Wedding gift done!

Can you believe it?  I actually got the wedding gift done in time!  

I’ve been planning this gift, a decorated photo album, for months.  To do it I had I to order the correct color threads, get Sherry’s new book, Branching Encapsulation and learn the techniques, dream up and then actually tat the design. The wedding was almost 550 miles away – do you want to guess what I was doing on the drive??  

The wedding colors were a green, on the lime side, and a bright orange.  I found that I haven’t ordered much thread  in these shades (I find I order threads in colors I like) so that was one of the first things I had to do.  After perusing the Handy Hands Lizbeth (on-line) catalog I chose Lime Green #679 and Bright Orange #695.  Reviewing my vision in my head I needed more colors so ordered Autumn Orange Medium #696, Lemon Light #614, and Leaf Green Dark #676, all in size 20.

While waiting on the threads to arrive I practiced the patterns in Sherry’s book, learning the different techniques of branching encapsulation.  As I learned them and looked forward to what was to come, I dreamed of what I wanted to do for the wedding gift. It’s amazing that my original vision for the gift resembled branching encapsulation even before I saw Sherry’s book, even if I didn’t know how I was going to accomplish it!  The closest pattern in the book to what I was dreaming of were the trees at the end of the book, so I worked hard to reach the end.

I never actually made any “trees”, I practiced on “flowers” instead.

It was quite interesting working with five different shuttles. I took the advice in the book and used a ziplock baggie to keep them all from tangling.  It was still quite a challenge, especially while traveling.  The color order of the flowers was not quite random, but pretty close.  If I had more practice time I would have made a few more leaves along the flowers and done some inter-weaving of the branches.  Whatever my “woulda, shoulda, coulda” I’m happy with how it turned out.  I think I’ll call this #2 in my current 25 Motif Challenge.

I added one of Jon’s dragonflies to the top of the album, using the Lime Green and some green seed beads.  I made a second dragonfly in the same colors to add to the gift bag. I glued it to one of those little gripper clips you put in your hair. I could kick myself – I didn’t even think to take a picture of it!  It really set off the bag, which was white and off-white with white tissue paper.  The clip was added to the handle – a little bit of color peaking out.

The wedding was in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, and as previously mentioned, about 550 miles from where we live.  We rented a van so one of our daughters and her children, ages three and one, could go with us.  Our daughter, who travels quite a bit with her children, has one of those travel DVD players with two screens so both of the children can watch comfortably.  This is a real lifesaver if you are traveling a long distance.  But I do recommend to take more than one movie with you, for the sanity of the adults on the trip.  Children seem to be quite happy watching the same one over, and over, and over, and over…  My daughter thought I was bringing the movies with me and I thought she was bringing the movies, so we ended up with just the one in the player – Puss In Boots.  (We bought another movie in Scotts Bluff for on the way home – The Princess and the Frog.)

My grandson is a big fan of Puss in Boots.

And for those who would like to know the original story, check it out here.

“Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement, and love without penalties.”
W.L. George

Read more athttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/cats_2.html#lvYUfwVmgTEyCzil.99