I have fallen so far behind with this blog! One reason is because I have been spending nearly every beading moment working on the entry for the Fire Mountain contest. I wish I could tell you a blow by blow account of how the project is going, but there are moments when I think it is best to keep the project under wraps. And then there is the need to record the account of the job and the idea that no one is really reading this!

All the previous week I worked on getting the tree shaped. Thank goodness each section is separate since I stack them up, make new sections, restack them and was still unhappy with the shape. I spent most of the week making a form (think of a hooped skirt) to hold out the lower branches. I got it all done and discovered the weight of the beads collapsed it. Finally I took out about 1/2 of the sections and the shape began to resemble what I had in my mind. Imagine my distress to find out over 1/2 the sections (very boring beading) were not needed. I am thinking that maybe I have enough for a second tree! Werner looked at the results on my desk and shook his head and said it was not very interesting.
However, once the shape pleased me I was eager to begin sewing on the decorations. This went well until I discovered I did not have enough crystals or the bead caps, so I shot an order off to Fire Mountain.
While I wait, I got the idea that what the whole thing needs, to be realistic, is a rug under it. I tried using one of the panels that I had made a couple of years ago but it was too green and blue. In my mind's eye I wanted it to have warm rose and lavender shades.

When I made up the bead order I looked for pleasing colors but either my eyes were tired or the colors were all wrong. Also it seemed to me that Fire Mountain had so many more Delica colors than Dynamic and I really did not want to do a 9 x 9 rug in such small beads. Not finding what I wanted I did what I should have done first - check my bead supply.
A couple of years ago I had fallen in love with the iris metallic raspberry Delicas but had neglected to save the packaging. I would add to each order what I thought was that bead. I ended up with about six different, but very close colors to the one I liked. They were perfect for the rug,so I started that yesterday now I have about one inch of that done.
While doing such boring parts, my mind delights in figuring out little toys I can bead. Last night I made the blanket for the dolly in the cradle (it looks so much better) and started on the drum. My eyes got too tired to continue doing dark blue beads with the peyote stitch, so I am eager to get back to beading to see how that comes out today. And there is the rug to work on when I just need calm repetitious beading.