Creaky Cogs: September 2011

Dang it! I thought I had everything so well planned. :(

This past week I've been gone and for a wonderful reason. At long last we took our parents on a well deserved Anniversary cruise to Alaska! It was fantastic being there with family, even though it rained a lot. There will be pictures to follow (beware).

I knew that the Bead Soup Reveal Day would fall while I was on the ship, so I set everything up to automatically publish on Friday night. Problem is… it didn't.

Today I finally got back on the computer and the first thing I saw as a note from the lovely Bead Soup party coordinator threatening to blackball me for not posting my pictures. (I guess I can't blame her, she's worked so hard on this.) Then I saw a note from my wonderful Bead Soup partner who was worried whether I was alive or not.

I feel like a heel. My apologies to one and all.

So, without further ado, I present My Bead Soup Project!

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Can you believe time has flown? It seems like only yesterday that we were assigned partners and my beads showed up in the mail.

I finally decided to use the pink and blue bead collection. If you read my post when the beads arrived you'll see that my partner, Terry Carter, very kindly sent me two sets of beads. It was hard to chose which to use, but I kept imagining a lovely Victorian setting with drippy tea stained lace and lavender ribbons intertwined with the beads. The focal piece would be offset and feature a large lavender ribbon bow… yes, the plans kept running through my head.

Problem was, I couldn't quite make it work.

The focal piece was just too heavy to stay where I wanted it (on the collarbone at the left side) and kept sliding down to the middle. The ribbons where gorgeous, but too thick to string beads on, so I tried beading them but that just didn't look right.

Finally, in despair I called out the cavalry. In this case, my sister Holly.

You should know that Holly is the crafty/talented one in the family. She spins her own yard, knits, crochets, beads… everything.

Holly came in to see what I was doing and just shook her head. What I had in mind would never work. But… ta da! She'd just finished crocheting some lovely black lace that would look great with the colors of the beads and the focal. And if we got rid of the ribbon, and restrung the beads….

Two hours later, and here is the masterpiece. I have to admit flat out that it isn't my work. This is all my sister's inspiration but I love it and don't want to change it. I hope you like it also. It's no longer Victorian, but it's oh so fun.

Drum Roll....

The picture, sadly, does not do it justice. The beads are very pretty lavender, pink and several shades of blue. The lace also doesn't show up well but Holly did a great job on it.

Thanks Terry, for the lovely beads!

I enjoyed being part of Bead Soup this year

To see Terry Carter's (my partner) creationa, go here.
They are amazing!

http://tappingflamingo.blogspot.com/2011/09/caribbean-seas.html

To see the rest of the Bead Soup projects go here:

The Hostess, Lori Anderson and her partner, Manuela Wutschke

1. Aimee Wheaton and Barbara York

2. Alice Craddick and Sandra Richardson

3. Alison Sachs and Amy Severino

4. Allison Scott and Cynthia Abner

5. Amanda Cargill Austin and Charlene Sevier

6. Amanda Davie and Patsy Evins

7. Amber Dawn and Kim Ballor