Book with sharp content

This needle book is made of small piece of printed corduroy and black felt. Some flowers on the fabric are outlined with seed beads - it is very convenient to embroider when a template is already provided.




The book cover is padded with felt sheet and another layer of felt is sewn to the inside, so that needles can feel safe and comfortable.




The backstrip is made of grey blue lace, suggesting a romantic sewing story.

No colours today

Sometimes eyes get tired of sunshine that lasts for weeks and a grey cloudy day feels very refreshing. In the same manner, all the colours around can seem too much to take every once in a while and it is time to look at things in black and white for a change.

First blog anniversary. With giveaway!

This blog has been in the web wide world for a year now and it has been an interesting journey to see it grow. But what would a celebration be without a cake. I made a very sweet and creamy one for the occasion, with white chocolate, marzipan and sugar decorations, still containing absolutely no calories:




For a chance to win this bead and sequin embellished pincushion, please leave a comment here with the title or date of the blog post you like most (excluding this one!). Feel free to share your blog address, I would like to come for a visit.
The winner will be drawn from all entries posted until midnight GMT (before) May 9th. Good luck!

Diamond of the night

This is a small excerpt of a bead embroidered velvet choker necklace. This lovely vintage montana blue rhinestone is surrounded by scattered seed beads that sparkle like stars in the clear spring night skies.

Seaside bracelets

The weather has warmed up even here in the North and beach is the place where most people prefer to be.
I had some aqua blue glass chips, just the right colour for this summer, added some glass beads, moonstones and shells and all this was enough for three bracelets.




The bases of two bracelets are crocheted of cotton and linen yarn, the blue one is woven in peyote stitch.

Delft blue bracelet

Blue and white porcelain inspired me to try these colours in bead embroidery and a bracelet seemed like the right amount of work to do.




Materials all gathered: glass seed beads, a ribbon for the bracelet base, thread and an embroidery needle.




Made the frame first, starting with the darkest blue beads. Not sure if I like it this way...




Finished the first flower! The frame looks all right now, I think. The overall image reminds me more of those Mediterranean blue and white tile mosaics than porcelain, actually.




When finished embroidering, double folded the ribbon and sewed by hand all around the edges. The hardest part is making a clasp. Out of several options coming to my mind, I decided to sew some double rings to the back side where I could attach jump rings, pieces of extension chain and a toggle clasp.

Belt pocket

This March I took a short course on bead embroidered belt pockets worn with folk costumes on Estonian islands. These wonderful bags were tied around waist and used for keeping coins and other small items. Indeed, this kind of extra pocket comes very handy nowadays as well (although I haven't worn mine yet), perfect for a phone or a camera, for instance.
My green pocket is not what they used to look like, the front side was usually fully covered with very colourful beads in different patterns. Unfortunately, I could not find any photos of the beaded pockets on the internet. I used my own colours and other ancient motives instead, the ones that were traditionally embroidered with thread. Here's an example.