BJP for Bee, Myself & I

It's time for a Bee, Myself & I post. This was created by Granny Maud's Girl for the purpose of working on a project strictly to please oneself. I sort of ran out of personal projects recently. However, one of the things that has been on my mind since the new year began was a bead journal project of some kind. The official BJP group has been moved to a Facebook page and there seem to be fewer participants these days. Or they could be like me and just have a hard time remembering to post their progress. Or maybe they're on Instagram - which I'm not. Ya gotta draw the line somewhere!

In any event, I've recently made some decisions about how I'm going to approach my BJP for this year. The general idea is to choose a format and stick with it throughout the year, making one bead embroidered piece each month. They can stand alone or become part of a larger whole down the road. I've made stand-alone pieces in the past.

2010

2011

2014

This year I've decided to do a small block each month and then assemble them into a wall hanging, hopefully early next year (but don't hold me to it!). The plan is to cut a 4.5" square of quilter's cotton, back it with a piece of muslin, and then embroider up to a three inch circle onto it. The other component of the Bead Journal Project is to work intuitively, choosing your beads and bead paths as they occur to you.

I've set up foundations for January, February, and March but have only put the focal elements in place so far. Since I begin each day, and therefore each new year, by journaling in a spiral bound notebook I chose to begin with buttons with text on them for January.

I thought it would be fun to use the other cloth-covered button Tialys sent me for February since I used the first one on an ATC in February.

And for March I'm starting with a pair of lovebirds in honor of the 35th wedding anniversary Hubby and I just had. The foundation fabric is meant to be a coral color, which I'm given to understand is the traditional gift for a 35th wedding anniversary. I tried my jade green prints first - the contemporary gift suggestion - but didn't like the way the birds looked on them.

I have some ideas about what beads I want to use on each piece, I just haven't gotten to that point with any of them yet. As I said, secret stitching. 😉

Bead Journal Project for 2014

One of the projects I've been working on in the background here in the Magpie's Nest are my first two pieces for this year's Bead Journal Project.

I may have mentioned that I'm using the idea of a bookmark for this series. Rather than the long skinny rectangle of most traditional bookmarks I used a shipping tag as the inspiration for my foundations. Once that decision had been made I cut 12 pieces of batting to support the fabrics on which I would be beading.

I begin with batting and fabric cut 3" x 5.5." This gives me tags that are 2.5" wide and 5" long. For the first tag I used a bit of fabric my friend C~ gave me for Christmas. She had experimented with ice dyeing with some friends of ours earlier in the year. This is what the half-yard cut looked like:

Having the whole family together for Christmas was the inspiration for the theme of January's tag. I started by pulling out charms and trying different arrangements to indicate my husband and I, each of our children, their spouses and children.

I couldn't find a layout that satisfied me well enough to sew the bits down. Eventually I put all of those away and started fresh, with sequins this time.

This arrangement felt more promising. I played around with stacking sequins and the colors of the beads used to secure them to the foundation. I also decided to add a second large gold heart so that there's one for each of us, my husband and I.

The silver hearts represent our children, the star is our son in law (the sailor) and the flower is our prospective daughter in law. The little flowers are our granddaughters. :- ) Maybe you can also see the seed stitching I did with silk floss to fill in the background. Double clicking on the pictures should make them larger.

In keeping with the idea of a bookmark I chose to finish this one off with a loop and tassel. I made this tassel myself, out of a chenille yarn in my stash.

And now I've completed my bookmark/tag for February:

This one also began with a piece of hand dyed fabric, but this was some I've had in my stash for years. Once again I started out with one set of charms and beads, even had them sewn down this time, and then ended up taking them all off when I found a more appropriate pendant in my collection. My goal was to express visually the pain and frustration I've been experiencing.

To help represent the headaches I stacked four sequins on top of each other, after first trimming the lower two into pointier shapes. They began life as the sort of sunburst or flower sequins that are readily available in craft stores. There's a red one, then a silver one, then a smaller silver buzz saw blade sequin, then the red circle, all topped with the red triangle bead.

The lower half of the composition represents the heavy menstrual bleeding I've been enduring. This isn't a great shot but you can see the variety of beads I used.

You can also see that I used scatter stitching to fill in the background again. This time it was a variegated cotton floss (DMC 4190). I have a sneaking suspicion this treatment will be showing up in many, if not all, of my tags this year. I decided to try something other than a tassel on this one however. I like the tassel but I think a ribbon like this may be more useful if I want to hang the tags for display.

I already have an idea for a theme for March's beaded journal piece. Only time will tell whether that idea bears fruit or not!

2012 Bead Journal Project

I made such good progress on the Dr. Seuss quilt the other day that my mind was free to turn to other projects I have on the back burners. One of those is this year's Bead Journal Project.

Late last year I thought I knew what format I would use for this year's BJP. Then, at the beginning of the year a whole new concept came to me. There aren't many rules for the BJP (which is one of the reasons I like it so well) but one of the few is to pick a format - the size and shape of our piece each month - and stick to it. So it was important that I find something I could live with.

In the past I wanted each BJP piece to be a stand-alone piece of artwork. I have three year's worth of those now and storage becomes an issue. My plan for this year was to bead on six inch batik squares that I would then assemble into three or four little wall hangings. My intention was to go with a fantasy or fairy tale theme rather than trying to journal specific life events. Choosing a subject each month has been one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the past so I thought working from a theme would be helpful. It would appear to have had the opposite effect. All of a sudden it's April and I didn't have a single piece even started, much less finished, for this year's Bead Journal Project!

Then the other morning I woke up with an idea for a new format for my BJP. I'll still be beading on six inch fabric squares and assembling them into one or more little quilts but I've discarded the fantasy theme. The first thing I did was play around with sizes and set up three foundations for beading. I had a pretty clear idea what I would do for January and March. Unfortunately I didn't have appropriate beads in stock for March's piece. And something about my foundation for January kept me from starting in on it...

When I realized that I needed a calmer background for January everything fell into place. I had cut a 6.5" square from a text print Quiltdivajulie shared with me. Yesterday I swapped that out for the same fabric I'd used as the background in the swap quilt I made for her.


And what I ended up making was a sort of replica of the swap quilt:


At the very bottom of the rick-rack heart I used some beads also from Julie. Hurray!

Here's a shot of my beading area just before I cleaned it up all the way. I use the ceramic paint palette as a bead palette. The glass bowl currently has the bead mix I worked from to fill in the bottom point of the heart.


I rarely use the leather thimble you see in the middle of the ceramic palette; it just never got put all the way away the last time I did use it. You may be able to see that there's an accumulation of stray beads in one of the sections of the palette. Eventually they will go into a little baggie in my bead stash and become the ultimate bead soup!

First Finish of 2012

Introducing Hilu-uli, what would have been my sixth journal quilt in the very first first Bead Journal Project (she's really not that off kilter; the picture was taken at an angle):

One of the things that had me stumped back when I began this quilt was that image of the woman with the fish on her head. I took time out from putting the sequins in the background to do some research into general symbolism. That led me to Hawaiian folklore. Turns out there's a story about a pair of twins, a boy, Hilu-ula, and a girl, Hilu-uli. They were humans but had the power to change themselves into other forms. When the girl grew up she did just that and went to live as a fish in the ocean. Everywhere she went the population of the hilu exploded such that the sea was red with them. Naturally the islanders caught and cooked them for food since they were so abundant. When her brother discovered what was going on he turned himself into a whirlwind and blew all the fish back into the sea. Since then the hilu-uli have had dark scales.

This fish is pink and navy blue rather than red and black but that's close enough for me! I outline stitched Hilu-uli's face and the fish with number 8 perle cotton and added a flat sequin for the fish eye. The sun in the upper left corner is beaded with stacks of seed beads and star sequins in varying heights.

Here's what the ocean floor looks like (at least most of it!). Getting that binding on was a bit tricky but working slowly and on Phoebe, my machine with the narrower feed dogs, it turned out okay. I actually sewed over a bead up in the sun area, not down here as I expected I might.

I've been storing these journal quilts in a 9 x 12 portfolio. This quilt has so much dimensionality that I don't think it will fit into a sleeve. And the portolio was already bulging to the point it just about wouldn't shut.


I took out the quilts, stacked them, and measured the stack. A little over two inches, allowing for the depth of the sequin stacks on this most recent quilt. Plus there are a couple of other journal-size quilts I've also been keeping in this portfolio.


I think it's time to look for a box to keep these in instead. And I think Ive found just the thing here!

Revisiting a UFO

Apparently I wasn't ready to be done beading when I finished the final ATC for last year's BJP. Instead of starting a new project for January of this year I pulled out one of the unfinished journal quilts I was making during the first year of the BJP. That first year I finished nine out of 12 pieces. I had foundations pieced for all 12 though.

While DH was home from work during the holidays he and I took a little road trip up north to check out a bead shop I'd never been in before. A couple of doors down was a needlepoint, knitting, and stitchery shop. That's where I found the discounted ball of the rainbow yarn you'll see in the picture below. And that's what reminded me of this particular journal quilt!

The batik panel of the head with the fish was part of a set I acquired many, many years ago. It might have been 4.5" square to begin with. The whole quilt will finish at about 8.5 x 11 inches. I remember that I had a vague idea of how I wanted to embellish at least the bottom of the quilt. I must not have had the right materials at the time though because I never got started.

I bought the rainbow yarn thinking it would make great doll hair. Turns out it also makes delightful seaweed! I didn't even realized there were nubby bits in the yarn until I started cutting it up to couch onto this quilt.

Once I had that "plant" in place it seemed natural to work on the rest of the sea bed. More yarn was involved in that process. The photo below shows a prospective layout for more sea life on the ocean floor.


This is what it looked like a couple of days later:

I'm a little worried about getting binding sewn onto the edges of this quilt; those beads are pretty close to the edge and some are bulky. You may notice that I used a bit of gently twisted ribbon to soften the seam line between the pink batik print and the turquoise above it. It was a little tricky to do but I'm really happy with my school of zebra fish swimming by. ;- )

This piece has progressed even further since that last photo was taken. As I complete each section it becomes clear what to do in the next section. What a relief! I'd really like to keep working on this until it's done, not get interrupted by anything else, but I can only do so much each day. And I haven't cleaned up the studio enough to be able to work on another project while this one is in process. I consider myself fortunate to have such a terrible problem!

Tribute to Rosie Lee Tompkins

Yeehaw! I actually finished all 12 ATC's for the Bead Journal Project 2011 before the end of the year!

I knew what I wanted to do for my final ATC of the year. Earlier in the year I'd purchased a copy of Something Pertaining to God, the catalog that accompanied exhibitions of the work of Rosie Lee Tompkins. In reading through it and looking at the examples of Rosie's work I developed a feeling of kinship with Rosie Lee. I happened to notice that she passed away in December of 2006. That's when I decided that she would be the subject of my December ATC.

I started with a scrap of cotton but that didn't feel right. Going back through the catalog of her work I saw that a lot of what was not quilts was made out of velvets and other materials. So I went through my collection of not-cotton fabrics and found a man's tie that I thought would work well with the beads I'd chosen. Rosie's favorite colors were yellow, orange, and purple. In fact, she wouldn't let Eli Leon take her picture for the catalog but she did let him set up one of her favorite outfits on a chair as if she were wearing them and they happened to be in those colors.

Rosie's legal name was Effie Mae Howard. She put her name on a lot of her later work, along with birth dates and scriptural references. I copied the style she used when she put her name on her pieces, except for the star. That would simply have been another cross stitch. The red triangle beads represent her freestyle piecing.

I couldn't be happier with the way this turned out. And I'm over the moon that I finally succeeded in making 12 pieces for one Bead Journal Project. I was so excited that on New Year's Day I got out one of the journal quilts I'd started in the first year of the BJP and put some beads and yarn on it. There's still a ways to go before it will be anywhere near complete however. That's one reason I didn't complete the first year: my format was too big. That's okay though, it was a good learning experience. I think for this year I'm going to stay small but give myself a little more room by working on 3.5 inch squares. I already have an idea for what to do for January too! :- )

Closing Out the Year

I'm delighted to report that I have completed eleven of the twelve ATC's I committed to for the Bead Journal Project in 2011. With a little luck I will get number twelve done this weekend. Wahoo!

My mother had two sisters, one older and one younger. My mother and her elder sister passed away within the last decade. My remaining maternal aunt passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in September of this year. I wanted to honor her in some way with my September ATC for the BJP. I came up with several possible designs. Finally I decided it had to be about the three of them rather than just the one sister.

I started by spelling out their names with letter beads. Then I remembered some shiny tulle I'd run through my felting machine. It's all shirred up in a lovely texture. I laid that over the beaded names and tacked it down with some pearly white seed beads (thanks Julie! they were part of that multicolor mix you sent me). It seemed appropriate to lay flowers on the graves, as it were, so I did. Before I secured the sheer around the perimeter of the ATC I stitched a silver dove sequin under it and added the holographic heart on top.

I used the colorful letters for Judy's name because not only was she the most recent to pass, she was far more relaxed in her approach to the use of color in her textile art.

In November I was busy finishing up quilts and quilt tops. Then at the end of the month I bought some Halloween prints on sale at my LQS and they inspired a whole new quilt! For November's ATC I pieced scraps from that project together and embellished them with a few charms that echo the imagery in the blocks in the quilt.

The bat is a button that was part of my gift package from my sister in law this Christmas - thanks Carol! I was wondering how I would fill that corner and it's perfect!

Even though I still have to make my ATC for December I've already made a separate page for my 2011 Bead Journal Projct on this blog. You can click on the tab at the top of this page or simply click here to see what I've made so far this year.

I will be participating in the 2012 Bead Journal Project and am looking forward to the creative stretch it will give me in the coming year. I'm starting the year with only this gentle stretch - no ambitious goals for me this time around! There are plenty of projects already in the Magpie's Nest that I'd like to tackle without adding any new ones. ;- )

Happy New Year to us all!

WooHoo! Pictures!

Is it a fluke or a fix?

I tried to load pictures from Flickr. The prompt said my pictures had loaded but nothing showed up, twice. Then I made my picture files smaller. For whatever reason that seemed to do the trick although it still took forever for the photos to load.

Here's the finished version of the quilt that went to New York for the BASICS program.

I don't know whether you'll be able to see it bigger or not. I did very simple quilting so there's not much to see in that department anyway.

And here's the ATC I made up for October.


I haven't figured out what to call it yet. I just got a kick out of the juxtaposition of the whimsical skull and crossbones print and the elegant Art Nouveau lady and the spider. The beads are all pewter except for three glass trumpet flowers that are a faint pink with yellow stop beads. I had difficulties machine stitching around the edge this time. Between the fat presser foot I have to use for the blanket stitch and where I put those leaf beads there just wasn't enough room!

So now that I've finally been able to show you these two projects I wonder if I'll be able to show you what I've been working on since then?

All Caught Up!

I am officially up to date on my bead journal projects for this year. Hurray!

There never really was one idea or thought that stood out for the month of April so I just used the idea of Spring as a starting point and this was the result:


May was actually the last ATC I made during this marathon. I had pulled some word charms and already had a couple of pieces of fabric cut for potential foundations but none of that ended up in the final product. I put on the audio book version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (courtesy of my friend C~) and this is what I ended up with:

I've decided to call it "Let the Magic Happen"

Finally, my BJP for August:

This is the one that started the recent beadwork marathon. It was my response to a challenge my little art group set for ourselves back in June. We called it "The Bob Project." The idea was to use our husbands as inspiration and make anything we wanted, any size, any medium. I knew I was behind on my ATC's for the bead journal project and thought this might be a really good way to get back into it. Obviously it worked!

My husband enjoys the macabre just as much as I do, his favorite color is black (if you can call that a color!), he loves the overcast skies we have around here so often and he loves the mountains and trees as well. Normally I use a cotton fabric for my foundations but this one is wool felt because he loves wearing wool sweaters. I think the buttons up each side might represent the suspenders he has taken to wearing lately. They just seemed to need be there.

I''m loving the way these little works of art look on their easels. One day soon I plan to create a separate page on this blog for this year's BJP and you'll be able to see them altogether. But I also have to turn my attention back to a couple of quilting projects to meet deadlines so don't hold your breath!

Two More ATC's for the BJP

I don't think I ever shared my finished bead journal project for February. This one documents the hours I spend reading and journaling, my little dog never very far away.

My original idea for this year's Bead journal Project was to make a series of card cases, which turned out to be the same size as ATC's. The first hurdle is always coming up with a design to execute. That wasn't nearly as big a challenge as finishing the cases turned out to be. I was less than satisfied with the results of my January BJP so I tried something a little different this time around.

I like the feather stitching up the two sides better than the blind ladder stitching I did on the first one.

I brought Mr. Bingley home in March so he became the inspiration for that month's BJP. (I still can't get a good picture of him!)

By this time I realized that the finishing process was keeping me from even starting new BJP's. I decided to bow to reason and finish them the same way I do postcards or the ornaments I made for last year's BJP. But with this one I had the opportunity to try another approach because the fabric foundation was still double the length it needed to be. I trimmed it down but left enough to wrap around the piece of Peltex I use to stiffen my fabric cards. It was tricky to keep everything in place while I topstitched it all together.

It also looked kind of naked when I was done. That's partly due to the lack of beading or stitching but in this case I wanted the foundation fabric to really be part of the final design. It's a music print. This whole card is meant to represent Mr. Bingley in his cage, singing to "his buddy" in the mirror. I used a few green beads to create a shamrock in honor of the month of March.

After I sat with this a few days it occurred to me that I might be able to use the blanket stitch on my sewing machine around the perimeter of the card to suggest the bars of Mr. Bingley's cage.

I set the stitch for as wide as it would go and used a contrasting thread. It turned out pretty well, all things considered. The card still looks a little naked when you see it with the others I've made but that frame of stitching really helps. I like it better now.

You can see my Bead Journal Project for January here. These two are for February and March respectively. I've also shown you June and July. I've been working on April during the unplanned blogging break I just took. I have an idea for May but haven't been able to find the right focal element. I may have to resort to Plan B for that one. I have a strong feeling I'm going to have to do something, anything, soon because I don't think I'll be able to move on to another type of project until I finally get myself all caught up on this one!

Catching Up on the Bead Journal Project

I've been busy stitching this week. I cut a 2.5" x 3.5" piece out of one of the scraps Quiltdivajulie sent me and sewed an eye bead to it.

One thing led to another... black bugle beads, orange bugle beads, sequins and seed beads... and this is what I ended up with:

I'm pretty happy with it. Here's a close-up:

I got the black sequins and beads a little close to the top and bottom edges; that made it a bit of a challenge when I was blanket stitching the perimeter. ;- )

I made another ATC this week too. This one came out of what happened to the house around the corner.

The oval charms are embossed with the words love, laugh, and inspire (left to right). Hopefully this will help me remember to do what I love, laugh while I'm doing it, and be inspiring. Someone has to take over where my neighbor left off!

Bead Journal Project

I have fallen way behind with my ATC's for this year's BJP. However, I am not bowing out by any means. I have every intention of continuing, catching up, and completing the year's worth of projects. Mostly I'm telling you this because I've had an experience this morning that I need to respond to and beading may be the best way.

There's a tiny older house in the neighborhood that I've passed at least once every week since we moved here in 2002. I think it was shortly after we moved to this part of town that it received a paint job I thought was absolutely adorable and completely fitting to the house. In broad strokes it was pink and purple, but believe me when I tell you it was done in the most tasteful and charming way possible. It was a happy little house, with flowers around it that echoed the colors in the paint job. A storybook cottage if ever there was one, inhabited by a grandmotherly looking woman who obviously had a lighthearted spirit about her.

Over the last several months there have been changes that have led me to the conclusion that the home's owner had to move out, possibly passed away, and the home has changed hands. I don't know whether it has been sold or just passed down in the family. I had hopes that it would be maintained as it was but it appears that is not to be the case. Today when I drove by I was shocked to see this:

It now looks like every other house on the street, only with a fresher coat of paint. BO-O-RING! The happy little cottage used to catch your eye as you drove by. Now it blends in and you don't notice it. I had to look for it in order to take these pictures. (I regret that I never took pictures of it in its' glory days.) Even the flowers look like they've been changed out. All the delightful accent pieces have been painted white to match the trim.


I realize that Realtors encourage folks to paint their homes in socially acceptable neutral schemes to get the sale they want. I realize that crisp and clean is au courrant. I also realize that I live in the Pacific Northwest, not Florida, and color sensibilities are different here. People up here seem to be afraid of color. They want to blend into their surroundings. They wear the same colors you find in the scenery around here, and they paint their homes in ways that also blend in. I don't belong here.

This is more my style!

So I'm thinking that at least one of my ATC's for the Bead Journal Project this year needs to address this issue. I need to find my most exuberant colorful self and let her have her way with my fabric and beads...