Extreme Beading

My Turkish camel piece is still being worked on. As you can see the beading has begun.  This piece has been in stages for nine months now. I had a full Saturday in my studio when I had set everything up to start quilting it. Well...you know what they say to best laid plans...it didn't work out very well. I've elaborated below if you're interested.

This project just didn't want to be machined. I did something that I never do. I stitched & ripped out all day long. Every time I started I would end up ripping it out. This was my whole day in the studio. Then I just decided that this piece just didn't want to be machine quilted. So now it's all up to hand embroidery & beading. Oh my goodness it'll be many more months before it's completed.

I asked my husband to source out an audio book for me so that I could be in my studio quietly so as to not disturb my son. This is also something that never happens. I love music in the studio...something that I don't think about...just work through. The next Saturday in the studio was very rewarding. I can't sit or stand for great lengths so I break it up and do many things during the day. I was very happy with the beading and Sunday morning I thought that I would quietly slip back to the studio for another day of audio & hand work. To my surprise, my audio book was complete within minutes. I actually burned through 10 hours of audio on Saturday without having any clue as to the amount of time spent. I was literally shocked. I have never counted time in the studio so I was completely clueless. The next shock...was how little seems to be done. I still have over 3/4 of the project to go through. The picture doesn't show the whole of the beaded area...just a taster.

Poppy Cock

During the Christmas season I was temporarily blocked out of my studio in order to set up a bed for family coming home for the holidays. I have a real problem when I don't have my studio to turn to and subsequently I couldn't stop thinking about what I could work on the minute the studio was back to being open. I had 3 days in the studio and I wanted to make the most of it. On my design wall I had a 2nd background that I had pinned together when I was making "Cock of the Rock". I figured that this was a great place to start so down came the background for "Poppy Cock". It took me a full day to play and tweak it until I was happy.

During the tweaking period, I had my daughters transgender kitty wanting attention...smack dab in the middle of what I was working on. Of course I'm allergic to cats...so anyone that knows anything about cats...knows that this was par for the course.

It took me another day to quilt the background. I was having trouble with my sewing machine and it just wouldn't work with the gold metallic thread that I really wanted, so I had to make do with a gold coloured embroidery thread. Still ok but not exactly what I wanted. On the 3rd day I worked on the rooster. In this picture he has no legs and I really wasn't happy with his wing.

I painted his face...OMG...I was so happy with his face. During the delicate painting of his face I had a surprise...transgender kitty decided to jump on my back because I wasn't paying him enough attention. So there I was hunched over my rooster, pallet in one hand and brush in the other, thinking OMG, if kitty jumps down on my work surface...all those little LOOSE bits of fabric feathers...are gone. Then of course my back got all itchy from the claws that went into my back and I was done for the day.

I finished stitching down all the feathers, added his feet, touched up the legs with some paint and he was essentially done. So now I'm contemplating beading this piece like I did with "Cock of the Rock". I know I'd really like it to be beaded but it would take months of work before I was satisfied. So he's not totally done but he's done for now.