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Description
So....I saw this pattern hanging up (finished) at Nedlewerks and I thought 'oh wow! I know someone who would LOVE that!' Which is normally how I pick up patterns. So I asked the ladies if they had the pattern for that piece somewhere. One of the ladies pulled out the book that it was in and I bought it (and all the materials I would need for it) right then. I told myself I wasn't going to start this one till I finished my other WIPs though so I had to wait. I was also slightly intimidated because I had never stitched with beads before. I had used beads as an embellishment on a finished project before but never as part of the original cross-stitch design. So I had to read (and re-read) the instructions a couple of times to make sure I was understanding it correctly. This was one project I did NOT want to have to pull out hundreds of stitches on if I messed up somewhere since I would also have beads to potentially loose along the way.

I bought two plastic, compartmentalized, containers to put all the different beads in (as recommended by one of the ladies at the store who had worked with beads before) and then labeled each compartment with the bead number (on tape so I can reuse them if needed). This was great because I could easily travel with them and I didn't have to worry about all those little bead packages opening and spilling beads everywhere. The compartments stayed close pretty well and I could keep all but of them closed but the one I was using so I wouldn't accidentally grab the wrong bead color.

As I stitched I learned two important things about beads.

The first is if there is a way for them to fall off and disappear in the couch as I work it's going to happen.

*I* knocked over my container of beads once and had to pull of the couch cushions to get to the beads. It's amazing how much crumbs and stuff I never notice are under those couch cushions >.< needless to say I then had to clean all THAT up because I did not want to have to pick out beads again like that if it happened again.

The second time my husband ended up knocking over the beads. This time two different colors were open as I had *just* finished one and was getting ready to start the next but hadn't gotten around to closing the first compartment yet. And of course this time they ended up all over the floor. Thankfully I have tile and not carpet so I didn't have to worry about loosing the beads in carpet and Thomas helped me pick them all up and sort them into the right compartment so all was forgiven.

The other thing I discovered is that taking pictures with beads in your work is hard!! I had to be careful to turn the flash off on my camera (which was often my phone) and make sure I had good lighting because the flash would reflect off the beads and make the picture look weird. I ended up taking the lamp shade that I have sitting next to my couch off and then leaving it off as it offers more light that way when I stitch. It might look funny but it works.

Once it was finished I knew I was going to give it as a gift so I wanted to get it framed. I looked at frames at my local stores but didn't find any that I liked. The ladies at Nedlewerks recommended a local (as in in the same strip center) framer that they have used so he has experience framing needlework and is reasonable. They recommended doing 'framer's choice' since a lot of times it's cheaper than me picking out the frame & matting. The framer will pick out what he has in stock that fits the price point given and will still look good with the piece.

So I made Thomas go with me one weekend and drop it off since I wanted a second opinion. The lady I talked to was very kind and offered several suggestions before asking if we wanted to just do 'framer's choice' since we really didn't have a clue what we wanted exactly. We set a price point ($45 max) and she went to work figuring out what she could do for me. Ended up costing me about $43 which I was happy with since it was under my budget. Thomas was happy because it wasn't costing him the almost $100+ that we had gotten a quoted at another store.

My parents actually ended up offering to pay for the framing (woot!) since my Mom suggested giving it as a joint Christmas/Housewarming/Birthday gift to my 'Aunt' (close family friend) who recently moved into a new house. I had hoped to have it finished before she moved away but, alas, they moved sooner than expected so now we will split the cost of shipping it to them. My Mom's rational behind paying for the frame? I bought all the materials (probably cost me almost as much as the framing) and put the time into making it so she could at least pay for that part of the gift. I wasn't about to complain. My Dad is in charge of figuring out how to ship it (as he's shipped framed things before) and I'm afraid if *I* did it something would happen and the glass would break or the frame would become damaged.

All in all I'm glad I did this project. I even used a few left over pink beads in place of french knots on another project, this time a baby announcement for a friend who just happened to be having a little girl, around the same time I finished this. I'm sure I can find other uses for the rest of the beads I have, or hang on to them in case I come across another project that uses the same bead colors.

There are several other projects in that book that have caught my eye so who knows, I might be doing another one in the future. ^_^

I will post another picture of the framed project one I get that from Jason (my brother) who has a MUCH better camera than I do. Which he should since he's a sports photographer for the local paper.

*******************************************************************************************************

Start Date: July 24, 2013

End Date: November 2, 2013

Pattern from: "In Celebration of Forty Years" by Wichelt

Materials:

14 ct Aida - Jobelan Summer Sky Hand Dyed

20 DMC colors:

347, 355, 436, 500, 553, 561, 712, 738, 783, 807, 824, 827, 3347, 3348, 3755, 3799, 3816, 3820, 3822 & 3865

10 Mill Hill Bead colors:

* 7 petite seed beads: 02043, 02053, 02084, 02088, 02097, 02104 & 03056

* 3 seed beads: 40332, 42019 & 42042

2 Mill Hill Jim Shore "Leafy Red Bloom" buttons (# 87021)

*****************************************************************************************************

I made a progression video with pictures I took each day I finished working on it. I got the idea from Carla aka *Mattsma when she did hers for her 'Celtic Peacock'. It's my first one so it isn't the *best* nor is it anything fancy (no music) but I like it. Feel free to check it out and leave comments. ^_^

Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsAb0n…

Description
So....I saw this pattern hanging up (finished) at Nedlewerks and I thought 'oh wow! I know someone who would LOVE that!' Which is normally how I pick up patterns. So I asked the ladies if they had the pattern for that piece somewhere. One of the ladies pulled out the book that it was in and I bought it (and all the materials I would need for it) right then. I told myself I wasn't going to start this one till I finished my other WIPs though so I had to wait. I was also slightly intimidated because I had never stitched with beads before. I had used beads as an embellishment on a finished project before but never as part of the original cross-stitch design. So I had to read (and re-read) the instructions a couple of times to make sure I was understanding it correctly. This was one project I did NOT want to have to pull out hundreds of stitches on if I messed up somewhere since I would also have beads to potentially loose along the way.

I bought two plastic, compartmentalized, containers to put all the different beads in (as recommended by one of the ladies at the store who had worked with beads before) and then labeled each compartment with the bead number (on tape so I can reuse them if needed). This was great because I could easily travel with them and I didn't have to worry about all those little bead packages opening and spilling beads everywhere. The compartments stayed close pretty well and I could keep all but of them closed but the one I was using so I wouldn't accidentally grab the wrong bead color.

As I stitched I learned two important things about beads.

The first is if there is a way for them to fall off and disappear in the couch as I work it's going to happen.

*I* knocked over my container of beads once and had to pull of the couch cushions to get to the beads. It's amazing how much crumbs and stuff I never notice are under those couch cushions >.< needless to say I then had to clean all THAT up because I did not want to have to pick out beads again like that if it happened again.

The second time my husband ended up knocking over the beads. This time two different colors were open as I had *just* finished one and was getting ready to start the next but hadn't gotten around to closing the first compartment yet. And of course this time they ended up all over the floor. Thankfully I have tile and not carpet so I didn't have to worry about loosing the beads in carpet and Thomas helped me pick them all up and sort them into the right compartment so all was forgiven.

The other thing I discovered is that taking pictures with beads in your work is hard!! I had to be careful to turn the flash off on my camera (which was often my phone) and make sure I had good lighting because the flash would reflect off the beads and make the picture look weird. I ended up taking the lamp shade that I have sitting next to my couch off and then leaving it off as it offers more light that way when I stitch. It might look funny but it works.

Once it was finished I knew I was going to give it as a gift so I wanted to get it framed. I looked at frames at my local stores but didn't find any that I liked. The ladies at Nedlewerks recommended a local (as in in the same strip center) framer that they have used so he has experience framing needlework and is reasonable. They recommended doing 'framer's choice' since a lot of times it's cheaper than me picking out the frame & matting. The framer will pick out what he has in stock that fits the price point given and will still look good with the piece.

So I made Thomas go with me one weekend and drop it off since I wanted a second opinion. The lady I talked to was very kind and offered several suggestions before asking if we wanted to just do 'framer's choice' since we really didn't have a clue what we wanted exactly. We set a price point ($45 max) and she went to work figuring out what she could do for me. Ended up costing me about $43 which I was happy with since it was under my budget. Thomas was happy because it wasn't costing him the almost $100+ that we had gotten a quoted at another store.

My parents actually ended up offering to pay for the framing (woot!) since my Mom suggested giving it as a joint Christmas/Housewarming/Birthday gift to my 'Aunt' (close family friend) who recently moved into a new house. I had hoped to have it finished before she moved away but, alas, they moved sooner than expected so now we will split the cost of shipping it to them. My Mom's rational behind paying for the frame? I bought all the materials (probably cost me almost as much as the framing) and put the time into making it so she could at least pay for that part of the gift. I wasn't about to complain. My Dad is in charge of figuring out how to ship it (as he's shipped framed things before) and I'm afraid if *I* did it something would happen and the glass would break or the frame would become damaged.

All in all I'm glad I did this project. I even used a few left over pink beads in place of french knots on another project, this time a baby announcement for a friend who just happened to be having a little girl, around the same time I finished this. I'm sure I can find other uses for the rest of the beads I have, or hang on to them in case I come across another project that uses the same bead colors.

There are several other projects in that book that have caught my eye so who knows, I might be doing another one in the future. ^_^

I will post another picture of the framed project one I get that from Jason (my brother) who has a MUCH better camera than I do. Which he should since he's a sports photographer for the local paper.

*******************************************************************************************************

Start Date: July 24, 2013

End Date: November 2, 2013

Pattern from: "In Celebration of Forty Years" by Wichelt

Materials:

14 ct Aida - Jobelan Summer Sky Hand Dyed

20 DMC colors:

347, 355, 436, 500, 553, 561, 712, 738, 783, 807, 824, 827, 3347, 3348, 3755, 3799, 3816, 3820, 3822 & 3865

10 Mill Hill Bead colors:

* 7 petite seed beads: 02043, 02053, 02084, 02088, 02097, 02104 & 03056

* 3 seed beads: 40332, 42019 & 42042

2 Mill Hill Jim Shore "Leafy Red Bloom" buttons (# 87021)

*****************************************************************************************************

I made a progression video with pictures I took each day I finished working on it. I got the idea from Carla aka *Mattsma when she did hers for her 'Celtic Peacock'. It's my first one so it isn't the *best* nor is it anything fancy (no music) but I like it. Feel free to check it out and leave comments. ^_^

Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsAb0n…