Progressive Beading

Progressive Beading

Beginning with the

Sunflowers Daisy Chain Superduo Bracelet 

 I'm not an advanced beader by any circumstances.  However more of an intermediate beader.  I haven't  made all the beading stitches of yet.  I found comfort in a few stitches and also found  love for Superduos.  These are small two hole beads that can turn a person into an addicted beader!  I saved up projects t do when I have time.  And I will share a link to a pattern that I found fun to make.  And the pattern leaf directions gave me an idea to create something more than just a bracelet.

First, here is what a Superduo looks like.  They come in many colors and different finishes.  Prices are different for the beads because the minerals used to color the glass beads and different finishes vary in costs.  You will fins that some colors are more pricey than others. These beads are elongated and looks pinched at the ends.  They fit together so nicely!

I have practiced making a few bracelets with Superduos, then ran across this pattern called Sunflower Daisy Chain Superduo Bracelet.   It is a pattern made by someone using the name Spin Planet Designs.  The pattern has to be purchases.  I saw it for free for a short while but now it is back to charging for the pattern. You can find this pattern by clicking HERE.

I like making bracelets for myself that fits exactly around my wrist.  But I find it easier to make bracelets for others by adding a chain so the piece could fit a range of sizes.  One of the finished daisy bracelets below.

Once I got comfortable with the pattern I bought more beads to made different color flowers in the bracelet.  There is another Blog I would like to share with you that has very nice beading.  It was this Blog that I found this bracelet and the information into finding where the pattern is located.  The Blog is named Linda's Crafty Inspirations.  You can find her on Pinterest also.  Please check her Blog out because there are so many free patterns there.  Many are not available because those pieces she works with are sometimes other peoples work.  She may take a piece and work it to her liking to make changes to it.  I see her as a progressive beader also.  This is just what this article I am writing will show how you just progress with your beading, begining with one thing and turning out another thing.  To visit Linda's Blog click  HERE.

The next thing I made was this weak looking flower.  Making the petals from the leaves that jut out from the center.  Now the daisy part is the center of the flower, not the whole flower itself.

If you do notice the leaf made between the flower, that was what helped me to build a bigger flower.  Now I don't own this pattern so I can't show you how I did this, I'm sure you can figure it out once you hav3e the pattern like I figured it out.

Each petal was made using every other superduo on the outside of the daisy design.  What works out nicely is when you have the right color of beads that make the piece stand out.  Not the best photo, but the flower still stands out.  Looks a bit like a starfish.

Since that worked out really nicely, I thought to try to add more petals by using all the daisy's superduos.  More leaves added turned into more petals.  As my work shows here in this next photo.

Now here is where your brain goes crazy!  What would it look like in this color of bead?  And this color of center?  And what finish would stand out nicely on these petal edges?  I need more beads!!!  I love the frosted beads for the petals, but what about other colors of the translucent superduos?  Would they work out nicely too?  I have to find out, ha! ha!

While working with these flowers I had to pay close attention to the hole size on the petal beads that connect to the daisy patterns outer edge.  Too many passes through one area and your needle won't go through and the project won't be completed or you will break a bead by forcing the needle in.  Been there, done that!

Now I'm not sure what I will make from these flowers, but I do know I want to get such a combination of colors that I can afford.  I find beading fun, relaxing and satisfying.  That occurs after you pass beyond the learning curve of frustration, ripping out and starting over and going brain dead at times.

Don't think all this happened at once.  It was a gradual thing after I made a handful of bracelets of different sizes.  And to order the color of bead you want and to find the best sale on those beads takes time.  Some companies take so long to send your order out to you, it is aggravating.

So I love the white daisy bracelet I made.  Can I get a pair of earrings and a necklace out of this pattern? Why, Yes!  I made a pair of earrings and feel so s about them and put them aside.  Then made pieces to build a necklace of daisy flowers and leaves.  I have a photo here below but the piece is not on a chain in this picture.  Looks great on a chain.

The Chain would attach to the top leaf.  I have to say it was a struggle to figure out how I could formulate a design.  But once I pieced it together I realized that the next time I make this piece I wouldn't have to make so many sections.  This pattern is easy to move from one are to another, beading without knotting it off as I did the first time.

For me right now, I need a pattern to make something really nice.  But everyone can begin with one pattern and then branch off with that pattern from what you learned into something new!

Lyme Disease is it? Or not?

I want to take some time aside to write a bit about a problem I had with my dog.  It may have been caused by Lyme Disease. Pet owners must act right away if you see any symptoms in your pets.  I lost my 7 year old dog to something that caused her kidneys to fail.  And they failed quickly.

I noticed my dog walking just a bit slower in the back legs.  She ate and drank fine.  Her and my other dog run back and forth the fence out back barking at the dogs next door.  I really felt she may have sprained her lower back doing that.  My other dog when running back and forth doesn't care who is in his way.  He jumps all on top of her during his crazy runs.  I thought he may have ran into her causing this problem.

So I took her into the Vet to get checked out and ask if they would give me pain medication for her to see how she does.  The Vet gave me the pain medication for her but also said that the lameness can be a sign of Lyme Disease.  Well, I never saw a tick on her or in my yard, or ever, so I didn't think much of that.  The Vet didn't show any urgency or suggest any blood tests for her.  That would have been a really good idea at this point.  So I go home.  The doctor said that if I see her becoming lame in the front of the legs to make sure to bring her in and have her checked out.  Lameness would spread if it is Lyme disease.

Giving her medication for 10 days I noticed improvement in her walk.  She still had a stiff gate in the back but I thought keeping her rested as much as possible, ice packs, belly rubs, she will get better.

Into that second week I noticed after she peed, she dropped a little drop of orange urine. That wasn't good to see.  So I grabbed a collection finally and took it into the Vet's office.  Turns out it was blood in the urine and I was given a 2 week antibiotic to give her.  Don't ask me the names of the medications, I totally don't recall.

As she was on this medication for 2 weeks ( a long time if you ask me) things cleared up and her pee pee was better.  I noticed she wasn't eating well, some days not at all and she began walking a little stiff in the front leg.   Not badly, but stiff like an old dog with arthritis.  So I took her back to the Vet.

The Vet said she could have came in contact with a tick.  Did I get her shots for that?  No, I didn't.  We lived here at this new area for 7 years and none of our dogs ever had a tick from being in the yard.  So that's why this year I decided not to have the shot for Lyme Disease.  They gave her fluids and took liver and kidney blood tests.  Gave her back to me.  She was on the best medication for this problem.  However I had to give it to her with food and if she had an upset stomach to give her Pepcid AC.  I did that for 1 week before she began having bad belly pain.  Poor baby.

This dog has many food sensitivities, to grains and preservatives and some colorants.  I had to give her allergy medication for times she ate something she shouldn't.  Like my husband passing out leftover  pizza crust.  OH MY!  Noooooooo!

I received a phone call about my dogs blood work.  She talked about the phosphorous levels being high and I should bring her in for 2 days on IV to give her fluids for the day.  This may help flush out whatever may be there that the antibiotic was killing off.  This will also help her numbers to improve.  She let me know that the Lyme Bacteria did not show up in the blood work but she is sending a sample out to see if a special Blood Lab could find anything else.  Typically with Lyme Disease there is also a co-infection.  Now while my dog was in the office getting fluids they also gave her pennecillin in her IV.

The Vet didn't keep her overnight, we just went there for 2 days during the day.  Each day she came home she was doing so fine, like really normal.  A few days later it was back to looking ill again.  That is about the time I made a connection with the pills I was giving her.  So I called them up and asked to bring her in.  They had another medication in pill form she could take, but they also had a shot they could give her, and in 2 weeks I would bring her back for a second shot.  I thought the shot would be better since her digestion was upset by now and needs time to heal.

She seemed to be doing better and then she followed by days of not doing well.  Not eating and not walking around and feeling weak.  I figured that this problem may take time.  Of course I went on the internet to search out some information. I couldn't find anything that would shed light on my dogs condition.  I did come across some information on kidney failure and digested that into my consciousness. I was left really frustrated and stressed.

I have to go back and mention, that the first day I took her in and they did blood work on my dog, the Vet said something to me and I was left standing there confused.  She said that if the dog had kidney damage from the bacteria you may just put her down.  What?  At the same time she gave me a months worth of pills to treat my dog.  Now I asked her about this kidney issue 3 times and she never went into explaining anything to me.  So I was left blinded by her words.  And as I mentioned the internet didn't shed any light on it either.

After my dog received the fluids the Vet called me and told me her numbers were improving.  But not enough at the moment.  So we have to work on keeping her on medication I suspect to see if things change.  The one thing I did read on the net was that this bacteria usually stays put and you have to treat your animal for the rest of their life. I found out later that it is a kind of bacteria that burrows deep into the tissue and medication doesn't seem to reach into it's hiding places.  A person on a forum made a comment to wait 60 to 90 days before making a decision to put your pet down, it can take awhile.

So I tried to be optimistic. I took my dog in to have her second shot.  We had a Tech appointment that just had a personnel give the shot, the Vet wasn't there.  The Tech brings my dog out to me and says, "You know she lost more weight.  You can bring her in at anytime if you want to put her down."  I was a bit stunned at that comment.  Am I a hard head or something? Or do I just want to give my dog a chance to get well?  So home I go with my little one.  Yes, she is loosing weight because she is not eating too much.  Her belly is upset because of these medications causing her issues.  After 1 week she began eating much better.  However after 2 good days she was bad for 2 days.  Yes, 2 days of not eating.  But she was drinking just fine.  Not a ton, just normal.

Oddness followed me all over the place with this situation.  Not knowing the full information about what is taking place with my dog. Odd comments from the Vet and the Technician.  Odd answers.  And not getting answers I seek.   Going back a bit when I took my dog home from the second day of the IV treatment.  I asked the girls at the desk if the Vet said anything for me to do, or when to bring her back?  They looked at each other and slowly shook their heads "no".  This just about made me feel invisible.

So into the second antibiotic shot I became uneasy.  I wanted her to see another Vet.  My husband and I found a nice Vet nearby and she took a lot of time with us.  This woman is amazing!  We are not her regular customer and she took so much time helping us understand what is going on in a dog with Lyme Disease effecting its kidneys.  So here goes......

I had gotten copies of my dogs blood work to show the new Vet.  Looking at it I see that my dogs kidney numbers did not go down as the first Vet had told me, they went UP!  Now I'm worried.  So here is some content of the conversation.  The new Vet suggested an updated blood test on my dog, it would take 30 minutes.  Also an x-ray unless the other Vet had taken one.  So that was done during the visit.  The Vet explained how bad Lyme Disease is when the bacteria enters the body, if it settles into an organ it produces organ failure.  Like with the kidneys.  If you see a sign in your dog of somethng odd, symptoms related to lyme, a blood test should be done right away.  Even if the blood work doesn't show Lyme, an antibiotic should be given as a precaution.  This is so to get the bacteria early and it doesn't have time to settle into an organ.  If the bacteria is still in the blood stream at the time of the antibiotic, there is a good chance you have taken care of the issue.

As I mentioned above, about this bacteria burrowing into the tissue, I'm told it sets up housing there.  And continues to thrive in the tissue damaging it.  So kidney failure will be quickly. If it settles into the heart, the same thing will result, heart failure, organ damage.

I told this new Vet that I don't understand that nothing shows up in my dogs blood.  She says to me that many times that happens, or a co-infection does show up.  The only way to know in my dogs case is to have a biopsy performed on my dogs kidney.  Well, lets see what the tests shows first.

Bad news I received that day.  Her blood work came back with bad results, worse than the last.  At that point I knew what direction this whole situation will be taking me.  She showed me the x-ray and there was a cloudy area on one side of my dogs liver.  The Vet didn't know what that was about.  And also couldn't view her one kidney.  The other kidney was in clear view and looked healthy.  The reason we had the x-ray done was to see if she had any kind of kidney stones.  She didn't.  

Another odd finding was that my dog didn't have bowels in the upper ribcage area.  Just in the lower gut.  I don't have the x-ray to show to you, but I learned a bit about a dogs anatomy that day.  It gave me great pause as to what  my dog was experiencing?  Did she have some kind of birth defect that was catching up with her?  Is it Lyme connected at all?  I just don't know.  But nothing looked saving. I had a 22 pound dog, and within 2 and 1/2 months she was now a little over 17 pounds.

One other bit of conversation I had with the Vet, me asking if my dog is suffering from a genetic kidney issue.  She told me, "No, if that was the case it follows a particular path."  She described the situation and my dog didn't display that issue at all.  Also, she reminded me that with that bacteria affecting the kidneys they go bad really fast.  And that was happening to my dog.

I also wanted to know if she could be helped with any medication. On my web search I read posts on people giving their dog a pill for kidney issues.  However there are many different kidney issues and each are treated differently.  This Vet said there is a pill they can give a dog with high protein levels.  But the dog must eat every day.  If the dog doesn't eat, you must force feed them.  Blend the food very fine and syringe it to the dog.  And they had to eat a kidney diet.  Well, we talked about the diet and the fact that she doesn't eat and she has so many allergies.  I on the other hand can have bad days due to my chronic fatigue and my own food allergies that can put me in bed.  I didn't think I could do this each an every day and my dog would suffer more.  Since her levels were so messed up and my dog didn't act like my dog much anymore, we decided to put her down before things got worse.

I scooped up my baby and went home and planned on a day to put her down at the new Vets office.  My dog gave me a few incredible normal kind of days followed by 2 bad ones before saying good by to her.  That dog of ours has no idea how much she was loved in our hearts.  Her name was Hope. 

For your information I will include the youtube video of a pet owner whose dog did have Lyme Disease.  It was made in 2 parts.  She told me of a forum I could go to to ask questions on Lyme Disease.  I did that and it was helpful.  Another place I went to was a Cannabis Oil Facebook group I joined to ask questions.  I was looking for something to help manage my dogs pain. 

Another thing to search for is Lyme Nephritis.  This is kidney failure due to Lyme Disease.  The video I am posting shows a healthy dog turning ill.  It is posted in 2 videos and I will post both links.  The video is on youtube but is not my video.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE7PvXlK2GU

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS88eC0eWnE

I'm to 100% sure what took my dogs life, but she went fast.  Both Vets felt her symptoms did indicate Lyme Disease but it could not be confirmed. 

 

Altering a Onsie into a tank.

A few years ago I was looking for some summer onsies for my grandchild.  I could only find ones with sleeves but I wanted a sleeveless tank style.  I looked all over!  I found 2 at a thrift shop but nothing new in the stores.  So I bought some onsies with sleeves and cut the sleeves off and finished the edges and now I had tank ones for summer.  Below I will walk you through the steps I had done the best I can.

Supplies: 
Sharp pins 
Sharp fabric scissors 
Sewing machine with a zig-zag
Matching thread
5/8" fold over elastic to match the garment or the neck trim.

To begin trim off the sleeves right along seamline removing the seam with the sleeve.

To begin trim off the sleeves right along seamline removing the seam with the sleeve.

Next photo should show you how sleeves should look once removed

On the side seam you will see the end of the underarm seam comes to a point.  If so, remove that point.  It isn't much to remove but it will get in the way when you add your seam finish tape.

Lay garment flat and you will notice that the curve of the armholes may be uneven.

Fold garment in half and compare the edges of both armholes edges together, side to side.

Trim away the uneven edges and make both sides look curved the same.

I am going to switch my photo to the blue onsie I was working on because I think the sewing part showed up better in the pictures.   Below is the stretchy fold over tape I bought.  I found this at Jo-ann's Fabric shop.

Working on the left armhole, right side out, you overlap the side seam under the arm about 3/4 inches and pin.  This tape has a chance on shifting on you when you sew along a curved armhole so it is helpful to have the overlap longer than you need it than shorter.  It could be trimmed once the armhole is pinned around.  

You will be applying both edges of the tape down at the same time, covering the inside and outside of the armhole.  Like most tape you will see one side along the edge of the tape is a tad wider than the fold of the other side.  This is to help you to grab both sides of the tape while sewing along the edge.  So the wide side of the tape goes on the inside of the garment, with the narrow side to the outside to insure a good seam.  If however your tape has an even fold, then you will have to sew far enough in from the seam edge to catch both layers.

As you pin the tape down try to maintain the curve of the armhole.  With a knit fabric it is very easy to pull the cut edge straight and have an uncurved edge finish.

Once you are all the way around, you may cut off the tape right at the side seam line.  Usually I do a fold on the edge of the tape to hide the edge, that makes a nice finish.  But in this case I felt it bulky and didn't want it to rub against the baby.  You may place a little "Frey Check" on this area or just hand sew the end.  I did the latter to finish the trim after I sewed the tape.

***** 

Now continue the work on the other side since the left side of the armhole is pinned.  Begin pinning the right side of the tape 3/4" past the side seam toward the back part of the garment.

                                                     

 You will continue pinning around the armhole as you did the first one and cutting the tape at the seam.

Your work should look close to this and now you are ready to sew!

Add caption

I'm going to show you the stitch settings I used on my machine.  Practice on a piece a scrap fabric to make sure the setting is what you are looking for.

I begin sewing under the arm in the overlapped area.  It is now you can make any adjustments to how long the overlap is by trimming it.  Also make sure your overlapped layers lay nicely over each other.  Continue to sew all around the armhole and back stitch at the end.  Using a small zig-zag stitch as I did allows the armhole to stretch with movement without breaking the threads.  A done deal!

Finished and  Comfey!

Doing Goods!

 I have been involved in doing different hobbies off and on throughout my lifetime.  Just want a place to add ideas, create things I want to share.  Yes, I love Pinterest and YouTube, other peoples blogs, Facebook and things I read in books.  Deciding to have a spot of my own on things I do good.  Or on the road to learning to do things the right way.  My name is Liz and I hope you enjoy my postings.