12 Days of Ornaments

Well, it's been a long time since I have blogged. Every year, once November hits, I am busy with our Church Boutique and also November is the month for college apps! My daughter has been writing admissions essays and pretty much monopolizing the computer all this month.

I thought for the next couple of weeks I would show some ornaments I have made for our Boutique. Most of them are quick and easy and would make cute gifts. So here's the first one - a cat for all you cat lovers out there. I wanted a black cat, but knew it wouldn't show up very well on the tree, so added the red and white background. I embroidered the cat features on the black felt first, then stitched the three layers together with black floss. The bow is one of those "bobbin ribbons" from Michael's.

I'd love to see anyone else's ornaments they've made...

Happy ornamenting!
~Lin Moon

Goodies from Pomona Show

Last weekend I drove up to Pomona, to attend the Quilting, Sewing, Craft & Needlework show. Last year when I went, it was just a Quilting/Sewing show and was a little disappointing. But I'm so glad I went again to this show. I hit upon a doll-makers booth and lots of interesting trims - velvet ribbon, velour flowers, embroidered rick-rack, space-dyed organdy ribbon, buttons, and on and on.... The display at this woman's booth was fascinating. She had boxes of different items and at the back of each box was a tall arched board, completely decorated with different ribbon flowers, buttons, beads, lace, etc. There must have been about 10 of these boards, all different. There were lots of handmade pins too. She said a lady she knew made the pins and traded them to her for merchandise. It was so gorgeous and inspiring! Enjoy - sometimes all it takes to inspire is some eye candy trims!
~Lin Moon

Intriguing Book!

I've been looking at the book: "Bags with Paper & Stitch" by Isobel Hall. She talks about using all different kinds of paper with fiber and making purses/bags. Some of the interesting techniques that are described include:

-Making "paper" from translucent polymer clay, coloring it with inks and then stitching through it onto the bag

-Making your own stamp by combining Style Stones, then stamping on ExtravOrganza

-Layering fabric, merino top paper and sheers, then doing random FME over it

-Painting brown paper with a mixture of acrylic wax & bronzing powder

-Using metallic heat-resistant thread to FME over sheer and then burning away parts of the sheer ( I didn't even know there was such a thing as heat-resistant thread!)

-Using things I have never heard of: Glitterati fusible film
Mylar Shimmer Sheetz, computer linen paper, Tangle Tuff, webbing spray, etc.

-Using everyday items like brown paper bags, acrylic wax and newspaper to make bags

The bags in this book have a wide variety of intriguing and creative textures - with beading and embroidery added to some. She describes how to make tags for the bags, so you can try some of the techniques on a small project. You could probably spend a year trying out all the techniques in here!

Happy Stitching,
~Lin Moon

Single Sheet of Paper

If you'd like to see some amazing creativity at work, see artist Peter Callesen's works of art here. He does amazing things with just a single sheet of paper - cutting and folding. Don't miss this fabulous art!

Enjoy,
LinMoon

Makine a purse

I've been working on making a purse. It's mostly sewn on the sewing machine, but I decided it needed something special, so I made a "button". I put some leaves on green velvet, added some gold embroidery and gathered it over a plain button with a shank, so I can easily sew it on to the bag. It was really fun working on a small project like a button, since you get to see results pretty quickly. Lately I just don't have the time I used to.... my daughter is in the marching band, so lots of time is spent at football games and band competitions.

Boutique Busyness

Well, although I am behind on my Bead Journal Project, I haven't been idle. Except for the food poisoning and flu, that is. Here are some pix of some items I have made for our November Church Boutique. A friend and I made the ball wreath - that is a raffle/opportunity prize. I put together several bracelets and had loads of fun mixing and matching beads.

August BJP Finished

Here's a picture of my Art Nouveau-inspired August Bead Journal page. I had planned to do more around the circle, but after auditioning many ideas in my head/on paper and rejecting them all, I decided maybe that's a sign it's already done. I'd like to use this in a crazy quilt in the future...

Although I haven't done a fully beaded page yet (and may not), it surprised me to read that Robin Atkins begins her Bead Journal Page with a fabric she loves. Then she covers the entire thing. It never occurred to me that the fabric would inspire you along the way, even though it may be completely covered in the end. The fabric I used is a very soft silk blouse I used to wear when I was a "professional woman" (so, now am I just an amateur woman?)
Happy Stitching,
Lin Moon

Twisted Bead Rope

I've been working more on my August Bead Journal page. I've been adding a twisted rope around the center motif. I knew how to do this around a cabochon, but not on fabric. It's the same idea, though. I wanted to have the twisted rope in a circle, so first I basted the outline of the circle with small stitches. My twisted rope is lavender and blue. First I marked the circle about every 3/8 inch. I started with lavender beads. It took about 4 lavender beads to lie flat on the 3/8 inch, so I added two beads, so that each "stitch" of lavender beads would curve or bow up a little and not lie flat.












After going around the circle with the lavender "stitches", I went back to begin the blue beads. My blue beads were smaller than the lavender ones, so each stitch of blue beads had a few more than the lavender beads. I brought my thread up in the middle of a lavender stitch, BELOW the lavender bow (and not thru any beads). After stringing 8 blue beads, I then inserted my needle in the center of the next lavender "stitch", ABOVE the lavender bow. Viola! It looks like a twisted rope!














On another note, I was given a big box of beads (Lucky me!) Some of the beads were these small hole-less beads with a dark mark that makes them look like a cat eye. These are not the micro-mini beads. What would you use them for? Anyone have any ideas?

Making Molds for Aug BJP

Well I decided I didn't like my thick cabochon maiden's head, so I made a new one. The new one may not look that different to you, but it is about 1/3 of the thickness of the old one and is just the head outline; I didn't like the random shape around the face before. This took a little practice. For one thing, I made a new mold out of polymer clay. Then I used some very soft clay (it came with a cranium game) to practice getting just the head, without any outer part. I must have tried about 10 times to get it right. Then when I switched to the real deal(sculpey), I forgot to dust the mold with a release agent, so that took a few tries. A friend of mine with mold-making experience told me that you first make a rigid mold out of a plaster-like substance, because this substance won't go behind raised portions of the item you are making a mold of and get "locked in" back there. Then you use a rubbery compound and pour that in your rigid mold to get a flexible mold. I was so glad she counseled me, as I was going to pour rubbery stuff around my carved head and might have ruined it.

However, I did buy something called Sculpey Moldmaker(Super Elasticlay). I think you add it to polymer clay to make a more flexible mold. Haven't tried that yet.

Did a little more work on the August BJP embroidery - can you tell it is Art Nouveau inspired?

Happy Beading,
Lin Moon

Aug BJP beginnings

I'm just getting started on my Bead Journal Project for August (hey, at least it's still August for a few more days!)

The "cabochon" I made from polymer clay. I have a carved box from Russia that I used to make a mold. I used some kind of plastery type mold-making material that I wouldn't really recommend. The local stores didn't have any of the rubbery kind, which I really would have preferred and wanted to try. I wish I could have gotten more detail. Anyway, I think she came out OK, just a little too thick. I sewed flower sequins and beads to super-narrow ribbon and glued that down, so she could have a flower garland in her hair. I know it's just a beginning, but this time, the bead embroidery really feels like ME. That happy feeling is what makes it fun and usually makes the final product come out better. We'll see.....
Happy Stitching and beading,
~Lin Moon

July BJP

I know, I know, it's August, but I have finally finished my July Bead Journal Project. In June, I felt pressure to make something fabulous, even though I hadn't done any bead embroidery for years. I put too much pressure on myself and wondered if what I was doing "measured up". That type of thinking doesn't make anything fun and can suck out the inspiration for any project. So this time, I decided to just play - try different effects, do a little texturing, some flowers, some netting. So here's my playing...

I don't know that improvisational beading is my thing; nor do I want to draw a picture and then bead it. I'm somewhere in between, wanting to design an area with flowers or bead a great curve. So I'm still trying to find out what it is that I want to do with bead embroidery...

Things are looking up

I am very happy to report that Frisky is nearly back to normal! Even the vet was surprised that she recovered from partial paralysis to near normalcy. I think part of it is that she is a very active cat, tearing across the yard and up a tree in no time flat.

This summer has been a very bad one for me - my girls have been so busy that for the first 6 weeks of summer I was never home during the day for more than about 30 minutes at a time between driving one to and from summer school and her job and driving both to music lessons, etc. I was never available to go to the beach or have lunch with a friend.... Lots of frustration, tears, hot flashes, and very little time to blog or create. I need that creating time in order to be happy. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! School starts in 2-3 weeks, so I will have more time and my girls are going to various camps soon so I may actually create something (or just play)! Yay!

Thanks so much for all your support and emails with respect to Frisky - they are so appreciated. Warm fuzzies from blogland are so nice...

A bad bad day

It's only Tuesday and already it's been a horrible week. Yesterday was the first day of Vacation Bible School and my daughters and I are helping out all this week. I went outside to get the paper in the morning, came in and closed the garage. I read the paper and ate breakfast. Then I heard my daughter open the front door. Our neighbor was walking her dog and noticed that our cat Frisky's head was caught under the garage door! She had tried to get into the garage when the door was only 4-5" inches off the ground and it had closed on her neck. My daughter started screaming and was freaking out. We called the vet and they said we could bring her right in. (Of course this was just when we were supposed to be at the church) Frisky was just laying on her side. We slide a cardboard box lid under her, trying not to move her much and took her to the vet. The whole way there, she purred - it was very strange.

The doctor took an x-ray and her neck was not broken. But she can't walk and has no reponse in her front legs. I went to VBS, but didn't go into any of the classrooms; I was just too sad.

Frisky frequently interrupts the garage door opening or closing, so we always have to wait to see if the door will actually finish its journey. When I got the paper I had seen her sitting outside the door and waited to see if she was going to dart in. But my car was there, so I couldn't see everything. I heard the door complete its journey and went inside. She layed there for about 30 minutes, struggling to get free. I guess she thought it would always stop for her. I feel so bad. The vet had told us if her neck was broken it was "Goodbye". If we have to put her to sleep, this will tear up my daughter so badly - it is essentially her cat. I'm sorry to share such a bad story, but I am just so distressed....

more BJP progress

Well, I know July's almost over, but I'm still working on my July Bead Journal page. I decided to just "play" on this page and try out different effects. I've added some flowers and a couple of leaves. I really like the way the leaf done in the super-skinny bugles came out, but I did break a few beads until I switched to a super-skinny (and hard to thread) beading needle. It's hard to find those faceted drop beads like the 8 blue ones in the flower, that don't cost an arm & a leg....
It seems that once I start fooling around with flowers, things go easier for me - I think flowers are just my thing!
Happy Beading...
~Lin Moon

July BJP Progress

I am finding these Bead Journal Pages difficult to start. I have all these seemingly great ideas floating in my head, but they get jumbled once I pick up a beading needle. Embroidery with fibers is so much more familiar to me; so I decided to just start beading a sampler of sorts as my page for July. I thought if I knew what sorts of effects I could get with different types of bead embroidery, maybe having this "palette" of effects would help me get started on future BJP pages. So here's my progress so far....
It's funny how sometimes when working on a challenge project, there are just sooo many rules. But take away almost all the rules, and I just don't know where to start!
Happy Beading...
~Lin Moon

Goodies from SM Bead Show

Here are some pix of the cool stuff I got at the bead show. I was thinking about beading around one of the larger beads for one of the bead journal project pages. Those blue pearls are kind of weird, but in a good way. I saw some wonderful kits for making beaded beads, necklaces and bracelets. Also some nice jewelry people were wearing that they had made themselves. It was fun!
Happy Shopping!
~Lin Moon

Santa Monica Bead Show

This weekend is the Bead Faire at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, CA. It's Friday, Saturday and Sunday July 20-22.

Is anyone planning to go? I'd love to meet one of you online beaders!

More info is available at www.gemfaire.com.

Happy Beading,
~Lin Moon

Harry Potter Gala

I haven't been doing much embroidery/beading lately because I've been making Harry Potter curtains! I work at Borders Books and this Friday we are having a huge party to celebrate the latest and last Harry Potter book. We're having a DJ, palm reader, face painter, costume contest, free posters, wands and a craft table (womanned by yours truly) to make wizard hats. A red carpet will lead up to the front door, which will be festooned with 12 foot purple curtains, which I've been working on. A gold and glittered set of H and P letters will frame the door, done in the Harry Potter font. My daughter downloaded the font and I made signs for all the tables. This is going to be so much fun!
gotta get back to stitching soon....
~Lin Moon

June Bead Journal Project

You can see my Bead Journal Project entry for June. I'm not really sure what I think of the finished piece... I certainly have a lot to learn. I have never filled a shaped with sequins, and I'm not sure a solid shape like the moon was a good choice.... I really enjoyed using all different blue beads for the water, although I struggled with wanting better-defined lines, which would have required all seed beads, or having fun with the different sizes of beads and not having the line effect I was going for. I had planned to have leaves or flowers floating on the water, but with the water beads being so big, it seemed like it would look like the water was floating on the leaves/flowers. I had also planned to fill in the water with lots of different embroidery threads, but thought it would take away from the beads and maybe be too "busy."

Things I would say I learned from this piece:
Beads behave differently than threads.(This may seem like a "duh", but it surprised me)
Sequins fill areas in a more airy way, than in a solid way.
Portions of the design that are done in beads tend to come forward, unbeaded areas recede.
Every piece doesn't have to be a masterpiece (thank goodness!)
I need to play more. (yay!)

Happy Stitching and Beading,
~Lin Moon

TASTy long and short

Here is a cat I'm making(wisp) using satin/long and short. This is about 3 inches wide. I really enjoy this type of embroidery as you can stitch layer upon layer to get the right color effect. Also, once you get the main lines embroidered, you can just "wing it". I untwisted button-hole twist, so it's done with a third of a strand of that. It's not yet finished - did you notice he has no whiskers?
Happy Stitching,
~Lin Moon