Endless Hope

This Hope Stone was made in response to a special request from my niece. It's for someone I haven't met. But I can still send hope and good wishes. There is no end to the hope a person can send.

Hope Stones are given to survivors at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Whenever he or she is ready, the survivor is invited to pass the stone on to another person with cancer--to share the hope for the future. By embellishing the Hope Stone with beads, I add my own special wishes. If you look closely, you can see the word HOPE on the front of the stone.

You can see the other Hope Stones I've embellished here

My Favorite Blue. Really. June BJP

I'm not exactly falling behinder, I'm just getting busier. But here's the June BJP. It's my favorite blue. Really. At least it was in June. It's a sort of periwinkle blue. Blue with a purplish tinge. It's hard to get that color to show up in the photo.

Even though it's now August, I did finish it in mid-July. I keep thinking I'm going to get caught up, and July is half done. Hmmm... Still three-quarters of August to go so there's hope.

Technical Details:

The foundation is Lacy's Stiff Stuff painted with Azure Blue and Purple Dye-na-Flow.

I used 8/0s, 11/0s, 15/0s, charlottes, triangles, hexes, Delicas, cubes and some drop beads.

I used the backstitch and the stop stitch. I did have fun with the fringes. If you look at the lower right hand side, you see a row of fringe. On the right hand side it is two beads tall. In the middle it is eight beads tall. On the left hand side it is five beads tall. She Who Shall Not Be Named thought this was interesting. I also did some brick stitch picots to make little sticking up triangles.

The piece is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.

I used AA C-lon thread in royal blue and Nymo B in blue.

What I Was Thinking:

For this piece, I just enjoyed the blue. No deep thoughts--just me and the blue beads.

Issues That Came Up:

Honestly, I'm trying to use up the C-lon. It will show up again in the July page. I do prefer Nymo thread.

Size 12 Colonial Short Beading Needles. After I bought out the entire supply on clearance from Hobby Lobby, I can't find them any more. They're bendy rather than durable, especially when going through the Stiff Stuff. But I like them. They have large holes. And before long I'm going to use up all I have. EEEK!