Not much to show for time spent

since my surgery is next week, I've seen sorting out "stuff" between the two studios, and making sure everything in the basement is in the right space.  Before the last surgery,I took photos of all the storage areas, so that I could show DH exactly where to look for something I needed.  It worked well, and we want to be able to do the same thing, this time.

I am in the process of working on one of the LWI dyed pieces I spoke of last time.  I placed a vinyl sheet over the fabric and then designed some quilting on the vinyl, using a water erasable pen.  This worked even better than I had thought it would, until I discovered that I couldn't lean on any portion of writing, as my sweat would erase it.  Then I transferred the design to the fabric itself, using a light box.  That worked quite nicely.  I have had to mail order special threads to use in this project, and now realize that backing fabric will have to be carefully chosen as well, since I hope to work on cleaning up the backs of my pieces.  As I usually use a false back to cover the hand stitching I do, and beading, this has never been a concern, but maybe it's time.

I want to bead these pieces I'm making, and a friend had recommended a fairly new bead store in town.  There are a couple of quite good stores locally, but they cater to jewelry makers, and neither has a decent stock of seed beads.  This store caters more to Aboriginal beaders, and had a whole room devoted to seed beads in a variety of sizes, including, Delicas.. What's more the prices were more than reasonable.  There had been a wonderful store, in town, that, unfortunately, appeared to be a well kept secret. She had wonderful beads, and would spend time helping a fibre artist find exactly the right bead. However she closed just over a year ago.  I have really missed her, but maybe this new store will fill the void.