A little tease...

I decided last night while working on the new dancing belt I was far enough along to give a teaser photo - partly for you all, partly for my friend Clara just to drive her crazy with anticipation.  I still have to finish with the trim, and get some sparklies on there.  I'm going to add some mirrors and sequins.  This way when she's dancing under the lights her belt will glimmer and catch the lights.

The best part of making these belts are all the sequins and the trims I get to use and experiment with.

I love trims.  It brings me immense joy when I get to go looking for them and the more sparkly, the better.  

These are the trims I'm using on this belt.

 I have done plenty of bead work to last me a life time, so finding it on a spool where it is super easy to sew down is the best!  I picked this up at Hobby Lobby when it was 1/2 off!  Double bonus!  I bought a few spools of it in colors I love.  (I feel sure THIS one is going to pop up again somewhere along the way - no plans for it yet, though.)

This is some really long eyelash yarn I bought when I was trying to find all the right yarns for my Phoenix quilt (Up From).  I didn't end up using it on that project because it was too long. Instead, I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for just the right thing to come along to use it on.  

I LOVE eyelash yarn and I love it when making birds.  It is easy to couch down and it really makes them look like they have feathers.  I buy it whenever it is on sale in colors I don't already have because I know somewhere along the way I will end up using it.  

I might make trim like I did on this belt 

or I might couch it down like in these...

No matter what I do, I have fun in the process!

Stay tuned... I'm almost done with it!

a new trick

So, I'm definitely on the mend. Went to work yesterday. It wore me out, but I survived. Going to be getting back to our regular schedule a little more next week, but all in all I'm doing GREAT!!! FINALLY!!! I've been waiting to share this with you for a few weeks now because I did right before the surgery and I haven't wanted to disrupt my status reports since I know family checks in here to find out how we are doing. It's really not THAT exciting unless you are me of course...

Anyhow, before I went into the hospital my mom bought a lot of undyed yarn just waiting to have color splashed on it. This is something I have been wanting to learn to do for quite some time, but I'm chicken and I've waited until I wasn't and had the confidence to accept that it might not work out well for me. Some people are good at things others aren't and I hate when I am not good at something I really want to be. So, I waited until I knew I could be ok if I failed and wouldn't beat myself up. I did it! Thanks to the help of my friend, Anita, who pointed me in the right direction, I dyed my own yarn! I call myself having read up on it, but when the time came, I had no idea what to do. Thankfully, Anita, is not only an amazing quilter and fabric dyer, but she also dabbles in yarn and wool rovings, and she sent me an e-mail while on a vending trip to tell me what to do. What a great lady! The kids and I mixed up my freshly bought acid dyes (these are not environmentally friendly, but for the sake of art, I can live with it for now - of course I've already started reading and thinking about how to do it naturally) and we did it. We made this yarn...

I turned out awesome! I haven't fully decided what I'm going to make with it yet, but I'm excited about it!

Then, the next day we decided to shoot for two more... Here they are in the pot soaking up dye...




And here they are all dry and wound and ready to do something with. I've started fingerless gloves out of the last one for India. The other two I haven't fully decided what I'm going to do with them...