Fabric Beads

Since I have been working on two small, shiny art quilts, I thought I might try making some fabric beads to embellish with. I am waiting for a beading book that I purchased on E-Bay, but found some instructions online after a search for fabric beads.

Surprise! One source was blogger Monica Magness, who is the maker of the Love Squared doll for the Pink Artist Project. Very appropriate, since one of these quilts is intended as a prize in connection with that project. Her method involves saving fabric and fiber scraps, washing them together, and putting them in the dryer to form a big thread ball. This part was easy...I keep a zip-lock bag in both sewing room and quilting room for snips of pretty threads and fibers.

Then you roll some pieces into a ball, pin them together, and stitch in and out until you have a round bead.Then you can sew in seed beeds. I thought I had packed a box of tiny colored seed beads, but all I had were some large ones. My round beads look a little like Sputniks with their big beads sewn on.

On the one just above, I used scraps from my one-and-only attempt to use the alphabet stitch feature on my Bernina 1260 to make a quilt label. I never quite got it right, so this bead has part of the words "Summer Jewels" across it.

The instructions for the other method I tried are from the Pacific Northwest Needle Arts Guild Wearable Art Study Group ( a long name!) This method involves gluing the back of small fabric strips and wrapping them around a chopstick or straw. I used one of those children's drinking straws with the flexible bend. These beads came out with a wide opening, which would be very useful for those times you want to string beads on a piece of cloth or thick yarn. I think they would be prettier if I had used the chopstick or a skewer to get a thinner opening.

The first method was much neater and more time-consuming. I only made three little blobby round beads in about an hour.

The second method produced many more beads, but you have to allow for glue drying time.

I wanted to work on these in the mountains, so I grabbed my supplies before we left. When I looked for my white glue, I noticed this bottle of Galactic Glitter Glue. Hey, why not add a little sparkle at the same time? It worked great and provided a little extra sparkle, although most of the sparkle effect is lost when you roll up the glued fabric strip.

Every time I use this glue, I think of the commercial jingle in the 1981 movie The Incredible Shrinking Woman..."Galaxy Glue, Galaxy Glue/ What would we do without Galaxy Glue? Galaxy Glue, Galaxy Glue/ The world would fall to pieces without Galaxy Glue.." okay, now you can thank me for having that running through your head the rest of the day!

Here are my dyed and painted fabric strips drying on the straws out on our picnic table in the mountains. They dried very fast as it was a hot, sunny day. My picnic table now has little clear globs of glitter adorning it.
After the little rolls of fabric are dry, you slip them off the straw, add more glue, and wrap with fibers, threads, etc. This is the fun part. Keep a wet washcloth handy so your fingers don't get completely covered with fibers stuck to them. Then you let the beads dry again. If you want to use them for jewelry, you can add a little wire to make a spiral for connections.Next up for embellishing fun...Shrinky Dinks! I think I am going into my second childhood!

Mountain Adventures and Mishaps

It was another beautiful weekend in the North Carolina mountains, with moderate temperatures and a nice breeze most of the time. As it approaches deer hunting season, my husband is getting all excited. We took a few trips up the mountain to put up Posted signs and install DH's new stealth camera. Hey, it looks like he is doing the very un-Man thing, referring to the directions! It is supposed to be motion-activated and take pictures of deer with infrared film. We got it installed Saturday, and eagerly went back Sunday morning to find a picture of: my husband's face peering into the camera. Maybe next weekend we will see some actual wildlife photos, hopefully not of bear.

We spent a lot of time trespassing, er uh, I mean, exploring some of the old logging roads at the top of the mountain beyond my BIL's land. We came across this really pretty cabin for sale.

There were only four people staying on our family compound this weekend. Sometimes there are twenty or thirty, with half of them bringing along one or more dogs. This time, only Maggy was along for the Gator rides up the mountain. She waited patiently for us at each stop to put up a Posted sign, investigating delicious smellsand drinking the skanky water (EWWW!) from the mud puddle that almost never dries up completely on the top of the mountain.

She has gotten in trouble on a couple of these treks across the mountain, most notably the time she got up close and personal with a skunk. Her eyes turned blood red and she couldn't walk straight. No, tomato juice does not take out the smell, nor does bathing her in a mountain stream with peach-scented shampoo or bathing her at home with $12.00 bottle of Skunk-Away.

On this particular trip I was walking around the woods with a camera, looking for something interesting to photograph, like this very large funguswhen I was startled to see my twelve-year old pooch jumping a foot off the ground and slamming herself down on the ground. What???? Uh-oh, she had stuck her nose in a hole in the ground and stirred up a nest of yellow-jackets! I yelled at her to "Run!" and we both took off. Speaking of bears, Charlie thought there must be a bear after me when he saw me charging full speed through the trees. I did not get stung, and after we got about four more bees off the dog, she did not seem any worse for wear. But I wish I had taken a video of her body-slamming herself!

We saw a little spotted fawn in the partially fenced yard of our late mountain neighbor, Grizzly Glenn. It kept running along the perimeter of the fence looking for the way out, no Mama in sight. Maggy decided to investigate, and when she got close, the baby deer took off and ran right across Glenn's front porch and out of sight.

While Charlie and I were enjoying the outdoors, Ricky and Mary were canning a bushel of beans and 125 ears of corn, not to mention a few pickles. They have a fine new house with a beautiful kitchen.

I am not much of a canner, but I hope we get invited for dinner to enjoy some of this beautiful bounty. Mary made a beautiful breakfast for us Sunday morning, with maple-flavored bacon, sausage patties, eggs over easy, and strawberry pancakes. Good neighbors!

I experimented with making some fabric beads for my two pink art quilts. Will share pics of the bead-making in my next post.

Second Look

Last night I went to a meeting of one of my quilting groups, the Cyberbee. This group has been together for about fifteen years now. As the name implies, we started out as a sub-group of the Capital Quilters Guild who were using e-mail as our primary communication. We used to meet quarterly, but now have added two extra evening meetings. I was able to see JoAnn Gilbert's music quilt with the binding added. I blogged about quilting this piece on July 30. Two people held it up so I could take a picture of the full quilt. Doesn't it look great with the black and white stripe binding?

JoAnn is still embellishing the guitar, so it is not quite finished.

Heading to our mountain place this morning, so no new blogs until next week. Enjoy your weekend!

Artsy Road Trip: National Teapot Exhibit

Today, grab a cup of your favorite beverage, sit back, and enjoy a virtual road trip to Cedar Creek Gallery in Creedmoor, North Carolina. Three of us from the Whacky Ladies Quilt Bee decided to take in the National Teapot Exhibit. The gallery is a pleasant drive north of Raleigh, and is located on a woodsy lot surrounded by gardens, sculpture, and out-buildings that look like old barns.

The gardens would have been worth the trip by themselves. They have a garden shop with many unusual varieties that you can't find in the local big box stores. We all loaded up with pots of greenery to take home. Normally, planting in August in North Carolina is the kiss of death, but rain was predicted for the next day. I will just have to remember to water them until they get established.

Do you see the little fan of colored plastic strips? That is the price code for the plants. Each plant has a colored plastic strip to mark the price. I loved this system- very easy to determine the price, and a little artistry to boot.


Everywhere you look at Cedar Creek, there is something to delight the senses. Here are some scenes from the gardens.

Iron sculpture added interest to the garden areas.

This one is a bittern.
How about this magnificent blue heron?
What are these things? They look like tentacles from some alien species.
We had to check these birdies out to see if they were gourds. Nope, they are pottery. Feels like terra cotta. This is one of the outbuildings, beautified by mirrors that are framed with rusted tin in artistic patterns.

When we finally dragged ourselves out of the garden, there was more eye candy in the gallery.

The displays were delightfully arranged on antique furniture, old metal wood-burning stoves, a fireplace hearth, and even hanging from the ceiling. Okay, on to the reason for the trip: the National Teapot Exhibit. You could find teapots made from many materials, including of course pottery, but also metal, wood, fiber, and here is one made of fabric for the quilters among us: Do you have a favorite among these? There was a Viewer's Choice ballot, just like at quilt shows. I voted for the red one on the right, titled "Stone Prancer." I liked the sense of movement on this piece.

Did you enjoy this virtual visit? All of the teapots are for sale. There are many more than I could share with you here. Visit the Cedar Creek Gallery by Website to see them all!

Now, like this teapot, it is time for me to Tiptoe Truda Treelips!

Wednesday Works-in-Progress

I got the idea for Wednesday WIP from another blogger, but unfortunately, can't think who.

I have been working on two little art quilts using techniques from Quilting Arts Magazine.

The first one is from the latest issue (34,August/September 2008), and is from an article by Belinda Spiwak titled "Recycled Remnants." It is intended to be a "recycled" or "green" project using bits and scraps and found objects. A first layer of fabrics and fibers is stitched down on water-soluble stabilizer. When the stabilizer is washed off, you add additional papers, ribbons, etc. until you have a pleasing design. Make a sleeve on the top and insert a dowel covered with fibers.

I used a lot of fabric scraps, and have embellished with painted dryer sheets, Angelina fibers, some papers and found objects. Some of that pink ephemera is making it onto this piece. I plan to add beads and buttons and maybe some crystals. I tried stamping and foiling, but that did not work out too well. You can see the spiral stamp, but not much foil.

Here is a sweet little lady's face made of regular paper from an angel notepad.

And this little shiny bit is a wrapper from a Dove "Promises" chocolate candy. They have little wishes and sayings inside the wrapper. I added a bit of ink to it because it looked too white.

When the front piece is done, you have to make something for the back. If you make another collaged piece, it can be reversible! I think I will do just a patchwork on the back. I may use this piece of fabric that I painted with Shiva Paintsticks over a variety of rubbing plates. I added some accents with Tsukineko inks.

The author just sewed the front piece to the back, and hung them from the dowel. I think I am going to insert a layer of pink felt and do a little quilting between the layers.

Why this pink project? If it turns out okay, I think I am going to offer it as a give-away to support the Pink Artist project. Stay tuned!

Wait, there's more WIP this week! After reading a Quilting Arts article "Lost in the Stash," by Frances Holliday Alford in Issue 33, I ordered some Textiva film in every color. I have been trying to follow the instructions to make an art quilt for Breaking Traditions, another cancer fund-raiser associated with Fiber Arts for a Cause. These have to be exactly twelve inches. So far, I have worked on the center section, which is ten inches square.


You wrap fabric around a piece of stiff interfacing, and then sew one or two layers of the Textiva film to that. Textiva is the material that Angelina fibers are made from. It is SHINY! I used a hot pink swirly fabric for the base, then a pink layer of Textiva, then a blue layer. Then you start sewing down bits of silk flowers, ribbons, or whatever you want. I have put in some deconstructed silk flowers, ribbon, and Angelina. Then I quilted it together on my Bernina- not the Gammill! I guess I can still machine-quilt on the little machine, although it feels funny!

Then, I experimented with the heat gun to melt away some of the Textiva. It changes color and melts away depending on the amount of heat. I think it needs another blast.

I am going to add more stuff to this piece, then mount it on another piece of fabric-wrapped interfacing. I think my beautiful hand-dyed silk ribbon will be making an appearance.

It is supposed to rain here today, so maybe I will make some progress as I stay indoors.

And, for those of you who enjoy participating in blog give-away contests, here is a link to Carla's site (Feathered Fibers) , where she is giving away a gorgeous free-form crocheted scarf!