Arizona Turquoise

I spent a half hour stringing this....

Love it!

Arizona Beads

Just got back from a week away in Phoenix, Arizona, and was captivated by the turquoise beaded necklaces. I love the multi-stranded ones, and after a few times seeing them, checked out the prices. Shock was the result, when I found them to be $200 for ONE strand. I thought turquoise was common stone, especially in Arizona. Luckily it is common in the craft shops and I snagged all these beads of real turquoise for a grand total of $21.

I will follow with a photo of the lovely finished necklace in a day to two.... :)

Quilt Squares

I have been working on some quilt squares, using a method called shuffle the deck. The book explains a simple technique where you have 8 squares, and using the rotary cutter, cut irregular lines and shuffle the top colour down one or two layers to mix the patterns. The squares are layered dark then light then dark then light.... so the patterns show contrasting tones.

I am enjoying the squares and the one of a kind results. Each square is 7 inches, and the colours I chose are tan, black and burgundy.

There is a photo of the basic cutting and assembly technique for the squares.

It seams a huge project if you look to do it all at once, but I have been able to sit down to the sewing machine for an hour or two and churn out a few blocks, then work on some other sewing project. Eventually I will get enough done to have to consider assembling and finishing the quiting part.

Knit Dress and Jacket

Burda 7580, turned out great in this abstract print. I used a stretch decorative topstitch to finish the necklines and hems quickly and still allowing stretching if needed. The facing for the jacket was lined with fusible interfacing, then the seam trimmed really close and ironed to back before the topstitching.

A very easy pattern, I will use it again. The two pieces took about 2 hours to complete. Nice.

Coat Finished!

The hems and the buttons are now done, and the photos show the nice results...

Now I just have to wait for the weather to get a bit colder (no rush - really!). The big shawl collar is a bit wide and open, but a great scarf will work well, and of course I have LOTS of those!