Bead-it-Forward is something dear to my heart. If you don't know what that is let me tell you. Beaders stitch 1 1/2 inch squares on a theme. They are assembled into quilts, ornaments, and other items. These items are sold and the proceeds go to benefit beast cancer.  This years theme is "wild about finding a cure." The squares are to be animal related. When I think of wild animals a lion is the first thing I think of so I chose to stitch a lions face. I googled lion images and chose one. Then I sized it to the graph paper. Next I cut out his face and laid it on the paper and roughed sketched it in. His mane was cut and traced around his face. I used colored pencils and made the pattern.  It took me a couple of tries but I like how it turned out. Jeanette Schanigan is who started this. She is a beader from Alaska who's Mother died of beast cancer. She started with about 20 people and this has grown to be a worldwide challenge with hundreds of beaders participating. I am proud to have been part of this for the last six years. The reason I hold this to my heart is that my Mom and Sister have both had breast cancer. I consider it an honor to help with this cause. If you want to know more about it here is the link http://bead-it-forward.com/ You can find patterns to stitch squares and see past years entries.  I want to thank Amy Severino for tanking over the task of making the quilts and selling them this year.

Today is the reveal for A Time To Stitch 6. The theme for this hop is make something from a charted design. When I see charted designs most are for bracelets, so not being one to follow the norm I created a pendant for my design. My friend Roberts designs charted bracelets. This is one of her patterns that I adapted to make my pendant. This designs was inspired by Ukrainian painted eggs. The bottom of the pendant has a crystal bicone and a pearls drop accent. The straps are ladder stitched and then embellished with the pattern from the pendant. The edges have picots. The clasp is from Diane Fitzgerald's book "Shaped Beadwork." I hope that you like my design. I had fun making it. To see what the other participants made please go to http://theresestreasures59.blogspot.com/ or http://onekisscreations.blogspot.com/. Thank you Therese and Christine for hosting this hop and inspiring me in my designs.

I want to wish all of my blog readers a Happy New Year. I hope that all of you find peace, happiness, fulfillment , and good health in the coming year. I want to show a few of the Christmas ornament I have made over the years before I put them away. All three of the ornament in this pic were made by me. The sled is teak wood which were scraps from the yacht factory where I worked. They were cut assembled into the sled and painted. The stocking I embroidered as part of a set of three designs. The silver, blue and pink ornament is wood that I turned on our lathe and decorated. These have been on my tree since the 1980's.

I got a knitting machine and made this pair of mittens years ago. The red, green, and gold snowflake ornament is a kit I won from Cyndi Lavin at http://www.beading-arts.com/ in 2012.

This egg was laid right here on my farm by one of our chickens. It is one of the ones  I decorated it in 1992.

I took a hardanger embroidery class at the local school and then I made this ornament. It is simple but I like it.

This star is beads on wire. It is about 4 years old.

I know that this pic is really blurry but this is one of my favorite ornaments and I just was not able to make the camera capture it well so I am showing it anyway. It is an antique button that I drilled and made into a mobile. The pieces are macaroni in Christmas shapes that I painted.

This ornament is not on the tree it hangs from a shelf above my tv. The pattern is from Bead and Button magazine I have it on an ornament turner which I got on our 25th Anniversary trip to Niagara Falls. It sparkles and looks wonderful as it turns. I hope you have enjoyed looking at a few of my Christmas creations.

I thought you might like to see the Christmas ornaments that I made for friends and family this year. They have a wood bead core and are stitched with super duos, size 11 seed beads, and 4mm pearls. I had fun making them. My friend Lisa showed us how to make them at bead retreat. The first two I made were in cobalt blue, gold, and white and pink, white , and hematite. They are pendants for necklaces. I adapted to Christmas colors and these ornaments were born.

The annual holiday ornament hop hosted by Sally Russick is today. This is the beautiful ornament that I received from my partner D Lynne Bowland. Isn't it fabulous? Lynne made the lampworked bead and enamel accents which she put in a copper frame. The bead is removable so that I can wear it on a chain as a necklace. How clever is that? Christmas is my favorite time of year and my tree is my crowning glory. I cherish my ornaments. I have a book where I record the ornaments that I get each year and where they came from. This ornament will always be special to me.

Now on to the ornament that I made for Lynne. I started with the turquoise marquis shaped pieces, which I believe are vintage and I glued them to backing. I bezeled them in the stripes to match the lampworked disc bead  in the center. Then I filled in with seed beads and pearls. The pearls came from my mother-in-law's estate. They are vintage. The packaging on the smallest ones say 29 cents. Then I added the crystal rondelles on the points for accents and backed it with ultra-suede. I wanted a non traditional looking ornament. I hope she likes it.

I have one more ornament to show. Some time ago I had a pay it forward on my blog. Lynne was one of the first three to comments. She chose an ornament as what she wanted so here it is. A traditional red, green , and gold ornament. It is two layers of seed beads with pearl and firepolished accents strung on wire and shaped. The center is pearls in a gold bead circle. A red ribbon was used as a hanger. To see what the other participants made please go to Sally's blog at http://sallyrussick.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014-holiday-ornament-swaphop.html
Thank you Sally for hosting this fun hop.

My sister-in-law asked me to make an illusion necklace for her to give as a Christmas gift. This is what I made. The center is a lampworked bead. The other components are glass bicones and discs as well as corrugated metal beads. This is my first illusion necklace. I hope that she likes it.

Today is the reveal of the Bead Hoarders Blog Hop. I have been wanting to try Soutache embroidery for a while and I let this challenge inspire me to do just that. I used  lampworked beads by Heather Kelly that I bought on etsy and have been hoarding to start my design. Three colors of green and a metallic brown soutache braids surround the beautiful lampworked focal. I bezeled the focal with light green beads and added a dark green hex bead halo around the inner layer of  soutache cords. I put another layer of the cords and finished it with bronze seed beads. The bottom had three dark green teardrop pearls with the center one capped by bronze flower bead caps. The top of the piece has two  lampworked spacers also by Heather  that match the center bead. There are two jump rings that will have the straps hung on them but they will have to wait for another day. It is not perfect but I am happy with my first attempt at soutache embroidery.  I hope that you like it too. I want to thank Lori Anderson of  http://www.prettythingsblog.com/ for hosting this fun hop. To see what the other participants created click on the link to Lori's blog.