Who Doesn't Love a Quilt

Ever since I was little, I've loved quilts. My grandmother used to make them, and I have fond memories of lying in bed with five or six of them piled on top of me -- so many that my feet were flattened out by the weight (it was cold in my room). I still have quite a few of those quilts, and I treasure them all.

I started making beadwoven patchwork cuffs as an homage to those quilts. The first one was a multicolor one, similar to the scrap quilts from long ago that used the good parts of worn out clothing, flour sacks, and whatever colorful fabrics happened to be available.

Last week I decided I wanted to make a "themed" patchwork bracelet, so I came up with the idea to do one in spring colors -- pinks and greens. I think that's just because it seems to be taking a long time for spring to get here this year. Am I a little too impatient?

Seeing that one, and still having some of the pink beads lying on my beading board, I decided to I needed to make another one! This time I chose shades of red and added some more shades of pink. I really love all the different finishes and colors in this piece. Each one of these little patchwork bracelets uses 20+ different beads. They just don't seem "right" if they don't have lots and lots of colors.


As much as I like creating designs for my peyote bracelets and cuffs, sometimes it's just fun to blend some colors together and see what happens. That's what I wound up doing for this cuff. The idea for this one came when I found this button in my stash. Silver and purple look so great together (I'm a big fan of purple, even though my all-time favorite color combination is black and white), so I used silver-lined Delicas in a beautiful plum color and a pale silvery gray color and just mixed them together. And I still like this button. :-)



Today's project? Another twisted ndebele rope, this time using some really wild colors. It might be finished tomorrow...

While I'm working on that I'm gazing at a couple of beautiful clay cabochons I received from Lisa Peters (LisaPetersArt). I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do with them yet. They're both spectacular, and I need to make sure I create something worthy of them. Whatever I make will go back to Lisa so she can display it at the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee at the end of May. I guess that means I have a deadline. Ack!

Oh well. It's just another opportunity to play with my beads. :-)