Greek key beading using pearl and gold beads

My, doesn’t time fly when boring things have to be done! The refining and reducing of possessions garnered over our two families’ lifetimes (mine and my husband’s, 7 children in all) has culminated in us bringing the final dregs to a storage unit in Cheltenham. I say dregs in a rather offhand superficial way for in truth there was much to cause joy and delight utterly essential to any sort of decent happy life. Twenty or more boxes of my husband’s research material were welcomed to his bosom like the long lost friends they were and to his credit they disappeared into his minute study (shelves on every wall) in less time than you could read the daily newspaper (The Times not The Sun, obviously). Another Manhattan tower of boxes contains children’s books and these are earmarked to come to London for the burgeoning library here (because that’s where I am at the moment). And then there are my own collection of sewing and knitting books which, though not really essential in today’s world with so much online, I still cling to. As for the brown cardboard boxes marked ‘Zips’, ‘Ribbon’, ‘Bias Binding and Rick Rack’ ‘Blind & Curtain Fittings’, etc. I find I’m just not quite ready to get rid of them yet.  Finally – I wish – there are the boxed sets of children’s toys I’ve kept for the next generation. Surprisingly it all looks rather manageable and we hope to do away with the need for the extra storage in a few months time. Meanwhile another unit in the same store was taken out for daughter No 2’s possessions while she works abroad. My dreams are still full of boxes.

Greek key beading i(2″ and 1″ wide) pearl and gold beads

Well, that’s my excuse for the rapid fly by of the last few weeks – that and one of those colds you pick up from small children. You know the sort. They get it mildly while you are pathetically lethargic and find breathing while also lying down almost impossible. The grandson’s flu jab has been booked.

Greek key beading

Never mind, here is some beading done by my eighteen-year-old self for an evening dress. I  had a bee in my bonnet that I wanted a white crepe dress with bead banding in a Greek key design just under the bust and around the hem. Accordingly I set to beading  – the broad band is about 2″ wide and 33” long  while the narrow band is 1″ wide and about 100″ long – and making the dress.  I then took myself to Glyndebourne for the premier of a modern opera (no other tickets available) and spent the evening in such a haze of wonder I have little memory of it, though I do still remember the wonderful weight of the beaded hem thwacking and swishing around my ankles as I walked. The dress has disappeared but the beading remains. What shall I do with it?