Jewelry and angels

I didn't get any stitching done today, but I do have more pictures to post.

First, I have such trouble organizing my jewelry. Especially earrings. So I saw this idea in a magazine, but I don't remember which one. Basically, you put picture wire across a frame and hang your dangly earrings from it. So I went to the local thrift store and found a cute, handpainted frame for $1, and then I attached screw-eyes to it:

Next, I will string the picture wire. And I also plan to add some hooks that I can hang bracelets, anklets and necklaces from. Now, if only I could figure out what to do with my stud earrings.

Yesterday I posted the raw materials for my "small," that is, portable, project. I actually have three that I'm rotating. Here is one, the Told in a Garden 1994 angel/madonna:
You can see, a little on the side, that I have tacked this to a frame. In one of these posts, someday, I should show pictures of all the ways I frame my stitching to work on it. And here is the reason that I'm alternating, rather than working on one at a time:



Thats the 1995 TIAG angel, and as you can see (even though it's blurry), the wings and clothes are all beads. I ran into two problems with these: One is the obvious--time. To do the cream beads took 12 hours per wing. In fact, I think the wings took 36 hours total. And second, although I think I used the correct fabric size and bead size, the beads are too big and when I put the last color in, it knocks all the other beads out of line. Because this project is so frustrating for me, I just do one thread's worth of beads at a time and rotate it with the more pleasant ones.

The next part of Danielle's project is the skin tones. I always do those "over one," that is, using one thread over one fabric intersection. This makes smaller "pixels," which lets the overall effect be more realistic. The problem here is that the designer used four skin tones, one of which is white blended with another of the colors. And I just can't do a blended needle with two colors (if someone does know how to do this, I'd be happy to learn). So I have to select another color and hope it works. I seem to recall thinking about this problem when I put the project away before Christmas, and solving it. So I'm hoping that when I open up the project bag, all the thread colors I need will be there.