And I Was So Excited, I Forgot To Title This Post

Got a nice cool beverage and a comfy place to surf the net?  Then settle in for a fun blog hop - A Time To Stitch!   The challenge as set out by Christine and Therese, the fearless creators of the hop, was to make a piece in peyote or herringbone.

As I mentioned in my last post, life for the past two months has been at a crazed level of busy.  Like "turned up to 11" crazy.  What better time to take on one more thing, right?  But I'm a seedy gal (or "seed bead afficionado" so my mama doesn't faint if she reads this), so I couldn't resist.

Because I can't pass a challenge without adding more difficulty to it.  You know, like the Olympic triple flip dive off the high board doesn't really count unless you add a backward twist in pike position? Yep, that's me. So I made one peyote piece, one herringbone piece, and one that combines both.

Settle into that comfy place, grab the beverage, and enjoy!  (And you can click on each picture for a bigger version)

Here's the peyote bracelet - simple, but with a twist of texture.  Perfect to fiddle with when you're stuck in a boring meeting...

For the herringbone piece, I pulled out some beautiful lapis/malachite heishi that I'd been hoarding for years and years, just waiting for the right project -- this seemed like the right time to break 'em out.

I mean, seriously, LOOK at the gorgeous naturally
combined blues and greens in these babies!

And now for the extra credit, and because I entered the challenge hoping that I'd find a way to keep working up until the very last second, a piece that transitions from peyote to herringbone and back.  I'd never done this, never saw any instructions on it, but figured "how hard could it be?"  Let me tell you, it was kinda tricky, but it was fun to puzzle out.  The resulting woven portion doesn't have a lot of bend, so it didn't work out as the center of the necklace, but it makes for a great asymmetrical feature on a long necklace.

The order of the beads stayed the same from the Cellini spiral into the herringbone,
with the exception of the light blue size 8s, which caused the herringbone
to take on a life of its own and turn into a wildly fugly monster.
It was BAD.  So it was GONE.

A few rows of herringbone in one size (silver 15s) to transition between sections.

Thanks, Christine and Therese for giving me another reason to play with the tiny beads!  And go check out the other seedy folks who participated: 

Therese Frank and Christine Altmiller

Katherine Gale

Emma Andrews

Karin Slaton

Kim Bender

Lola Surwillo

Amy Severino

Bobbie Rafferty  (you are here!)

Sally Russick

Tanya Goodwin

Paula Kramer

Sarah

Karen Williams

Shannon Hicks

Andra Weber

Beth

DW

Marla Gibson

Lisa Stukel

Mandy Duffy

Cynthia Machata

Shirley Moore

Fresh Off the Beading Table

Slowly but surely, new pieces are finding their completed selves coming off the bead table.

This lovely sodalite chunk is not really a cabochon, but it also has no hole, so I couldn't fall back to the default mode and string it.  My wire wrapping skills (beyond the fairly basic) are relatively tragic, so that was out.  Ta da - it had to be in an embroidered piece.

I had these beautiful seed beads, which are palest sky blue lined with fresh spring green -- really a delicious combination, especially at this time of year.  The blue/green combo invited the inclusion of the malachite drop, which was another lovely purchase that had languished whle I figured out what the heck to do with it.  And who can argue with pearls (especially when they fill in the gap caused by the sodalite's irregular sides)?

See?  The pearls are kind of like a proper lady's petticoat, hiding what doesn't need to be seen underneath!  And this picture gives you a better look at the yummy lined seed beads.

I'd love to have a great name for this one, but my brain's on vacation.  Any thoughts?