Progress Continues - Can't avoid the braid

Since today is a school holiday, I worked on the Angel for many hours yesterday. The hard part is getting started, then hours pass by and you see how much more there is to do, and finally you reach a threshold when you have to stop.

I started out doing more bead work, then I swallowed hard and took out the Orange Braid. I really don't enjoy working with this thread, but it is in the pattern, so it must be dealt with. Why the dislike? It is too thick for the needles I have and due to the texture, it knots easily. I made the decision to do as much of it as I could yesterday, and I made quite a dent in it. Low and behold, I'm almost out of the thread. I'll have to make a trip to a specialty shop to buy more.

Lastly, I endulged in some old-fashioned embroidery floss. What a joy to just pass a needle back and forth through the thread. No stopping to pick up a miniature bead, no snagging on the fabric. It is almost too much.

Now I really want to finish this project so I can go back to working with materials I really enjoy. This Angel will be a treasure for the rest of my life, but the journey is long and arduous.

Here's a close up picture of the work. You can see the beads, orange braid and floss much better.

Plodding Along - One Bead at a Time

I worked on this in stops and starts yesterday. Kept getting interupted. Bent my beading needle, but it still works. I'm doing all of the beads at the bottom of the skirt, leaving the dreaded gold thread and blending filament until last. I have a feeling this will come back to haunt me.

Next time I will work in floss. It makes it so much easier to bead when there is floss in the holes to guide me. I thought I had a major catastrophe yesterday when some beads weren't lining up. Only had to rip out a couple. Just one thread off can throw the whole design off. !!!

Day Two: Beading Continues

I spent much more than 2 hours working on this today. It's hard to tell, but I am still working on the bottom and up the left side. It is slow going. I also realized I don't have 2 of the bead colors. I just worked around those and will get back to them next week.