Something besides letters

My acquisitive impulses are on the verge of running rampant. A friend gave me the Fire Mountain bead catalog. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! I have a list of 50 items already and I'm only half way through. Must not get all the pretties, must not. Am I actually going to make something with this? Do I really need 14 different shades and finishes of pink seed beads? Yes, of course. No no no no.

I did snap and make one online purchase tho, Gwen M's new applique book, sight unseen. I'm not particularly enamored of four block quilts and that whole red, green, and white color scheme doesn't thrill me, but from the bits of the book I was able to peruse, Gwen is teaching process, not duplication. So long as there are gorgeous antique and modern quilts pictured, I'll be happy (I hope). Now the book I'm really really really looking forward to is her collaboration with Freddy Moran, due out in February. I am all over that.

I've been making slow but steady progress on my red, white and blue beady. I keep falling into the trap of trying to make it look just right, of wanting the beads to line up and NOT disappear under a button. And forgetting that squeezing in that last seed bead so that there is no background showing just might make the entire thing bulge out somewhere else, destroying the fluid wave I'm trying to create. Sigh.

With quilting I've learned to discard any perfectionist impulse. I know it will all look good in the end, that any icky spot is just not going to be noticeable once the quilt is looked at as a whole. I don't submit my quilts for judging, can you tell? The perfectionist judging at most of the major shows just sucks the life out of the quilts for me. I have to keep that in mind with beading, and loosen up.