BJP 2014 March and April ~Ta dah

Beach huts for my boys. There always seems to be a song, a poem or a phrase that whirls around my head unbidden and as soon as I thought about my son's beach huts two things sprang to mind. The song  'You are my sunshine' and the rhyme 'Star light, star bright'. The song title has been used as a scrapbook page title, sung out loud to my sons and quietly to myself, chuckled over when I realised that Marge Simpson sings it to Bart ( my younger son was an avid watcher of the Simpsons) and just sums up how I feel about them. They make me smile and it is always a joy to see them whether on Skype or in person. I wonder how much they remember of the made up stories, bedtime books, short poems and nursery rhymes that were part of bedtime. The poem is the last in a very dog-eared, stuck with tape nursery rhyme book that I used to read to them and haven't the heart to throw out. At bedtime it was said before the curtains were drawn and now I still find myself saying it when I look out the kitchen window before bed.

Star light, star bright,

First star I see tonight,

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have the wish I wish tonight.

 

My eldest has been the other side of the world for two years and my youngest lives the other side of the country but we are all under the same sun and stars which is a thought that pleases me.

 

 

My eldest has a colourful sun for his sunny nature, snowy mountains of Queenstown, New Zealand as it was here he started off snowboarding, a 'Peace/ Love' camper van as he is now travelling around and a moustache flag. I wasn't sure what to do for his flag but when his brother suggested a moustache it seemed just right, quirky, fun and very much part of him.

My youngest has a Van Gogh 'Starry Night' sky for his creative side, with chemical constellations as he is a Chemist, a Durham Cathedral skyline inspired by one of his photos and a Liverpool Football Club flag which stands for his sporty side playing football, climbing and tennis.

Both have always supported Liverpool and enjoyed going to music festivals and concerts so a Liver Bird festival flag stands between their huts which I shall finish when doing the background.  

Their huts reflect where they are at the moment.

 

My family of beach huts so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 



BJP 2014 February Ta-dah

My second beach hut is for my husband. I am lucky. I know I am loved every day. There had to be hearts somewhere and the roof seemed the right place. When sad things happen such as illness and loss he has always been there with a hug giving shelter from the storm. Some elements were deliberately placed whist others bits just happened. He is a gardener and birdwatcher so naturally a flower and a bird were needed. I was so unsure how to create a bird but a leaf bead made the perfect wing and so a  gull ended sitting at the top.

 We are parents and our two boys are in there twenties now but when they were younger we went on holiday to Suffolk and we bought giant rubber rings from the beach huts in Southwold which were great fun so a beaded rubber ring leans against the door. These are all placed on a background of stripes. There were always going to be stripes I never thought of anything else. We are fundamentally different I tend to be messy and struggle to be organised whereas he is amazingly organised and tidy so the beaded stripes are all in a row as neat as I could make them.

 That just leaves that funny bit under the roof. I wasn't sure why I chose black beads to begin with. To me they signify sadness  and we are happy, we have fun, we laugh and we are good together. So what does it represent? He sees pitfalls and problems which is sometimes a positive when planning projects but he worries about the what ifs and uncertainties, often things that don't occur to me, so that black cloud that appeared is the part of him that will always make him worry about this and that. I am an optimist, he is a pessimist, I am messy, he is tidy but over the years we have rubbed off on each other and I couldn't be happier that he is by my side, almost forty years on since our first kiss when I was fifteen. So here are our beach huts side by side.

BJP 2014 January Ta-dah

Happy New Year to Everyone.
Should I bead butterflies or beach huts? I decided that if the butterflies were going to be as they are in nature there would not be many surprises as to how they were going to look so beach huts seemed an more interesting option.

I am going to bead a beach hut for each of my family and friends. January is for me and I am very surprised by how it turned out. I decided to bead and leave the thinking about what different elements might mean till the end. My first reaction was ~ what on earth is going on! You see if you had asked me to draw a beach hut it would have been very traditional probably with blue and white stripes.

 

Now as you can see no blue and white stripes in sight.

I knew I wanted bunting and the heart shaped beads were the first choice I made. The square stitch needle woven flag was the last.
I am kind of intrigued by the colour choices and by the different patterns I have ended up with. Some areas are quite neat and precise especially around the edges whilst at the centre is a very random blue door and I love my red windows. On reflection I can see it reflecting my personality. As much as I like a bit of order in my life and things to be fairly neat and tidy I am probably the happiest at home sitting in a creative jumble making something or on the spur of the moment taking off to do something unexpected on a blue sky, sunshine day. And those red windows are the colour of my birthstone garnet and how I feel about my home. Having started the year being ill there was no other place I would have been so cosy, warm and well looked after by my loved ones.

BJP 2013 ~ December Ta-dah

When I joined the BJP for 2013 I really had no idea whether I could successfully start a blog or what I would create over the year. My initial sketch appeared on my new blog on the 16th December 2012 after a few practice posts and I waited patiently for January to start. Each month a new leaf was beaded and a blog post written and always someone wrote a comment. It was lovely to know someone somewhere was looking so a big thank you to those who left me a comment and encouraged me along the way.

December's leaf is based on the Christmas Rose otherwise known as Lenten Rose or Hellebore. Ours don't come into flower until about February so I have a little while to wait to see them in the garden.

Most of my leaves develop as they go but this time I knew I wanted to make a brick stitch rosette to represent a Christmas bauble. So I picked out all my christmassy coloured beads and round and round I went.

It is the first time I have used the cube beads in a rosette and I really like the effect. What do you think?
Finally the whole leaf.

 

Bits and bobs had been collected for displaying the leaves together so I started by making labels on woven ribbon with back stitch. I then made a cross stitch title, sewed on ribbon for the stem and as a border and beaded a couple of felt hearts for decoration before finally sewing all twelve leaves in place.

 A few tacking stitches still need to be removed but here they are altogether just in time.

 

 

One of the things I like best is that friends and family that visit all have their favourite leaf and each leaf is the favourite of someone. Me, I just love the fact that over the year, step by step, I made twelve leaves and they are so colourful and each leaf looks better because of the others round it.

On to the next challenge of trying to write a post and put photos onto Facebook. I have a few ideas for 2014. I really liked beading the Red Admiral for the August leaf and would like to do more and perhaps a felt picture with beaded beach huts would be good. We shall see what the New Year brings. Wishing you all health and happiness in the New Year :)

BJP 2013 ~ November Ta-dah

I love the look of  hydrangea flowers as autumn fades into winter. The beautiful shades of blues and pinks turn to the colour of vintage linens and lace. Earlier in the year my Mum moved from her home of 50 years and I unpacked boxes that had been hidden under beds and in cupboards. In one of the boxes were pieces of lace saved by my grandmother and her sisters for one day. I sorted through boxes of beads and broken jewellery also saved for one day. So although I never knew my grandmother and her sisters I do have photos of them and I feel I have a connection with them as I see their handiwork and the pieces they saved and my Mum saved as too precious to throw away.

My grandmother, Muriel, is in the middle with her older sister, Gertrude, on the left and her younger sister, Letty, on the right.

Imagine my delight as I realised I had the perfect place for one piece of lace and some of the beads. One day had come for a piece of lace that was just the right size for my November felt leaf and I had beautiful antique cream lustre beads that could make a pretty border.

 

I didn't want to cover too much of the lace work and I wanted to develop the circular shape of the large hydrangea heads and have the smaller flowers that make up the larger heads. I added wooden beads to complete the circle of lace flowers and then added cream and pink individual flowers in another circle.

 

 

I added a few more flowers with larger beads in the middle.

 



I hope my grandmother and her sisters would like my finished leaf.

I can't resist showing one of the small boxes of beads I came across for 'good children' and some of the glass bottles I'm filling up as I sort the beads.

 

 

 

I have nearly finished my December leaf and I am collecting together everything I need to display all the leaves together so hope to finish before the New Year :)

BJP 2013 ~ October Ta-dah

It was a set of mugs given to me by friends for a birthday that inspired us to plant a Toad Lily in the garden. The flowers are small but so exquisite especially against the red leaves of Autumn.

They are so precise in the centre but goodness knows how I would create them in beads so I put it off and started with a red autumn leaf and a bud.

Next came the petals before finally trying to work out a way to bead the centre.
The flower in the middle has a tube which divides into three and around it six filaments and anthers so I made a tube of size 6 green beads with three clusters coming out of the top using size 15 beads and I used the same size beads to make striped filaments with a size 6 bead at the top. Not as pretty and exact as the flower but I quite like my quirky centres.

I wish I could have made the flowers more delicate or perhaps I should made the autumn leaf larger.

So this is my October leaf capturing a bit of autumn colour and the Toad Lily in beads.



BJP 2013 ~ September Ta-dah

Beading a Helenium for my September leaf caused me to inspect the flowers closer.

The way the centres develop is fascinating as they start with a brown dome across which waves of yellow pollen spread until a sphere is created. I love beading a bead and knew the same technique would work well as a centre. I just used a felt bead and covered it three quarters of the way.

I decided to needle felt some background flowers before adding bright red beads for the petals.

The final addition was a picot edging.

The branches are filling up and I've got some fabric for the background but apart from embroidering the stems I'm still not sure how to add the months and names of the flowers. Any ideas?

Perhaps a border or tags, printed or sown. Well I have a few months to play around :) Happy days.