Beading Day With The Girls

Today was a very fun day!  I had two ladies come over, Beth and Eve, to learn how to do some beading.  We started with this pattern of mine in square stitch.  Neither were used to working with such tiny beads as delicas, so it was a challenge to pick up and work with those little buggers. 

We were going right along learning how to do this, and Eve made a mistake.  The pattern is set up for loom, so it reads left to right on all the rows.  Well, for square stitch you have to go left to right, flip over the work for the next row and then go right to left.  She forgot to read the 2nd row backwards, so we were going to have to take out the work.  The beads weren't agreeing with us and they weren't coming out, the thread was fraying, etc.  So we ended up just starting over.  I said, ok I'll get you back to where you were quickly.  I started beading away, got to the 2nd row to about where she was and gave it back to her.  She then gets to only room for 2 beads left, but the chart says there should be 6 more beads.  WHAT???!!!  uh oh.  What went wrong?  I checked all the beads in the 2nd row and they were all correct.  Guess what!  I messed up from trying to go too quickly and skipped 4 beads in the first row!  I was so upset that I messed her up!  I felt so bad.  I said, "ok, what I just did....don't do that!"  Started it over again.  In the entire time the girls were here poor Eve only got through the 2nd row, and there's only 17 beads in one row.  I felt terrible having messed her up. 

We had a very fun time together, though, and I'm so glad they came over and had a bead day with me.  We're going to get together again when it's time to learn how to do the clasps.  The first two rows are the hardest because there's not much to hold on to.  Once Beth got to her 3rd row she agreed at how much easier it was.

Here are some pics of Beth and Eve.  (Oh, btw.  You've all heard me rave about Beth and her cabs.  Don't be confused.  That's Beth E.  This is Beth A.)  And...Beth was such a sweetheart.  She brought me a little goody gift...a Symphony chocolate  bar with almonds and toffee bits!  OOOOOOH YUM!!!!!   Guess what I'll be snacking on tonight!!!

Beth holding up her first two little rows. lol

Eve's first couple rows...I don't know if this was the 1st, 2nd or 3rd time we did it. lol

I don't have many friends...I'm pretty anti-social.  So it was fun to interact with live humans for a change (not that I don't love and appreciate all of you...it's just different).  And my hubby was so cute.  I laid down for a nap before they came and when I got up he had gone shopping for our little get-together.  He got several kinds of soda and some Chex Mix to munch on.  Wasn't that thoughtful of him?  He's so cute.

Teaching!

Lucky me!  I've got two ladies who want me to teach them some things about beading.  I'm always glad to have new beady friends.  They got some of my patterns from The Bead Coop and we are going to start with square stitch on a bracelet.  Then when they are comfortable working with the beads and charts we are going to move on to the loom for more complex tapestries.  I'm really very excited.  They have to order the beads first, so that may take a week or so.  Then we have to coordinate schedules, and that may be a little tricky.  I'm hoping that Jeff is working by then which means my afternoons would be more tied up and we'd be stuck with either evenings or weekends.  But it will work out.  If anyone else out there reading my blog lives in the Phoenix area and wants to get together for a bead day with some new friends, give me a holla.  If they let me I will take pics and show our day.  Fun fun fun!!! 

In the meantime, I don't really have any pics to show today because I am trying to finish up a project I started about a month ago.  It has sat unfinished for quite a while and I don't like leaving unfinished things around.  So I'm going to finish that before I move on to my brandy new handmade cabs.  I made a little headway today...got about 3 inches done on my rope, which I'm aiming for 34".  I'm almost half way!  Hope I don't run out of beads before the end.  I'm using leftovers of things, so it might get nip and tuck there at the end. 

Ok, kids.  That's all I got today.  My in-laws are coming over for cake and ice cream tonight at about 7 (it was my mil's bday yesterday).  Made a super delicious black forest cake!  Can't wait to dig into that!!!!!  But first, it's what my husband calls Jimmy's Casserole.  (Frozen burritos layed out in a baking pan, covered with cheese with green salsa poured on top and baked for about 45 minutes.)  It's a quick and easy night.  But still surprisingly tasty nonetheless.  It's best with my amazingly awesome homemade guacamole, but avocados are still a bit pricey.  So it's just topped with sour cream for tonight.  I've rambled on quite long enough for one day.  Have a very happy weekend everyone!!!