CC7A June

Time for another CC7A Monthly Challenge!
This month's photo inspiration came from Sally.

Please go visit the other CC7A blogs and see what they made:

Alicia ~ April

Therese ~ May

Sally ~ June

Monique ~ August

Cynthia ~ September

Emma ~ October

Me ~ November

The Inspiration

Kazuri Beads, a gift from my Mom

Fleur acting as camouflage 

Size 8 and 11 seed beads, twin hole beads...makes for a nice chain

A Time To Stitch Eight ~ Sign Ups June 20-27, Reveal November 21

Yes ~ Therese and I are ready to sign you up again, at your say-so.

We'd like to do it now to give you all a nice looooooooong time to get your projects done...or to procrastinate, as Therese pointed out in conversation ;-)

This time around, we are doing Amulet Bags, Totes, Purses, Clutches.  Some part of them will be made of bead weaving.  It is up to you do decide if the whole bag will be done in bead weaving stitches, or the strap only, or bead embroidery on fibers, or netting on fibers, etc.  Just some obvious part.

Back in College when I went out to bars, I carried my I.D.(folded the laminate to make it fit), some money, and my apartment key in an amulet bag around my neck.  It was easy and compact and I didn't have to worry about a purse while I was out.  Now that the kids are carrying most of their own stuff these days, I want to go back to that ease again...the amulet bag, not the bars.  I have a porch now for that ;-)

Here is the my Pearl Street Bar Hopping Amulet Bag (purchased in the late 80s in Estes Park for $30)...for all the smokey, sweaty, sticky places it has been, it is still in great shape :

There are many free tutorials out there :

Bella On Line Amulet Bag Pattern

Fire Mountain Gems Amulet Bag Pattern

Earth Mother Crafts Winter Cardinal Amulet Bag 


Go on Google Image and be wowed and amazed!  And wowed some more.



Since it is five months until the reveal, we are planning on sending a few more reminders over the months than we normally do  So please, when you sign up, include your e-mail, blog address, and name.  Even if you know we have it.  We greatly appreciate it!

RAW...YAWN.

I LOVE THESE PIECES!!!  After the Bead Embroidery Struggles of the Winter, I needed a Little Easy in my Beading Life.  I didn't know I would get it so soon.  But this past weekend, I beaded all day Saturday and made one bracelet and 5 necklaces.  I couldn't believe the ease and the flow that the day brought.  One necklace did have to go to the chop and be reassembled the next day, but more on that in another post.  

Today is about these RAW pieces.

Now, anyone who knows my weaving repertoire knows I like Right Angle Weave about as much as I like to bead embroider...which is to say, Not At All.

But I was with Cynthia recently and she gifted me all these gorgeous colorful agate rounds you see here today.  And we got to talking about RAW and she suggested that maybe if I used bigger beads when I did RAW I might not hate it.  I took her advice, took her lovely beads, and starting RAWing...I planned on doing a very wide bracelet, all in RAW and let these gorgeous beads SHINE.

But I got 21 units into the first row of RAW and realized I couldn't wait to STOP.  I needed OUT and FAST.  I know peyote and herringbone and ladder and brick and square stitch are all repetitive too, but there is something about RAW that makes me want to get away as fast as I can.  So these pieces were born.
RAW and Netting.  Fast and Pretty.  I am happy :-)  It was great beading once I addressed that I could, but chose not to.

Gorgeous agate rounds in a variety of colors, matte bronze  size 11 seed beads.  

That is it!

A Time To Stitch Seven ~ Bead Embroidery

Here we are for Hop #7 in this A Time To Stitch Series!  A big thank you to my co-host Therese for pretty much doing it all herself this time around.  And an even bigger thank you to all of you for your continued enthusiasm for the ATTS hops!

Ok, short on words today, because you all have a lot of blogs to get to ~

Bead Embroidery is not my cup of tea.  And if I had any doubts, I sure confirmed it when I did my pieces.  I LOVE to look at bead embroidery, touch it, buy it, but I will leave the making up to those who have the passion to create it.

I decided to go with a more Folk Art look to my embroidered pieces.  Here they are :

soft, worm denim, Gram's buttons, glass seed beads, glass teardrops

and a snap

leather neck strap, compliments of Cynthia

little leaf still in need of a chain

Here is one I showed already, but I am getting as much mileage as I can out of it (this was done with much help from Cynthia ~ she provided the glass cab and the how-to lesson...with much patience) :

One more photo...this past weekend, Cynthia taught Sunshine Girl how to bead embroider, and she thoroughly enjoyed the process (she seems to like the stitches I don't).  She wants to finish it off with a zigzag stitch neckstrap :

I hope you have a nice drink and a few quiet moments to look at all the wonderful Bead Embroidery on this list.  Thank you for being here.  We appreciate it :-)

.       Therese (Host) 

.       Christine  (Host)

.       Amy

.       Lola

.       Lori F

.       Kim

.       Becky Pancake

.       Karin G.

.       Debbie (Kepi)

.  LizE

.   Maryanne

.   Paula

.   Wendy

.   Janet

.   Jasvanti

.   Ginger

.   Alicia

.   Bobbie

.   Shirley

.   Sarah

.   Cynthia

.   Lizzie

.   Samantha

.   Sally

.   Niki

.   Karen W.