fast felted fun and bright colours!

I just recently went to the Fiber Festival nearby, and had to step out in style while I was there.  This easy and fast Bracelet was just the thing!  I used Needle felted beads; glass, matte finish, black beads; Fireline, and a magnetic clasp.

quilted inchie pendant

Here is the finished piece on my computer desk, being admired by a small desk gnome my youngest daughter made for me. The pendant is 1 1/16 inches x 1 3/8 inches. The fabric square (minus embroidery stitches) is one square inch.

Recently I discovered A.T.C.'s, and along the way came across a reference to "inchies," on the blog "Small World of Inchies and Twinchies." This is a fun blog with open challenges on a regular basis. I had to learn more, and came across an article about art quilt inchies.

Art and quilting and inchies? All at once? I had to try it! And it is fun!

front view, close up

This piece came together so quickly and was spontaneous every step of the way. And colour! I got to work with some of my favorite colours.

Back view, close up

I started with a one inch square piece of fabric for the top and for the bottom, as well as a piece of batting, some scraps of fabric, thread, and a glue stick.

The wire frame was a piece I had made ages ago, then decided it didn't work for what I had in mind. I had set it aside on my work table where it had languished. Suddenly, I knew the frame was the perfect thing for my first inchie. I added the embroidery at the bottom in yellow to give the piece a better fit, and button holed the piece to the wire.

I dug through my stash and came up with this nice coppery chain and a clasp to finish the piece up.

I hope others give this a try.

Just an aside - a great reference for getting started in A.T.C.'s is "Art in your Pocket"

Gypsy Jingles

I love "OOOh Shiny!"

The only thing I love more is when the shiny jingles!

This charm bracelet was quick and easy. A handful of jingles, some jump rings, and a purchased charm bracelet is all you need to recreate this look. Make sure you have a couple of pair of either chain nose pliers or needle nose pliers for opening and closing your jump rings.

In thirty minutes or so, you will be ready to flash and shine!

NOTE:

The key to success with this project is to not rush, and just make sure you take your time. Otherwise you will end up with one jingle hanging all by it's lonesome on the wrong side of the bracelet.

simple and sweet for spring.

This simple little cuff came about as an experiment: I wanted to try an alternative to the purchased cuff blanks normally used to make this type of bracelet.

The purchased blanks are great, but they are one size fits all. They are also a bit wider than I prefer. And even more importantly - now that I live in the wilderness, it's pretty hard to find the cuff blanks, unless I special order them.

I love to poke about in the hardware section, and came across some metal "ribbon" used by plumbers to hang pipes. It is perforated with holes and about one inch in width. It's pretty heavy duty, and has to be cut with extra-heavy tin snips or metal shears.

I cut two pieces the same size. I bent one to fit my wrist, then bent the other one to nestle just inside the original one. I wanted two pieces for extra weight and reinforcement. Then I covered the metal with a piece of heavy pellon. I used a needle and thread to secure the pellon in place.

From that point on, I was making a cuff as usual. I went for something quick and easy and bright. The butterflies are each made from four pressed glass "crystals" and delicas, (size 11). They were stitched on using size D nymo. The printed fabric was a scrap from my daughter's latest skirt, and the inside lined with white handkerchief linen.

If anyone is interested in a more detailed tutorial on how I made the cuff blank, please let me know.

Charm Necklace ( cooking something new with old "left overs!" )

Here's a charm necklace I have been wanting to work up and finally took the time to sit down and do. I've been seeing similiar things in the stores lately and knew I could do one more to my color preferences.

It's a great quicky project. This took me a couple of hours (including deciding what beads I wanted to use!) total.

Materials - you need some chain, wire working tools, a clasp, various beads (I ended up using left overs from the jasper dreams necklace), beadalon (12#), jump rings, wire (I used 20 an 24), crimps (#0) and crimpers, Metal connectors by Blue Moon (square and round)

I started by putting the clasp on in the middle of my chain -- this let me attach the magnet clasp to a metal pair of pliears to "display it" while I worked.

Then I began creating the dangles and charms, using wire, jump rings, metal conectors, and extra chain (again left over from another project). I used jasper, mother of pearl, metal links, a metal charm, and moonstone.

I really like this combination and use it pretty often. Doesn't hurt that I'm a June baby, and Moonstone and Pearls are my birth stones!

When the dangles were dangly enough, I then went back to the necklace part and cut an opening into the chain where I wanted the strung portion to go. I strung on Beadalon several pieces of jasper, mother of pearl and pearls. I used #0 crimps with the light weight beadalon (12 lb) to attach the strung portion to the chain on each end.

Just to be asymetrical, I included an extra metal connector near the top.

I may go back and make a small dangle to go on the back, but for now, I happy with this quick and easy project.