"Beautiful Beaded Buttons and Pins"

As promised, here is more from my AWOL weekend! For those of you who haven't read my blog before...AWOL stands for Arkansas Women On the Loose. We came up with that name when we were planning the first of these events several years ago. And, although we haven't changed the name, we do have two guys who attend. They are brave souls, don't seem to mind the name, and we enjoy having the two of them spend the weekend quilting with us. It's a wonderful experience.....lots of work going on and huge amounts of laughing! In my last post, I showed you Carol Ann's fabric baskets. Did I tell you she also made an entire quilt top over the weekend?

So, this time, I want to show you something gorgeous from my beading friend, Brenda H. At AWOL, we have women from around the state and some from out of state. Brenda comes from Ft. Smith. I've always known her as a quiltmaker and for her first AWOL experience, she brought beading. Boy, did she bring beading! She has only been beading a few months and has become quite good at it, as you can see. I asked if I could photograph some of her work and she graciously said yes. I should have done more. Isn't it beautiful?

She made beaded buttons, beaded pins, which can also be used as pendants, with the proper hardware on the back for each. I thought she did a remarkable job and shows great talent. She had beaded in red, green, pastels, browns/golds, black/gold, etc. Just a gorgeous array of beautiful things. The pin, in orange, has a vintage 'floral' earring, or pin, in the center....what a wonderful way to give new life to old jewelry pieces. It's pretty fabulous! There were also bracelets....I've no idea why I came home with no photos of those....one very elaborate one she made right in front of our eyes - it was purchased on the spot!

Brenda's work IS for sale. She is working on an etsy shop, but isn't quite ready yet to announce it. If you are interested in anything you see here....email me and I'll send you her email address.
I'm sure she'd love to hear from you. She sold quite a few pieces, so some of these may have been sold, I don't remember which ones. Isn't it nice to see beautiful work?

Amongst all the beaded beauties Brenda made were some crazy quilted sewing kits. These weren't beaded, but they were very nice....I bought two of them! One day soon, I will show you those....as I want to do one of my beaded edges on them....who knows...one may be a 'giveaway' on this blog one of these days! Maybe at that time, I can announce her etsy address also!

I'll be showing some more from AWOL in the next couple of posts, so I hope you'll return to the Nest....meantime....have a wonderful weekend!! take care, pat

(For those of you in the area, we will be having another episode of AWOL this coming September...you might want to join us!)