November 29, 2015

No dogs, No cats, No birds

I say that I don't have pets, but this Cactus Wren sure makes herself right to home.  If I happen to leave the back door open she flies in, down the hall and gets a drink from the kitchen sink.  Then she diligently checks all of the window sills for spiders and bugs.  

Yesterday she visited and saw the tray of seed beads on the work table.


 She landed, pecked and went scratch, scratch, scratch - oh my, seed beads all over the place!
       I yelled
              she left in a hurry
                      I cleaned up!
Guess they were not good to eat but, sure looked like a pile of seed.

These are new etched size 8/0 Czech seed beads from Bead & Glass.
Aren't they beautiful beads? Amy panders to my seed bead needs.



I Should have been working on this, the next section for Garden Stripes String-Along.  I just had to see if the etched 8's looked like I envisioned when they were strung and crocheted.

Yes, I do get easily distracted, however at least I didn't reorganize my underwear drawer this time.

October 23, 2015

Garden Stripes is closed

The String-Along is fully subscribed and is closed.  
Now we begin.....

We are all looking at colors and trying to come up with a set that we think will work.  I said "3 graduated light or dark colors for the trellis".  One participant said her work table looked like it exploded with green bead colors and she still couldn't find what she wanted.  

How often do you look at the beads you own and determine that a shopping trip is needed because you don't have the right color? 


October 20, 2015

Garden Stripes Registration

It's time to sign up for this journey of discovery.
Gremlin/problem with PayPal button fixed - 12:30 AZ time

Sign-Ups are now closed as of Friday, October 23, 2015

Check out more information as to what we are going to be doing on this flyer . . . .

It will cost you $38 to join and crochet two ropes that have no patterns yet.  What do you think . . . a dark background or a nice pearl background?  You get to make all sorts of color choices - or use my colors.
This is a ten week project for the intermediate to advanced slip-stitch bead crocheter.  There will be no how to bead crochet instructions. However, when we're done, you'll be very comfortable adding in thread and beads as well as working from sectional graphs or charts. 

READY.........                  
                                .... then let the fun begin



October 13, 2015

Garden Stripes ~ String-Along


We are about to embark on another String Along.  This string-along will take its inspiration from a cottage garden. There will be two 45" necklaces, designed, strung and crocheted in multiple sections over an approximate 10 week period. I have ideas, but nothing has been designed yet - that's why this is a "string along with me" as I create week by week.



Find out the details in this PDF Flyer

There will be trellises to hold up vines and serve as a background for all the flowers. Then there will be flowers, lots of brightly colored flowers to plant on one of your necklaces.

Will you make a pale necklace set, a bold dark background set or create your garden in never before seen neon colors? We are going to talk about our inspirations, ideas and colors on a FaceBook Group.

So mark your calendars to sign up on October 20, 2015.  We'll be starting the actual crocheting on Halloween weekend, October 30th.  Room is limited to 40 participants, with preference given first to the last group of crocheters.

September 30, 2015

Garden Stripes

 I know I want a pearl background but am having trouble finding the right colors for a graduated trellis.  If I can get it all worked out, and the hands continue good, there will be a Garden Stripes String-Along.

Picking colors is always the hardest thing to do.  There are times that I think I'll just sort and re-sort beads rather than make anything with them.

I'd better hurry up as I have to take the car in for a recall fix tomorrow and I need something to crochet while I'm waiting.

I'll keep you updated as I get closer to having something ready to go - hopefully starting around Halloween.   Watch the Blog and FaceBook.

September 23, 2015

Moved to Arizona

Goodby New Hampshire.... The Antrim house was cleaned, put up for sale, sold and left us with 4 weeks to clean out and leave.  Whew, what a whirlwind that was.  We only took 10% of our stuff with us and it fit in a small POD and the trailer.

Thank heavens for good friends and family helping us get everything done.  Good thing too as the new owners showed up to the closing with their dog and a truck load of things to move in.





We are now permanently in Arizona and have to start doing all the change of addresses.

.... and find nooks and crannies of where to tuck our NH things into a 900 sq. ft old adobe house.  Already I'm saying, "it doesn't fit!"  I'm going to have to have a couple of house cooling sales, including an excess of beads.


Wondering now what the last chapter of my life will bring.

June 30, 2015

Printed Native Stripes

As of July 5, 2015 it's live on Amazon and you can purchase your own printed copy ... enjoy

Give it a week and the last of the String Along files will be ready to have printed copies from Amazon.  I'm just waiting for a proof copy.  This is still one of my happy pieces even if I've seen ropes done in elegant colors.  You can see what others have done on Pinterest.


I'll let you know when it's ready

Bling & Color

I was talking to a new beader and mentioned that I wasn't a big fan of things that expensively sparkled and glittered. I much prefer the Czech Fire Polish crystals as the Czech seem to come up with the most luscious of colors.


Then as I was sorting out an attic box I found my inherited purse - It does glitter very nicely -  I guess I do have an odd piece here and there of blingy, faceted glittering stones.


The construction is fascinating and it's quite heavy.



It's fun to take out and just admire.


 These are a few Fire Polished crystals that I picked up in Tucson this February.  See what I mean about great colors.  I'll take the color over the sparkle any day.

May 3, 2015

Book organization

Patterns & Graphing went out of print last year and I've finally gotten a printed republished edition up on Amazon.

You can also get an eBook copy from Bead-Patterns.  The nice thing about eBooks is that you can print out individual pages to scribble notes on.

And the prices have gone down also.





Urban Stripes has been an eBook for some time now, but I finally got the higher resolution photos together to do a POD edition on Amazon.

I personally still like paper copies of patterns, beading and other books.  
Amazon printed copy is here



When I did my first Bead Crochet book 14 years ago, I thought it might be just a 30 day wonder. Digital cameras were new and expensive, there were no Print-on-Demand services and downloads were scarce. I'm amazed (and grateful) that sales of all of my books continue as new beaders discover what they can do with bead crochet.

African Stripes
I don't move as fast as I once did, but it's still fun to dream up patterns in this technique.

Circus Bangles

May 1, 2015

Back to usefulness

A couple of years along now with a diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis, I am back to being semi-useful, functional. Sixty eight years of a very active lifestyle changed to one where I have to carefully plan what and where I am going to do day by day.  Medications have helped enough so that I can enjoy my beads once again.  I won't bore you with any of the details, but my blog posts will probably be sporadic.


It's hard to believe that in 25 years I've gone from this.....




 to this ....






"The evolution of my bead hoarding"