More on the Arch Chancellor's hat

So, I drive two ladies to a bible study at the church we currently attend, and go to the bible study so that they won't feel like I am inconveniencing myself, as neither of them drive, and so I started driving them. This is the church that I was making the altar frontal for, all those flowers. Remember them? Well, the rector asked how they were coming along at the meeting, and I mumbled something non committal which apparently reassured her that they were coming along fine, when what I really should have said, was, "I'm not working on them. I am angry at you, and as a result, any time I work on them my threads knot and break, my imagination goes on vacation, and what started as a joy has become a chore that I avoid, just as I avoid thinking about you. The altar guild should make a set of hangings however they want, waiting on me is silly." It seems that the altar guild has been putting off getting fabric to make a white set of hangings because they didn't know what kind of fabric I would like to sew the flowers onto, as the jacquard that is usually used for hangings and such is very slippery. Anyway, I'll see what happens.

I have reached the point where I can pity her, for her non freedom concerning a lot of things. For me, that is the first step toward being able to feel forgiveness.

On to more cheerful thoughts. The Arch Chancellor's Hat! I have been working on this for a while, and put it aside to give it some thought in the back reaches of the old brain, and then started working on it again. Also got a lot of beads and threads organized, and found (okay, I'll come clean, the reason I was organizing things was because I was looking for them) a quartet of beads that I wanted to put on the hat. They are pressed glass beads, pink, and they are elephants. I have to put them on, as Discworld is a flat planet that rests on the shoulders of four elephants, who are standing on the shell of a giant turtle. Yes, I am going to add a turtle as well. So I was pretty excited about finally finding the elephant beads, I've been looking for them for over a week.

Here is a picture of the hat just before I started adding the elephant beads. I have added two star shaped beads with some purple bugle beads and silver lined gold seed beads trailing off them. I also added some red sequins around the central stones.

THE Magpie

Wizard's Hat embroidery piece

I have been doing some clearing out of the house, which it desperately needs, and unearthed my wizard hat project from my pile of unfinished objects. So here it is, from where I started to where it is now.

 This is a hat shaped piece of velvet I cut out of an old dress that I picked up at a yard sale. I was looking for crushed velvet to do things with, and I love the color red. The floss is actually red also, I blacked it out.

 Here is where I stopped last time I worked on it. I have applied a tassel and a large crystal drop to the tip of the hat, and a large flower crystal surrounded by eight octagonal bermuda blue crystals.

Now I've added some pearl and gold colored braid and also a metallic gold fancy braid to the brim of the hat, and also some fresh water pearls around the octagonal crystals. I still have some way to go before this is as fancy as the hat described in the book, but I am well on my way. The book is Sourcery, by Terry Pratchett, and the hat is described on page 10, if I recall correctly. Readers of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books will understand this next bit best, but gold lace is involved, and ankhstones, which are like rhinestones but a different river. Having been unable to acquire any octarines here, I used octagonal crystals in Bermuda blue in their place. I still need to add sequins, and totally over do the decoration, as the hat is described. Overdoing is necessary, as, "When it comes to glittering objects, wizards have all the taste and self-control of a deranged magpie." Um. Well, now you know where my screen name came from.

Here are the leaves from the Jane Nicholas piece. I decided to do long and short stitch to fill. I have finished filling one of the leaves, and the other is partially filled. Once I finish that, I just have to add the veining, cut them out and apply them.  The masking tape is covering the stems of wire, so that they don't catch on the thread as I stitch, one of the tips that Jane gave us in class.

THE Magpie