BJP 2013 January ~ On the way

I have been beading away and then unpicking. Sometimes because I would like it neater and sometimes because the leaf or flower ends up too high or low but I'm getting there.

I bought  different sized beads thinking I would find the little 15's fiddly and want some bigger ones to cover the ground but the little ones are my favourites at the moment. They line up so neatly whereas the cubes twist and turn. Funny, generally I'm not a perfectionist with knitting and crochet, rather than undo mistakes, I leave them in to make it unique and the house is certainly not neat and tidy most of the time.
Already thinking about February. There are snowdrops peeping up in the snow.
:)

BJP 2013 January ~ Getting started

I have made my felt.

I have bought some yellow beads and a few more green beads.

I have cut out my felt leaf and edged it with beads straight away so it doesn't fall apart.

My January leaf is to be inspired by the winter jasmine in the garden. It is a welcome splash of colour on the grey days and an even brighter yellow on any blue sky day we are lucky enough to have.

I thought barnacle stitch might be good for the flowers so had a little play and have decided on making double stacks.

It's lovely to make a start and see what everyone else is doing. :)

Thank you

Joining the Bead Journal Project for 2013 gave me the impetus to start a blog of my own at the end of 2012 so a big thank you to Robin and all the participants of the BJP 2012. Today I have started by own blogroll and there have been three other blogs apart from the beading blogs that I looked at regularly during 2012 and inspired me with my felting, crochet and beading so I wanted to say thank you and share a few of the makes they inspired.

Fiona at MarmaladeRose makes stunning wet felted pictures enhanced by lots of machine stitches and hand embroidery. I occasionally have added a few beads but have been unsure about adding stitches so most have remained simply as a felt picture as with the snowdrops below. Thank you Fiona and perhaps in 2013 I will be a bit more adventurous with the stitching.

Lucy at Attic24 crochets brilliantly coloured blankets, cushions and has great tutorials for all sorts of beautiful hooky creations. Over the last year I have been learning to spin with a drop spindle and made a knitted cushion and was inspired by Lucy's flower tutorial to crochet a flower to decorate the cushion and added a beaded rosette as the centre.

I am now following her bag tutorial to use the wool I spin on my new Lendrum spinning wheel. Lots of texture as I am just learning but I love being able to use what I spin no matter how many bumps and lumps there are.

I also loved following Lucy's hexagon pattern to make a circular cushion. I just need a few tiny squares to fill in gaps on the side. Thank you Lucy.

Jessica at Such Pretty Things  for providing a bit of sparkle and making me think about the palette of colours I use when being creative and the photographs I want to take. I love seeing the photo journals of her trips antiquing / vintiquing in Paris, London and America. It brings back happy memories of visiting thrift shops when we lived in Fairport, Rochester, NY for a couple of years.

Thank you to you all and best wishes to everyone for 2013.