Beading, Grasshoppers and Doodling

I’m thoroughly enjoying the beading work. That and hand stitches add great dimension and texture to a flat quilted piece. This class has been helpful in terms of instruction on how to bead, as well as a variety of basic embroidery stitches. I’m now looking at all the pieces I thought to be finished and seeing how I can add to them with hand stitches and beads. Because it is slow, I wonder if I’ll ever really finish anything? I thought Mom’s piece was complete, but now I see how adding a row of seed beads around the pictures will not only add more texture and dimension but also honor her beadwork. She made beaded purses and sweaters … she was always doing something, knitting, crochet, sewing … Am I to follow in her footsteps?



















At this point I only bead at the dining table. I must learn how to set my stuff up on a tray so I can sit comfortably in my chair and bead where there is good lighting. The handwork is a very restive, almost meditative, activity. Yesterday a grasshopper joined me for a very long time as he walked up the French door window by where I was sitting. He kept me company for about an hour and a half. When I left to do something else and returned, he was gone. I searched for him but couldn’t find him. George says the grasshopper denotes luck … I was unable to locate the symbolic meaning. He reminded me that with all the urban-ness here, nature prevails …














I decided to sign up for Susan Sorrell’s Personal Symbology class. Even though I won’t be able to keep up, I’ll have the lessons ready to go when this class is completed in two weeks. The first lesson is to doodle … she suggests creating doodles for different words and then combining your doodles into one page. This can then be cropped for potential fabric/fiber pieces. I enjoyed this doodle process. The four symbols that keep appearing in my work are the heart (compassion, love), the house (security), the butterfly (transformation), and the spiral (change, growth)