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I check Face book with regularity for pictures, etc.  My husband has a strange sense of humor and isn’t afraid of showing his soft side either.

I burst out laughing one evening when I checked his profile….  He put up a picture of the Bengals and posted “I should pimp these cats for cat calendars”

The comments went downhill from there……

Use your imagination….

Bead Making/Torch Work

I haven’t worked with the torch for a while, and don’t have any plans until January.  My schedule has just been so terribly busy.  You’ll have to wait a while after this to hear stories of burns and mishaps with molten glass.

These are the beads that I picked up a few days ago.  They were made in the October Open Torch session.

At the left is the small pile of broken beads.  In the middle/towards the left, is a mandrel with a bead still on it.  The reason for this is that I can NOT get it off.  I’m going to try for a little while more before I give up and smash it. 

It’s a pretty good looking bead.

So, I get a good one right, it does NOT break… but is still useless to me!

*sigh*

Here’s a closer look at the broken beads. 

I’m getting much better with the dots and other decorations.  The worst part about these particular beads is that at least two of them are were near perfect matches for beads that did survive.

Why is that bad?

Well, I have a tin now with over 100 beads that I have made.  Some large, some small, some decorated, some plain.

What I DON’T have, is two identical beads.

No perfect pair for earrings.

Here are some close-ups of a couple of the beads that I’m most proud of.

Both beads are fairly large.  Each is about 1 inch.  Both are made with a single color as the base shape (Orange and Clear).  Then, I took stringers that I pulled from other glass rods (thin strings of glass) and wrapped them around the bead.

People who do this well, get perfect lines and have more complex decorations.

I do not do this well

I call these beads “Impressionism”

And I leave it at that…..

Mini Retreat Today

I’ve been ill lately.  I slept in a bit this morning and then went and got my friend Michelle and we went to my group’s quilting "mini-retreat".  The premise of this sort of event is that we go to a local church (versus staying out of town), for a Friday evening and the whole day Saturday, going home to sleep in between. 

I was greeted quite warmly.  It sort of made me feel bad; I've blown off that group a couple times lately. I’m also blowing off the Xmas party.  I planned going to a movie premiere with my daughters prior to realizing that it was the same night as the group party.  They come first….

I packed quickly this morning, grabbing project boxes.  I managed to get one of my block of the month projects caught up (still one to go).   This particular one is the Scrap Tamers’ Mystery, of which I was two months behind…

(Embarrassed smiley face should go here)

I left the retreat early because I was at a good breaking spot and I was worn out.  Drove Michelle home, and napped on the couch while Chris watched a show.  I needed a nap before doing anything else for the evening; I'm just so run down lately.  I've got the Kathleen Turner raspy deep voice going on too.  Hopefully this will pass soon.

I’d hate to think that I’m getting old…. 

Scrap Tamers’ Mystery

Clue #1 - Cutting

That was done except for the accent fabric.  All my lights and darks for the project are blues.  I had a beige/blue/purple patterned fabric set aside for the accent fabric, but had not cut it yet.  However, when I dug out the pieces today, I had second thoughts about the accent fabric.  It is what you would consider a medium sized print.  My directions today called for 1 ½ inch wide pieces of it. 

Seriously?

That would totally lose the pattern in the fabric.

So, I dug into a bag. 

I had only brought projects; not yardage.  However, one of the projects had a bunch of fabrics from my “medium” stash section in it.  That project was/is a Lemoyne star quilt in which I gathered up a bunch of reds (stars) and beiges (backgrounds) from the ½ - 1 yard pieces in my stash.  The Mystery calls for 5/8 yard of accent fabric.  I pulled out a couple pieces of the red, and one was about a yard, was a burgundy with a lined pattern in it.  It reads mostly as a solid, and the color is a bit muted.  I held it up to the blue pieces and it looks good.

Clue #2 – Four Patches

Long story short: 72 – 2 ½ square four patches

Yes…. 72

SMALL four patches…

Very small….

The method for making them was to piece strip sets, cross cut them into 144 - 1 ½ inch wide strips and then piece into the four patches.  Each four patch has one cross cut from an accent/light strip set and one cross cut from an accent/dark strip set.

I considered it a win that at the end, I had equal numbers of cross cuts (i.e. I didn’t accidentally match two darks or two lights together and create and uneven amount at the end)

However, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t screw up an even number of times and it just LOOKS like it ended up correct

Just saying……

Clue #3 – Strip Sets and Cross cutting

This step also resulted in 144 small cross cuts…..  However, the clue didn’t give any further construction instructions.  Since the cross cuts are wider than the four patches, I’m thinking that I’m going to be adding to them, and then putting these pieces on the sides….

We’ll see

Eventually…

Other Projects

I’m actively working on two quilts right now.  However, both are gifts and both are going to people who read my blog.. so….

“zip”

Avatar

No, not the movie….  

The word existed long before that travesty of a Pocahontas retelling that billed itself as good science fiction.

av·a·tar  

/ˈavəˌtär/

Noun A manifestation of a deity in bodily form on earth. An incarnation, embodiment, or manifestation of a person or idea: "he set himself up as a new avatar of Arab radicalism".

I told Brandie that all I wanted for my birthday was an avatar of me.  I gave her a couple ideas and she went with it.

Criteria:  long hair and a Steam Punk twist

First:  Here’s a costume that I’m working on for Steam Punk role playing.  This is the basic dress; I have boots for it, need some jewelry and other accessories, and a bustier or corset under it as the dress is a little big and the genre calls for a bustier look.

Second:  Here is what Brandie came up with!

She knows me so well!  An avatar is supposed to capture the essence of the person.  Let me point out a couple things:

• Midriff:  While I don’t often expose my belly like this, my midsection is something that I’ve worked hard on and am proud of
• Boots:  I love boots.  That’s all I wear in winter – nice fashion boots.  I also always wear heels
• Those are NOT sunglasses on my head… They are goggles – tribute to Steam Punk.  They are also purple!  My favorite color.