Book Review: Bead & Button, Ribbon & Felt Jewelry

I started working on a new article for Craft Critique tonight when I realized I didn't mention my last article I did. It is for the book Bead & Button, Ribbon & Felt Jewelry by Deborah Schneebeli-Morrell. I love it for its easy to create ideas. Check it out when you get a chance. I'm working on a review of the Clover Mini-Iron so hopefully I will remember to put a link to it when its published.

A New Beaded Bracelet for Me

Last night at our monthly Chicagoland Craft Collective Meetup, I made this spectacular memory wire bracelet. Analee was our wonderful teacher of the craft this month. I brought a bunch of beads I picked up on sale at Joann's a long, long time ago that I intended to be a purse handle but now I have this awesome bracelet.

Next month I get to be the teacher. I am going to show everyone how to make these cool wire-edge ribbon flowers. You can view a tutorial for the folded ribbon rose I wrote over at Craft Critique. I am going to teach this rose plus the leaf and then if we have time I will do the rosette and rolled ribbon rose. They are quite easy to do once you get the feel of it and they work up very quickly.

A New Craft Inspires an Old One

Okay, a week and a half a go I attended the The Chicagoland Craft Collective Meetup meeting. Every month we meet to socialize and gab about what some of our family members and some friends deem to be insanity. We love crafts. Yes, that would be plural. We can't just stop at one or even two. So every month we must also make another craft. Sometimes these are new to us and sometimes the projects are expansions of what we already do.


This month we were taught how to make a bead from beads. I love beads and love to put beads on things or string a few for a necklace. I even crocheted a beaded bracelet in a class by Jenny King. I've bought beading magazines (I have the first issue of Bead and Button) and beading books. I had been looking forward to this workshop for a month. Our teacher, the talented Miss Melanie, neatly packed kits including needles for us to make the cute little bead. I tried really hard and I retried but I didn't quite finish at the meeting. Finally this past weekend I got to sit down and concentrate on the project. Frustration soon set in because I couldn't remember the next steps and I wanted someone to help me. But, I wanted a bead, NOW! This impatientness turned into improvisation and I ended up with a lovely checkered looking bead.

I would have loved to make a few more but I think I need another class. (This isn't exactly what it is supposed to look like. Sarah Moore has example of the real thing on her blog, Sarah and the Stampstars and check this photo for Susie's who finished hers at the meeting.) Now, I have one bead. What do I do with one bead? Make a quilt of course!

Well, sort of, at least. I sat down, picked out a few coordinating fabrics and Voila! I have a crazy quilt rectangle that I plan on making a little purse out of as soon as I embellish it. I'm still trying to figure out where the bead will go. I'm thinking of making a tassel out of the bead to let it hang loose from the surface. Still too early to tell what the results will be. I'm just so happy that my crafting has gotten such a great start before February has even arrived.