Blog Party!!

Welcome to all of you who have decided to check out my blog during this wonderful idea called a blog party For those of you who don't know me my name is Shannon and I am 21 years old. I grew up in a small town in Canada where there wasn't much to do so I took up a lot of different hobbies. From sewing and quilting to bead and bead knitting, I have done almost everything in the crafting world. My main focus as of right now though is cross stitching and beading, however that can change at the drop of a needle!

Here are two of my latest projects:

Bead Embroidery with Lace Agate and Swarovski Crystals

Bead Weaving with seed beads and glass pearls

The bead woven pendant is for a friend who is getting married in March. This is just one prototype for her to pick from, I have to say it is my favorite though!

I had a bunch of things planned for this post for the blog party but due to some unforeseen circumstances, it has been nearly impossible to post even this post. I am so sorry to those who have visited my blog for the party.

Here are two of my free cross stitch patterns I have designed:

Click on both to enlarge them then right click to save :)

Thank you for checking out my blog. I try to create a new post once a week if time allows, and I promise better photos! It has been snowing like crazy here and the sun won't peek out for a bit for nice photos. Make sure to check back later for an all new free cross stitch pattern :)

Experimenting with Bead Embroidery

The end of 2012 I was working on the Bluebell Pixie by Nora Corbett. Naturally I got distracted when I was oh so close to finishing her off, and started stitching her Petal Fairy instead. But after 3 days of cross stitching I realized I needed to change it up a bit and decided to try my go at beading again.

Bluebell by Nora Corbett

For those of you who don't know I kind of went through a phase where I didn't see the point of putting all this effort into making beautiful things only to be swallowed by all of the resellers found on Etsy (Etsy is for Handmade or Vintage...a reseller is someone who buys mass produced items and then sells them off as handmade for easy money.) I pushed by beads to the side and indulged in my OCD and cross stitch and managed to finish a few projects. 2012 was the year I finally finished my first cross stitch pattern and got it framed. It then got me obsessing over other projects and managed to finish a total of 6 along with numerous other starts.

Anyways, after deciding to bead again I ended up frustrating myself with my bad habit of looking for something and tearing everything apart looking for it only when to find what I was looking for to say to myself "Oh I will clean this up later" and then eventually just shoving it all into a photo box or bin. So I started sorting. All the findings in one bin, seed beads in another, crystals in another, special beads....well you get the point. Once everything was inventoried in my head I came across an article my nan had cut out of a newspaper for me to read, it was bead embroidery, which I have been meaning to try.

This is as far as I have gotten so far:

 Notice a theme in color? I swear that was unintentional lol! The center portion is lace agate, so are the two beads on either side that have a criss-cross over top. Swarovski crystals are also used along with glass beads. I am designing as I go so it will be a one of a kind piece. I am thinking of adding a rectangular lace agate above the white long beads (picture below) and doing a peyote stitch around it like I did with the center bead, then adding another Swarovski crystal above that creating a dramatic tear drop shape.

I don't know what I should name this piece when it is done. Any ideas? What does it remind you of?