Etsy Vendor - Fiber Arts Bling

I've been thinking of looking for a beaded row counter chain to use in my knitting vs the little round counters that fit on your needles.  They just take up too much space or the ones with a circle on the end still get in my way.  Picky, I know!  So off I went to search for a beaded row counter. 

I found a vendor on Etsy called FiberArtsBling.  Patricia sells handmade knitting, crochet and embroidery accessories.  She had two of the chain row counters and I quickly purchased one. 

After my order I received an email asking which color I wanted since I didn't mark a particular color!  And this package arrived quickly in the mail!

I was impressed with her packaging as well as the nice note she sent!  This is class as far as I'm concerend.

The next package to open!  I know this is so much fun isn't it!

How classy is this!  Such a pretty little bag that contained my beaded row counter!!!

  How cool is this!  I know, I know....several of my friends will say "but you bead all the time!  Why not make one for yourself?"   I believe in helping small business' when possible.  I know my little beaded purchases won't make anyone a millionaire but I still want to support a small business when possible.  Besides,  that would take away from my knitting and other projects!  

And look what else Patricia added!  This lovely project bag!  Isn't it beautiful!  Perfect for my knitting project(s)!  

It looks really nice on my knitting too!  HA  I love this row counter!  Besides being very pretty! it lays out of my way and easy to move to the next bead for counting!  

I see where Patricia  (FiberArtsBling) is updating her items for sale so I'll try to keep an eye on her site and let folks know when she has new items to purchase.  Until then, stay cool my friends!  In the 90's again today!  Whew!

Another Horse, of course - part 2

 I last posted on arranging the painted paper behind the background fabric for my 3rd horse piece.  I got thinking that I might run into a problem with stitching over the paper so decided to put my thinking cap on (it took me awhile to find it!) and figure out a way to make the paper flexible or at least ready for stitching. Awhile back, I took a Zoom class from Margarita Korioth on using paper in our quilts.  I vaguely remembered the process and had to review!  Thank goodness I kept notes!  HA 

So, what to do but make a test sample!  Out came some pieces of painted papers, fusible web (Misty Fuse), fusible lightweight interfacing, cheesecloth and batting/fabric.  I started off by putting Misty Fuse on the back of my painted paper.  Then  I laid down interfacing and put the cheesecloth on top and fused together.  Next, I laid the paper (with Misty Fuse on) and fused those together (cheesecloth & paper).  Woohoo...it worked..the paper was flexible and not as stiff as it was.  This isn't quite the same method Margarita used but gave me enough ideas on how to apply her thought process to my piece!  

Next up, I wanted to make sure I could stitch through the paper, batting and background fabric easily.  So I cut out a small area on this painted/dyed fabric (I did add Misty Fuse to it before I cut out the rectangle).  Laid a piece of the painted paper under the opening and fused to a piece of batting.  I did some stitching around both paper and background and it worked great!

BUT, then I got looking at the background piece and I didn't think it had enough color in it.  I'll be doing some free motion quilting but still thought it needed some more color.  

Back to the dye room to find some paint to match the existing 'goldish' dye.  I have no idea what dye mix I used when I originally made this piece of fabric.  I did have the oval plastic pieces so it was pretty easy to paint more ovals on.

I also stamped some of the small stripes.  I'll be doing some hand embroidery on those as well as adding some tiny strips of the horse papers!  Just to add some color to the background.  Well, that's my thought process so far!

This isn't the final placement for the paper behind the background..  I just forgot to take a picture before I fused and too lazy to do it now!  I had to play around with moving the paper and then marked around the edges with 1/2 to 1" excess  and cut out a funky horse shape.  HA  Then I fused the background fabric to the horse paper cut out.    I had Misty Fuse on my background fabric too.  So now I'll do some stitching to hold the paper to the fabric.  Stay tuned for part 3!

And I have started on knitting the summer tee!  WHEW!  Long way to go but I may finish before winter!  Good project to work on while Bob watches baseball at night!