Where's Cindy?

OK, I have returned from my 2 1/2 weeks travels but I'm getting ready to leave for Shanghai in a couple of days. Took me forever to get sorted out after being away for 2 1/2 weeks.

This weekend is the Fine Art of Fiber at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I have two quilts: Framed and Hong Kong Rain. I also have 2 of my bead journal projects (June & July) (Sorry, I'm not sure how to do the links to this blog but if you look down on the page you will see them. I will try to figure that out later).

I am also a part of Women's Journeys in Fiber which will be exhibiting their Purse-n-alities project. You can find me walking the halls of the Purse-n-alities exhibit on Friday from 4pm-5pm. If you happen to stop by, introduce yourself. Contrary to my name, I'm actually have dirty blonde hair and green eyes gal! My voice is even harder to miss with it's Aussie accent.

It is a wonderful show. If you are in the area, please stop by.

I have been doing some fiber related work. I'll try & get something posted before I leave otherwise it will have to be after I return. Only going for a week this time.

Hong Kong

OK, lets see ifthis works. I am now sitting in Hong Kong in my husband's flat, working from my Palm! I have never done a blog entry this way.

I arrived in HK safely after a non-eventful flight. Ate in my favourite noodle place for dinner before heading home via the world's longest escalator. It is 5am in the morning at the moment and already about 85 deg.

I worked on my Silver Belle jacket. I am loving this pattern. Takes about an hour to do a round on the peplem as there are 428 stitches but it is getting there! I'll have to see if I can find a way to post pictures.

Time

OK, where is the time going! It just flies by too quickly.

I have been doing lots of beading & knitting, just haven't pulled the camera out to take photos.

I leave for Hong Kong, Amsterdam & London this coming Friday & will not have computer access this trip. Hopefully when I return I will have lots to post.

Bead Journal - September Finished!

September is finished! Unfortunately the camera does not really do justice to the colour of the beads. I love the colours and the flow of this piece. It really makes me feel like I've made something beautiful out of the chaos that is September!

I was going to put a boarder around this piece like I did for June & July but I really thought that would take away from the colours. Considering I feel the same way about my August piece (which I'm still working on) I have decided that they do not all need to have borders around them.

I'm also starting to think of other ways that I could possibly display these pieces. They are heavy so they do need some sort of support but how I'm going to do that, I'm not sure. I had been thinking about framing them but I'm thinking, although they are all a similar size, they don't all look similar & putting them all in the same frame, might cause them to detract from one another. I'll have to give some serious thought as to how to display them.

Silver Belle

I have started a new knitting project. It is one of the Vogue Knitting Silver Anniversary patterns called Silver Belle. I could not find enough of the Debbie Bliss yarn in a colour I liked so I'm using Louisa Harding instead. I have joined a knitalong group that will hopefully not only be helpful to me but somewhere where I can help others learn from the mistakes I know I'm going to make :) I decided to start on the sleeve to get myself going. For the sleeve I only have to cast on 66 stitches. For the starting place where the pattern suggests, I have to cast on 428 stitches. I thought I would slowly work into this project :)

I have never knitted something with so many cables. I tend to knit simplier patterns using some of the fantastic yarns with lots of colours that you can get these days. So this will be a nice challenge. I have a lot of flying coming up in the next few weeks & I thought this would be a nice project to work on. Lots of uninterupted time!

September Bead Journal - Continued

I am nearly done! I am still amazed that once I start, the ideas & thoughts just keep flowing. I LOVE bead embroidery. The colours in this photo are not quite what the colours actually are but I'm loving it. September really is a chaotic month. Next month is shaping up to be just as chaotic but should be fun. I'm off to Hong Kong, Amsterdam & London. I return for 1 1/2 weeks & then I'm taking my in-laws to Shanghai. Lots of travel. Lots of time to bead on planes :)

I think I'm going to put my 12 pieces into a frame. On June & July I have bordered the picture with twisted bugle beads. I'm planning on doing the same for this, just not quite sure what colour I will do.

I have not finished my August piece yet as it has a lot of black in it & I can only work on black when the lighting is really good. I was getting a little frustrated so I decided to move on for a bit.

Bead Journal - September Started

I have put aside my August piece for the moment & have started on September. My fabric choice is based on the fact that September is always a crazy month with everyone heading back to school. So many things to get organized & straightened out. This piece of fabric looked the way I feel this month, a bit caotic but trying to make sense of things.

Framed

I finally managed to take a photo of my latest quilt. I designed this last year while I was traveling in Florida with my husband. He had an urgent work thing he had to do so I sat there while he worked, drawing. This is what I came up with. I like this idea so I think I will work with it & make a few more.

I used hand dyed fabric I had done during my very first attempt at dyeing. The fabrics were done in a gradation from Sunshine Yellow to Chinese Red. I love the red colours that I get with Chinese Red.

Still Here!

I'm still here. I now have everyone back in school & have been working away, I just haven't pulled the camera out to take pictures. I have been knitting a pair of socks, working on a cardigan for an upcoming show, been working on my circles and my August Bead Journal Project (yes, I know, I'm behind!).

I've also been scanning all of my negatives into the computer. A big huge job but I have a spare computer that is set up to the scanner so I just have to go over to it every 20 mins or so & change out the negatives. A lot of the negatives from when I lived in Hong Kong were starting to go bad. As they were all pictures of my kids, I wanted to make sure I saved them. I love now being able to have everything digitially in my computer, it's just the process is a bit time consuming. But it will be worth it in the end!

Sampler

I have been working on a beading sampler while doing my other work. The idea is to do a sample of the different stitches that I'm using on my circles & monthly projects so that if I get stuck for an idea as to what to do, I have something to refer to. This is the same concept of what I did in Robin Atkins beading workshop except on a larger scale. So far this is what I have done:

and:

I have a backing of legal size acid free paper. When I get a little more done, I will post a full picture of the sheet. I love the colours of this piece of fabric as they are truly my colours :)

Circle 2

This circle represents my daughter & she knows it :) She even told me what colours I needed to add. My daughter loves dolphins which is why I chose the dolphin fabric. I also beaded part of this while I was in Hong Kong with her, using some sequences that I picked up in Sham Sui Po. I am not sure if I have finished it yet so I'm letting it mule in my mind. I wanted to try the barnacle beading so I was thrilled to have a piece of fabric where I could try that.

I'm still learning the process of bead embroidery. I am far from perfect with my stitching but I am improving. On the other hand, can perfection every be obtained? Maybe my misaligned stitches give the piece it's own charm. Who is really to say the way I have beaded it is right or wrong. To me it is all about the placement of the beads & every single thought of the person I was beading about that came to mind during the process. For my own self, I need to learn to be less critical of my work. As long as I love it, that's what counts!

Circle 5

This is my Circle Number 5. The numbers represent the person it refers to in my files. Again, I started with fabric that I thought would represent the person I wanted to bead about. Even the beads, Delicas, were used to show how this particular person likes to have everything lined up & in a row. I imagined them trying to straigten the lines of the fabric by beading straight lines.

Circle 3

Here is my second circle that I have completed. Same process, chose a fabric that looked to me like the person this circle represents. I then chose beads that remind me of that person.

Circle 1

(Note 10 Aug - I uploaded a clearer picture of this circle)

I am beading a number of different circles, each to represent someone I know, that will be placed on a robe as part of a group I'm involved in called Women's Journeys in Fiber. The meanings involved with these are extremely personal so I have to be careful about putting too much detail about why I did certain things on these piece so as not to give it away as to who the piece represents. As I am new to this process, I'm also wanting to try different things.

For each of the pieces that I am working on, I chose a piece of fabric that, to me, represented the person that I was going to bead about. I thought about who they are, what their likes & dislikes are, little things about them that I notice. I then started placing beads that I thought represented them. With every single bead I placed, I thought about the person that I was "beading" about.

I have already finished another one of these & I'm closing to finishing another 2. As soon as I get the pictures taken, I will get them posted.

July Beading

Here is my unofficial piece for July for the Bead Journal Project. I was in Hong Kong for 2 weeks during the month of July. While I was there I noticed that it looked much greener than it had in previous visits (I lived in Hong Kong from 1982-1992 & as my husband still works there, I make frequent trips back). Because I felt things were green, I chose a green fabric. On this last trip I was also able to see the mountains clearly on a couple of days. This is a rare occasion now because of the amount of pollution in Hong Kong.

I chose things that meant something to me. The frog stands for a friend of mine who is Hong Kong who loves frogs. The Pacific Coffee stopper with the red beads is my absolute favourite coffee & their stores are always boardered by red & black designs. The mask is from the Shu Bruial grounds exhibit that I saw. My daughter was also working at a place called Ocean Park as a volunteer. Her last couple of days were spent observing the brand new panda cubs, hence the pandas.

I am still learning how to work with bead embroidery so my pieces are not perfect but they are getting there. I have a couple of other pieces that I've already started.

June Beading

At the end of June, I took a workshop from Robin Atkins at Summer Seminar for the North Suburban NeedleArts Guild. She is running a Bead Journal Project on the web which started at the beginning of June. Unfortunately I was too late to sign up for the project so I am "unofficially" taking part in it. Here is my first project ever that I have done using beaded embroidery. I am hooked! I'm absolutely loving this process!

I took a fabric which I absolutely loved which happened to be a Chinese brocade with dragons on it. I started with the Chinese coin & worked from there. The number 8 is very important in the Chinese culture as it is supposed to bring luck. So, wherever possible, things were added or worked in multiples of 8.