Why did I get discouraged again?

While I waited for it to warm up enough to go out and finish painting the chairs in the barn I decided to start cutting and sewing the brocade for pages for the beaded bird book  and I couldn't stop.... I totally love how they are coming together.

 

 

I was short two RR blocks and so the cover and the last page are just beaded bird on brocade alone and looked a little lost so I went looking for some green lace leaves and will add some ribbon roses as well. 

The combination of the fancy fabrics, brocade and the  beads is just lush.

I also found some  fancy gimp in the boho bins that will add another layer of embellishment as well.

When I was looking for the green lace leaves I pulled out the spider bag and thought it was prettier than I remembered and why was it I got discouraged and quit..????

 

 

 

Oh yes, now I remember.... it was trying to embroider the black cat with black thread on black felt... By the time I finish the beaded bird book I will be ready to tackle the black cat problem again...

Disregard canned soup!!

Well I hoped you didn't take my pledge to serve canned soup at my next dinner to heart as I recovered and once again embracing all things culinary... Sunday we had dear friends to dinner and here is DH and Max admiring the table.

Last spring Max  (from Italy) made the statement that salads in the US were predictable and boring.  He was  pretty much right.. so it was like throwing down a gauntlet.  I couldn't have it said I served a boring and predictable salad..  Heaven forbid!!!


I found this fennel, apple, and celery salad.  It was basically these three ingredients sliced thin on the mandolin and had a apple cider/honey dressing and toasted hazelnuts added..  I'm not all that crazy about fennel cooked but it was amazing raw.  Definitely not boring!!






Since I was serving broiled halibut as the main course I wanted a special side dish and I served these "polenta towers"  I made the polenta (with caramelized onions) the day before and chilled it in a cake pan  and cut circles with a cookie cutter.  Just before serving I put the polenta rounds under the broiler and when they were crispy I topped them with a round of broiled eggplant and topped that with a round of broiled tomato and finally put a round of mozzarella cheese and melted it under the broiler.  Looked special and was delicious.

Dessert was the first sour cream plum tart of the season  (no picture)  served with Max's fantastic homemade zabaglione.

We are on Quinn's emailing list and I love to look at their special dinner menus. Quinn's is a resort hot springs in Montana that we occasionally go to for our anniversary.  It is in the mountains and they take dogs. They are always having special package weekends with music and/or dinners. This time it is a wine pairing dinner in October.  We can't go but I fell in love with this 5 course dinner menu and HAVE to replicate it.. I would eliminate the candied peppers and strawberry soup plus maybe make it 4 course with duck and a tweek here and there...  Doesn't it sound wonderful... 

Naked arm!!!

The cast came off this morning and does it ever feel good.  I have to admit that I'm surprised that it is still so swollen and sore... But the doctor said as I exercise and use it the swelling and pain will go away.

And as I had figured I was just barely able to finish the beaded robin....in fact it was about 10 o'clock last night.  May someone pour a bucket of cold water on my head if I ever pick up a beading needle again.  But I am glad it's done and I will finish it in a book form I believe....  that's the plan at the moment anyway.

It was a glorious day when we got home from the doctors and DH volunteered to help me clean out the garden and harvest the winter squash... I have enough squash for us, our chickens, our friends, and the food bank as well.. Although I just planted spaghetti squash I seem to have ended up with some green ones and some cross pollinated as well.  It is such a treat for the chickens in the winter.

Tackling long neglected projects  seems to be the order of the day as of late.  Years ago I found some lovely tapestry fabric at the thrift store to cover my dining room chairs.

They badly needed to be recovered but I also wanted to paint them in the barn and that needed to be done when they were all unassembled..... Since this is probably going to be the last week of nice weather, if I didn't do them now it would have to wait until spring.  So I bit the bullet and tore them all apart and there is no going back.

Another lost project rescued!!!

 
When I started the beaded bird project I had a vision of them being mounted on thin pieces of wood and assembled accordion style so they could all be seen at once.  Now I am rethinking this plan and will try to combine the beaded bird with another project.

 

 In 2010 I joined CQI round robin with a specific outcome in mind.... It was a wonderful group of stitchers and included: Cathy Labath - USA, Helina Pettinen - Finland, Jeanne Gagnaux - France,  Meg Shaffer - USA, and Ritva Peltola - Finland...  I had signed up for a seams-only round robin because I had planned to  incorporate them into a jacket made from this pattern.

At that time I bought a gorgeous olive-green brocade fabric at a thrift store for the jacket.  Eight years later the fabric is still hanging in my work room and the round robin blocks are waiting in a basket on a shelf.

When I put the beaded birds on the blocks on the brocade it was a match made it heaven

I really can't believe it!!

Near the end of August I posted about this series of beaded birds I started in 2009 and abandoned to a box under the bed... there were these four and two more partially finished and one  unfinished.




If I hadn't broken my arm they would have gone into eternity unfinished,  But since these small pieces were the only thing I could handle with my cast arm... I decided to try to  finish the unfinished two and assemble them..  and I did.... not as neatly beaded  as those  before but I finished.

I still had three weeks to go with the cast so I started on the unfinished robin piece....

I colored the cloth background so any little gaps in the beading are not so noticeable and there a lot of gappies.....





This is how far I have gotten working in small areas for very short periods of time..  Since I have still another week left before the cast comes off, I will be close enough to being done that I will keep going.