if you've recently rec;d my business card...

Hi everyone! I know it's been 5 long months since i've posted but i've been busy, busy, busy!

I've recently handed out several business cards which point to this blog. If you're interested in seeing more of my work/jewelry you can browse through my blog here and see exactly what it is I do. You can also head right to my Facebook Page for The Talia Effect and check out the jewelry items i've made and that are up for sale right now :) You can contact me directly by inboxing me there & we can discuss which piece(s) you are interested in OR we can make something custom to fit your needs. I love a challenge and i love making new things, thinking outside of the box, so challenge me! I'd love to work with you! I have done pieces from formal dances, proms, every day jewelry, bridal jewelry & bridal party jewelry.

My specialties are in the following areas:

*teaching (any area of my work: jewelry making, sewing, quilting, crazy quilting, needle tatting & much much more, just ask! My fees vary per your interest and usually I travel to your home.) If you need recommendations i can provide both personal & professional references. I teach for Hamilton Twp, NJ Board of Education Night School and I also have students that i've taught 1:1.

I can teach you:

-the basics of how to operate your sewing machine

-basic sewing lessons starting with making a pillow with a zipper

-pattern reading & construction of clothing

-beginners quilting & intermediate quilting (paper piecing etc)

-crazy quilting, which is highly embellished pieces of art quilting

-needle tatting (18th Century Lace Making)

-crocheting (i've been crocheting for 25 years)

and basic jewelry making

All fees are my fees outside of cost of materials. I can help direct you to the places & websites you need to go to for the best prices or in some cases i have kits made up available for purchase.

In closing, again i'd like to direct you to my facebook page where you can see some of my work. If you're interested please inbox me there & we can talk.

Merry Meet & Cheers to all!

taliana belladonna

CQ RR, Artfire Sale, CoF Retreat and more!

Hello blog land!  It's been over a month since my last post and wow, do I have so much to update you on!

Ok, let's do this in chronological order so that my little mind can get everything!  

We'll start with the last 5 peeks that belonged to two people in my CQ RR.

These were Libby's 2 peeks:

The first peek was a spray of flowers that I saw in the Silk Ribbon Embroidery Bible.  The 2nd peek is just a small area of a large scale seam treatment that looks really cool when seen as a whole. 

These next three peeks were for Shelly: 

The first picture - the "beaded ribbon" was inspiration that came from Jo in NZ's blog.  I am a big fan of hers and since she posted hers, i've really wanted to try it.  It was pretty easy, just time consuming.  The picture looks a little silly because the peek had some other girls' work in it and i couldn't show that :)  The 2nd picture was an embroidered Eiffel Tower.  I had seen that in a motif book that was sent to me by a good friend, another thing i had really wanted to do and that was fun too, so much fun to see it come along!  Lastly I beaded a piece of dyed lace. 

So Shelly's block was the last one in our group for me to complete and I got mine back!  First girl in the swap to get hers back and I was just so excited and when I received it, it just brought me to tears, it is phenomenal to say the least!  

This is how my block was sent off, naked to begin with:

This is how my block came home to me, so gorgeous isn't it?!

A couple close ups, you can click on the 2 images above for high resolution pictures, but here are a few:

This is work done by Rae & Shelly.  Shelly did the heart and Rae did the rest:

Organza flowers by Mary:

Center faerie wings done by Shelly, she calls herself a newbie... isn't that just ree-diculous!?

The swirls were done by Lisa

The crystals on the black were done by Edna

Button cluster top left by Shelly

So yeah... can you just imagine the shock and awe I was in?!  I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed getting it back... well maybe you can't be that excited ;)

Over the weekend, I had my very first artfire sale!  It was so very exciting!  My needle tatted choker "Dianthus" sold to (get this) a woman who will be wearing it on her wedding day!!!  Well, didn't I just feel like as proud as a peacock!  She then asked me if she could commission me to make the jewelry for her bridal party!?  6 bridesmaids, a flower girl, her mom & step mom.  WOW!!!!  

Here is the choker she purchased:

The necklaces that her bridal party will be wearing will be 2 & 4 strand "illusion necklaces" with pink & clear swarovski crystals.  Her wedding is in August and she said she'd e-mail me photos so that I can use them promotionally... even more cool!

The past few days I've been making jewelry.  I've been wanting to make jewelry again a lot so since all of my sewing obligations are now finished, I can focus on jewelry making oh, and adding more to my artfire store.  My friend Erica is doing the write ups for me because I am just not clever enough to describe my items & she's just doing a bang up job!  I'm going to add pictures even though I hate inside pictures with flash!  It just washes everything out.  I need to get outside to get some good natural daylight photos!

I still have lots more ideas, and I cannot wait to make more!  If you'd like something custom made or if you'd like to check out my artfire studio, the link is: Talia's Artfire Studio

Oh, earlier I mentioned Jo in NZ... a few weeks ago, I ordered her book: SEAMS Like Fun

it was a lot of fun to page through, her work is just so beautiful.  I encourage anyone interested in CQ (whether you've jumped in or you're still just collecting items, waiting to jump in) to make the purchase!  They're reasonably priced and you can find them in her etsy pagre.

In December I ordered an industrial sewing machine & table from harborfreight.com.  Well, first it was back ordered for something like 8 weeks, so I didn't get it until February.  My mom's boyfriend was putting it together only to come across the pulley on the motor being cracked! :(  When I called harborfrieght to ask them to send me a replacement part they wouldn't and told me I had 2 options: 1. return just the 42lb motor and i'd have to wait for it because it was on back order or 2.  I could return the entire machine (over 100lbs) back to them, shipping paid, and they'd send me a whole new machine.  What the hell?!  The machine, complete with the motor was in stock, but the motors individually weren't.  They came separately.  Well, I was so beside myself.  Part of the machine was already put together with oil in the bin and everything!!!  I couldn't go taking it back apart and loading that monstrous thing into a box and to the PO!  So, I took the part to my lqs that repairs machines to see if they could order the part.  (That was back in the 2nd week of February)  Well, to make a long story short... the part just came in Monday!  Almost 4 months!  What a tease and a bit of a disappointment.  I just hope when he gets back over here that we don't come across anymore broken parts.  Luckily for me, since the lqs was having so many problems with the people they were ordering the part from, they kindly gave it to me for free!  So i saved $15-$20!  Lucky me!  Now it probably won't get put together until after I get home from the retreat, but that's ok because I won't have time to learn to play with it before then.  I've only sewn on one once and that was enough to understand the speed and power of it!  

Lastly, I've been packing my suitcase because in 2 weeks, I'll be leaving on a jet plane ;)  Heading to Manchester, NH to reunite with old friends and make new at the HGTV Quilting & Needlwork Messageboard Circle of Friends Retreat (CoF)!  I'll be staying from Thursday thru Sunday.  My suitcase is half packed and I just keep piling items in it.  There are still things I need to complete to bring with, but things are coming along!  We're making the "Miranda Day Bag"  I'll be making a large and a small bag.  I love, love, love the fabrics I have picked out and i cannot wait to see my new bags!  I know i'll be using one of them for tatting.  I might just have to make the other one day to day practical because I don't want them collecting dust, they're going to be too pretty!

Well!  I think that is all for now!  I hope to get back to blogging at least once a week!  

Cheers!

Where does the time go?!

Ya know, can we talk?  Last time I posted it was January 15th... where has the time gone?!  Perhaps into my sewing... and i've got the work to prove it!  Taking the WedgeWorks class proved to be much more fruitful than I thought.  Here, i actually did have plenty of time to work on the blocks and it was a challenge but you know, in the end aren't the challenges what make us feel most rewarded?  The fighting, the thinking, the struggling, the lack of the one fabric you need most of... lol!  Yep, I used from my stash thinking 'oh i'll just stash bust' and stupid me could've slapped myself silly when I ran short about a yard of the ONE fabric that was so important to be recurring in each of the China Blue Sampler blocks... It actually made a cameo in the Star O'er Bethlehem block below too... hey!!  so did the other light blue fabric!!!  See, i have favorites and i'm not afraid to admit it!  The fabric line I fell so madly, deeply, crazily in love with was Floret line from Blanktextiles.com I mean aren't those just absolutely beautiful delicious?!  The color array and the design just make me want to eat my heart out!  I have a few of those but not nearly as many as i'd like to have!  I seem to have digressed a bit here lol!  Ok, so I ran out of the Night color (seriously isn't this like amazing... too bad it's all out of print!)  I of course found some on my saviour site: thousandsofbolts.com i love that site and i cannot stress love enough.  So here I am in my creative ocean just flowing and going with it and bam!  I run out of that fabric, so I had to place the order and wait a few days for it.  My goal for this class was to make one Persian Star and the China Blue Sampler.  In making the China Blue sampler, I noticed that in order to get the same effect the author had displayed the directions were absolutely inadequate and I had to start drawing things out, trace the template and draw the 'design' i wanted onto the template so I knew where to cut my fabrics.  That was a 10 hour day in and out of it all.  Yikes!  I am so glad I had that "ohh!!!! i have an idea" moment and thought to trace the template out onto paper and go from there because otherwise I just could not picture in my head how in the world I was going to recreate these blocks!  Trust me, if you have the book and you attempt this, you'll understand what I mean by all of that.  

Now back to the goals of the class... I figure, If I could make that star, yay for me!  I'd mat and frame it and be merry.  Well let me just telllll you!  These stars are like Lays potato chips... you can't have just one.  And of course me, in my silly 'stash busting' mode had used fabric from my stash that I had limited amounts of.  This one however, I was not so lucky with because it came from Joann fabrics and I don't have the sku #.  It seems they don't have it now and of course, this was my background fabric lol!!!  I'm on a roll here right?!  So, I decided since there are 8 stars in the quilt (oh yes, I decided to go for it and make the WHOLE darn quilt!  as if I need another quilt, and no I most certainly will not give this one away!) I would do 2 of the same and make 4 sets of 2.  Ok grand!  So far i've made the 4 blocks for the China Blue Sampler but they are still circular, I have to set them into the squares and I've made one Persian Star but I do have fabric cut and ready to start sewing to make more.  

Here are the pictures:

Persian Star

Block #10 China Blue Sampler

Block #7 China Blue Sampler

Block #5 China Blue Sampler

Block #3 China Blue Sampler

Ok, next on my list... well this really wasn't on my list but yesterday I made a pair of earrings that i am in love with!  I am calling them Tears of the Moon:

they measure 5.25" from the top of the ear hook to the bottom of the pendant.  I noticed that photographs rarely do jewlery any justice.  Oh well, in real life they sparkle like crazy!

I did work on a few other things but I cannot post because they are Secret Sister related, and who knows if she'll pop into my blog ;)

Lastly, I've been (unsuccessfully) trying to tat one basket a day, but I do have like 9 or 10 done so far!  I'll have to take a picture of them later and post :)

Happy creating everyone!

Finally Made Something For Me!

I was originally making this as a gift and then I just kept falling more and more in love with it!  Of course that doesn't mean I won't duplicate it for the recipient ;) but I just love it!  It is my first charm bracelet of this magnitude, it's very jangly and is just full of charms and crystal!  What fun!  Here are a bunch of pictures with close ups.  I can't wait to wear it!

 

CQ Ornament Swap!

I joined a CQ Ornament swap about 2 months ago VERY excited, having thought of this earlier in the year.  I kept thinking "wouldn't it be so beautiful to have a tree full of small crazy quilted ornaments?!"  And then, it happened!  Unfortunately for me it came at a time where I had already committed myself to so many other things, including paid work, so I could only make 2.  I had hoped for at least 12, i mean jeesh! Nevertheless I made my two and here they are!  Of course I love the one with all of the silk ribbon embroidery.  On the 2nd one I know something is missing over the tatting... i just don't know what.  I hope whoever receives them enjoys them!  Those little bees and critters are so fun to make!  The tatting is mine, i just added some gold seed beads for a holiday effect.

3 Classes and One Crazy Teacher...

Teaching was something I have been interested in since I was young.  I'd play school with my sister, make handouts, had a chalkboard and all these things.  About 4 years ago i looked into getting the degree i'd need to teach high school English (one of my favorites) and that didn't work out.  About a month ago i started getting the 'itch' to teach again and wondered what I could teach and what I would teach if given the chance to.  I started talking to Allan and my best friend about the opportunity and dediced that Crazy Quilting would be a fun thing to teach because you don't hear of it much (or at least around here.)  I had been wondering if I could get a position teaching through the way i had learned to sew.  Every Spring and Fall our township offers Continuing Education Classes for adults.  A variety of things from Italian Cooking to sewing to baking to knitting to dancing and more.  I had the catalog and while I was on the phone with my best friend talking to her about the opportunity and how nervous I was, I looked in the back of the catalogue and sure enough it said: Instructors Wanted.  Hmmm.... I'd surely call tomorrow and find out the details.  So I called and the women i spoke with had mentioned how exciting it was because they had been looking for a quilting teacher since the last one had gotten ill.  I advised this wasn't just basic quilt piecing and they still, were excited.  I applied and soon after got the e-mail asking for my 'blurb' for the catalog!  So, come Spring I will be teaching a Tuesday night class and a Thursday night class on CQing!  The class will run for 8 weeks and the Tuesday and Thursday night classes will be different groups.

Not too long after, I headed up to Burlington to my favorite local quilt shop: Olde City Quilts.  I rent a long arm there and I just love the shop, love the staff and the owner, Judy, is such a warm, sweet person to be around.   Rae, one of the women who work there, had complimented my bracelet which i had made that morning before I headed over.  She had told Judy to come back and check it out too.  

In talking to Rae and Judy I had mentioned that I am a needle tatter.  Showed some of my work and Judy had said "You should teach a class!"  I also mentioned my CQing and she said the same thing!  I e-mailed her some photos of my work and last week i brought some CQ work in to show her.  She said "I'd love to put you on the calendar for January, maybe you could teach a Valentine's Day theme class for this?"  I happily agreed.  She asked if I could make a store sample and that is what i am working on now.  These are 2 naked hearts that I will start filling in with red, white and pink embellishments and stitches.  They will be the class samples.

I am nervous but with the help of my dear friend Kathy who has been amazing and so helpful she is helping me with my class outline, handouts and things like that.  Actually, she asked me for a class outline and a list of supplies needed and she just took off with it, creating all of the paperwork i will need.  I am sure that you could only imagine what having a friend like that feels like!  Having her as a friend is a major blessings in my life.  Her enthusiasm and encouragement are constant, she makes me feel like this is something I could really do, really succeed at.  Kathy is a woman whose kindness, helpfulness and encouragement know no bounds, and for that, I am grateful.  I ♥ you Kathy!

Crystal Jewelry

Ok one more! This year i also learned how to make jewelry! This is fun for me because i am not a fan of diamonds and things of that sort, but i LOVE swarovski crystal! My friend Kristen was making all of my jewelry for so long and i finally really wanted to learn how! And so i did! I am so appreciative to my friend Kristen for just being an inspiration to me with all of the beautiful pieces she has made for me and other people.  I am of course not quite the master she is and I may never be, but just knowing the basics is great.  Jewelry makes great gifts and some pieces work up quickly and easily.  If interested Kristin does beautiful custom work, her website is: K's Sparkle Creations.

Pictured are some of the pieces i've made. The blue and black set was made for NickiLee as a thank you for all the buy ins she's hosted and for all of her help along the way, teaching me to CQ. She is a lover of all things blue! So i saw those beads in the store and i could not resist. I came right home and just went at it. The biggest compliment was when she e-mailed me telling me she put the earrings right on and went to the post office and one of the women who work there complimented her earrings! It's those little moments in life! ..isn't it!?

The black and clear woven set was for my sister for Mother's Day! They look gorgeous on and they just float. The multi-colored woven bracelet was my first woven, i was so pleased with the way i came out, but i still haven't made one for myself. Need more time! Need more time!