Bead-it-Forward is a cause that is dear to my heart. Jeanette Shanigan started it in honor of her mother who died from breast cancer. Each year a theme is chosen and this years theme is fantasy. Beaders from around the world stitch small squares that are assembled into quilts, shadow boxes, ornament, and other items. These items are auctioned off and the money goes to breast cancer research. Since my mom and both sisters have had breast cancer I am committed to this cause. I have participated for for several years. I promote this at my bead group. These are the squares stitched this year from the Upper Midwest Bead Society members. The three squares in the left vertical column bottom were stitched by me.

I know that with 63 degree weather it is not the time when most people are making Christmas ornaments. I saw this design in the October issue of Bead and Button magazine and I had to make it. I recently purchased an endless loom so I tried it out on this ornament. I am pleased to say it was an enjoyable experience. The reason I have mostly stayed away from loomwork is weaving in all of those ends. With an endless loom the loom is warped through a started strip and there are no ends to weave in. My Mom was a big fan of cardinals . She really enjoyed watching them come to her birdfeeder. I made this ornament in memory of her. I hope you like it. I sure do.

Today's post is for the Color Blog Hop. I signed up again to participate in a challenge hosted by Lisa Lodge of http://gratefulartist.blogspot.com/2017/01/pine-ridge-treasures-color-blog-hop.html  .The lower picture above is the kit that I received from Lisa. Blue is my favorite color so I was pleased. The upper picture is the necklace that I created from this kit. The luscious large blue pearls became the straps with the aid of a few of the silver ovals and matte white glass rounds as accents.The two holey silver discs were the start of my pendant. I stitched them to blue ultra-suede using bead embroidery. The base row was made with the dark blue rice shaped pearls. A row inside of that made using size 8 beads forms the bezel to hold the silver components in. There is a trim row outside of that that uses blue seed beads capped with white points. Dark blue bugles form the base of the fringe. The fringe end sequence is a pair of  4mm lapis colored pearls flanking  a silver corrugated spacer bead and having a silver faceted rondelle below. I used a few of the lapis pearls and two of the white glass rounds as accents on the silver holey discs.  The bail was created with a modified herringbone stitch from the same  blueberry luster colored delica bead the I used in the outside row of the pendant trim. I am proud of the design that I created and I hope you like it too.  Thank you Lisa for another fun challenge. To see what the other participants made  from their kits please click on the link above.