a "filler" block. I've quilted 4 of the stars as well.

What do you think?

Marvin had to investigate...He has recently decided that if I'm doing something, he should be sitting in the middle of it. It's very difficult to turn pages in books with a catbutt in the way...If I have a quilt block in the hoop, he feels the need to curl up on it if I set it down somewhere.


I'm thinking of filling the filler blocks with different Hallowe'eny type song lyrics. Or just weird lyrics. Or maybe some Hallowe'en clip art outlines. My backstitching needs some work, but I like it (and it glows in the dark)


This is the back of one of the quilted star blocks. My quilting stitches need more practice to be more even, but I have lots of blocks to go to perfect them.


No beading this week-I just haven't had time. But I really feel like I'm getting somewhere with the PE preparation. I finished a whole book of practise problems that was put out by the same people who administer the test. Out of the 80 questions therein, I missed 16, but I have learned why I missed those 16, and can now correctly solve them. I'm also nearly halfway through another study guide, which had thousands of problems in it.

I have to keep asking myself, did I know all this stuff at one point? Holy Crap I've forgotten a LOT.