Memory Box Finished!

I used two of this year's BJP pieces (one about my Mom, one about my Dad) to make a Memory Box that I can use to keep letters, pictures and rememberances of them safe and in one place.

You can see the box and how I made it here. Included in the post is a fabulous discovery, a tip that will help if you decided to stitch any of your finished pieces to something else!

Hope you like it!!!

Robin A.

Christy H Finishes First Year BJP + Finishing Tutorial!

Actually, Christy finished her pieces for the 2007-8 BJP quite a while ago and is now working on this year's BJP. Finally, I got around to photographing her last four pieces and put them on my blog, here. I know you'll enjoy seeing them!

Christy and I worked together to prepare her 12 pieces for framing. Thinking our process might be useful to others in the BJP, I wrote a tutorial about how to do it. It's the second half of the post (here.)

Great work, Christy!!!!! Thanks for allowing me to share it with the group!

Robin A.

How to make your pictures Click-To-Enlarge!

I just wrote a post telling how to make your pictures Click-to-enlarge... You can read it here.


Robin A.

Stuck? Don't Like Your BJP Page?

In the post just below, Theresa H. writes that suddenly she doesn't like her background fabric at all. She's stuck.... in a pickle... In the comments she adds that her piece feels like it is an island of misfit toys.

This happens to me too. I'm pretty darn sure it happens to most of us. What is going on? Here's what I suggested to Theresa and what I would do myself in this situation:

Theresa... pay attention to what is happening here! The island of misfit toys has some special meaning or heart's message for you. Your fabric and beading are trying to tell you something important.

I suggest this: take a few moments to study your beading, fabric and beads. Quickly write a list of all the words and/or phrases that come into your mind as you observe your beading-in-progress and work space. Try not to censor your list. Then, on a different sheet of paper, write this:

"I am an island of misfit toys."

That is the first line of a poem... about YOU! Using some or all of the words/phrases on your list, complete the poem about yourself. The poem does not have to rhyme or be good in a literary sense because it's not about writing poetry.

This will help you to discover what is your heart's message in your beading. You might even want to write your poem on the back side of your work, or perhaps make a pocket for it right on your piece, so it will always be with your work.

When we feel critical of our work, it's time to stop and pay attention to it... listen and hear how it calls us into a genuine sense of what is most important to us. This poem thing really helps!

Happy new year and beady blessings,

Robin A.

Advice, please?

Hi everyone! I'm a bit behind and was working on my November piece. For the first time, I was putting beads I like on the piece and adding as I go. I'm learning a lot - the hard way :-) !! -- and I have a few questions.

1. when I put the line of bugle beads down, they were nice and flat. Now that I've added beads around them, some of them have started popping up. What has happened? How do I avoid that?





2. in the upper right corner, I used some donut oval-shaped beads. I put them on first and then beaded around them, which was tricky! Should I bead the background circles first and then add the donut beads on top?



3. for the background circles (under the oval donut shaped beads), I started from the inside and worked my way out in a spiral -- but in doing so, some of the inside beads popped up from the surface a bit. Should I have started at the outside and worked in - or were my beads not secured well enough?


Thanks for any advice and tips! Everyone's work looks so great!


MizDenise
Blog
Flickr

Mounting/Finishing BJP pieces

I happened across a link I wanted to share with some cool suggestions on mounting fiber collages that may change my BJP plans, as it has opened up some new possibilities and ideas for finishing my BJP pieces.

A call for entries has gone out for next year's Fiberarts For a Cause project - Collage Mania 2009. "All materials are acceptable, but collages must contain some fiber (paper, fabric, or other fibrous material). There are no restrictions on content or style. Art quilts are, of course, acceptable." All entries must measure or be finished to a size of 10x8", but they provide a FAQ on acceptable mounting options if your collage is not 10x8".

By the way, I did finish my first Sept piece, plus two more (all different shapes and sizes, however...). No pictures, posted yet, either. plus the FAQ I've linked to may change things altogether. So, I'm really not very far along in the making-a-final-choice-in-the-size-department. I'll keep you posted.

More Labels

This is a continuation of my previous post about Labels. I've added more possibilities. When you post, click on Show all at lower right of posting box, and choose appropriate label(s) from the list shown.

Please note... there are too many of us to label posts with our names. Instead, please sign every post with a link to your blog, website or email, as I have done below.

Thanks!
Robin A.