Sunday, March 4, 2012

Snowballs and Snowfalls

Clever title, eh?  Sheesh - I sure get amused by the little things, don’t I?  hehehe

The snowfall the title refers to is the storm we had on Thursday-Friday which dumped more snow than we have had the whole winter so far.  But that’s OK; we need it.  And it is half gone now anyway, and the next several days will be relatively warm and clear. Shirt sleeve weather by mid-week.  Yesssss!

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I finished my Snowball (a friendship circle; rather like an ATC, only we chose round shapes) for Connie.  She finished hers for me last week, and when it arrives, I will show it to you; it is gorgeous!  In the meantime, Connie requested gold, cream, bronze and copper.  That, to me, says metallic and sparkly.

At first I thought I would just do seams and one large flower, and sort of echo what Manya did for Colleen, which you can see here.  But then I found a piece of antique lace with a circle of little tiny flowers around a sort of…. well, it looked to me like a web. Ding! Spiders are traditional on CQ’s (they represent good luck), so Connie, I hope you don’t mind a friendly little arachnid.  :-)


I outlined the flowers in copper metallic thread, then found the tiniest copper beads in my stash. My eyesight is not the best, so I had never used them.  But they were perfect for the leaves, so it was now or never. I donned my reading glasses and a magnifier, and voila!  I had to work an hour at a time on it because that’s all my eyes could do, but I did it!  And the beads and stitching are in the correct general area, LOL!!!  :-)


The spider is made from two vintage brass beads and more of the bronze metallic. Parts of the legs don’t show well against the lace, but they are all there.   I also made some small bead flowers from bronze beads.  And then I added some feather stitching in gold, plus chains in a white gold, yellow gold and copper.  (Ta da!  I believe that checks off TAST Week #8 as well).


It was fun, and I feel as though I stretched myself on this a bit. Working small forced me to focus more and use aids that I had been putting off (like magnifiers). And it taught me that I can be patient and even when the going is slow, I can persevere and finish.  It was very gratifying!

So, off it goes in Monday’s mail to Connie.  

Cathy maroon

10 comments:

  1. Hi Cathy,
    your snowball is very beautiful. I love the stitchery on it. Great work!
    Hugs,
    Susanne

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  2. Beautiful stitching and composition!

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  3. Gorgeous! That little spider is lovely.

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  4. It's gorgeous! Very nice work, and I'm sure Connie will Love it!

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  5. Beautiful!
    I allways admire embellished lace like that.

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  6. Hi Cathy, your snowball is just beautiful! The colors are just wonderful and of course your stitching is awesome as usual.
    Big hugs sent your way,
    Wendy

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  7. Rest easy eyes because you did a beautiful beautiful job of stitching those copper beads! I love these snowballs as you guys call them. I think I like these round shapes so much better than the heart or square. And the copper with your fabrics was just great. It flurried here today but we've had the third least amount of snow in any winter ever....Jack is so bummed. He really wanted at least ONE snow day. Love to you and to your eyes, Susan

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  8. Cathy, You really know what I like! Vintage lace is one of my great loves and although I'm not too fond of the live spiders, I love the stitched ones! Thanks so much for putting your all into my snowball. I love it!

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  9. Great job on that snowball. I think the rounds are a nice change from all the hearts over the years.

    I know connie will love it.

    Hugs

    FredaB

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  10. I know I'm not the Connie it is going to, but if I were I would be jumping up and down in joy. This is beautiful!
    Just another Connie...

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