New project - New blog

I have been so inspired by Robin Atkins' blog and always read it faithfully. In early May she posted an opportunity to be involved in a beading project. When I finally overcame my negative self talk and signed up (on my anniversary May 12th), there were 40 people in the group. By the end of the month, there were over 240 participants! Robin set up a blog for this group and you can view the progress of the project here and read about the guidelines here.

Basically I agreed to make a beaded journal page each month. The purpose was "to open doors into the artist's own imagination and to develop self confidence". Sounds good to me!

Then there were all the decisions to wade through...what size, what techniques, what theme, etc. I have decided that because I am a quilter first and a beader second, that I would follow the same beginning every month by picking one of my hand painted fabrics and quilting it as a base/background. Then I would use either some scraps from a current project or a technique I enjoy or would like to learn, to create the design. I also wanted to try to use my bead stash instead of buying new beads, but already in the first month I have ignored that idea! What was I thinking?!?!

I decided to make a larger size than most participants because I want to be able to see the quilting and have space to do some hand stitching if desired. At this time I don't see myself wanting to do small bead encrusted pieces but rather use the beads for design and embellishment along with the stitching. So I opted for a page size background 8 1/2" x 11". That way I could put them into a binder for storage if I decide to do that.

So here is how I started. I pulled out my pile of fabric pieces that I have painted (using Setacolor fabric paints), and looked at each one. I selected pieces that would be not too distracting for a background and that said "June" to me. Then I layed them out on the table and sprinkled the scraps from a vase project I am currently working on to see how the colours would play together. Since I have already wasted half of the month thinking about all of these decisions, I only have 2 weeks left to "get 'r done"!! This weekend I hope to make great progress!