The Top Is Done

It took me 6 days but I finally completed the top of the McHenry Landmark Crazy Quilt:

 

 

The lace, trim, yo-yo flowers and buttons are all sewn on by hand.  The lace is vintage, given to me by my mother in law.  The buttons are vintage Mother Of Pearl.  Took me hours to go through my stash and find enough of them with the shank and the right size!  The leaves have vintage 2 hole MOP of buttons on them too but they have a green tint to them.  They kind of blend in which is what I wanted.  The only thing not vintage are the little vines.  That trim is in my stash and I thought it was perfect to go with the little blue flowers.

 

Here's a closeup of one of the corners:

 

So the next thing to do is go to Hobby Lobby and get the backing fabric and about 50 black buttons to sew on the back for the purpose of holding the layers together so it doesn't sag while hanging.  Despite no do-dads other than buttons, this quilt is quite heavy.  

 

It measures 65 inches wide X 55 inches high.

 

Be sure to click on the photos to see them up close.

 

I'm going to take a little break before finishing it up.  I had to do all the hand sewing while sitting on the floor.  My back needs the break! 

 

When it completed, it will hand in my hallway.  I'm planning on doing a presentation on it for the Historical Society at some point. 

Back To The McHenry Landmark Crazy Quilt

It's been awhile since I've been able to work on the McHenry Illinois Landmark Crazy Quilt.  When my dad got sick, I had to put everything on the back burner so I could focus on taking care of him.  He actually helped me arrange the blocks before he got sick!

Anyway, I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday. That was tough.  All I could think about was mom.  We used to go there together and spend hours just looking at everything!!

Anyway, I bought black satin for the borders so I'll get to sewing that on over the weekend.  Then I can do the handwork. 

I have some vintage lace that my mother in law gave me so I plan to hand-sew that on and then I'll be adding all these little fabric yo-yo's in the corners.  I think I made these while dad was in the hospital:

These will go in the corners as flower sprays.  I will use vintage "Mother Of Pearl" buttons in the centers and probably add some embroidered vines.

But one step at a time.  Once the border fabric is on, I'll have to hand sew more of that trim around the perimeter of the blocks.

So....Methinks I'll actually get it done soon!  But the handwork will take me awhile!  Wish me luck! 

 

Shamrocks

 Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!

 

 

 

Free St. Patrick's Day Cross Stitch Chart

I worked up a little St. Patrick's Day freebie cross stitch pattern a few weeks ago.  Almost forgot to post about it!  This is a little Four Leaf Clover design.

Here's the link where you can download this PDF and my entire free cross stitch pattern collection.

Happy Stitching! 

New Cross Stitch Patterns Colorful Cats for March and July (America 250 Cat)

In December, I started a news series of Colorful Cats Cross Stitch Patterns.  One for each month of the year.  January and February were released a few weeks ago but now I have 2 more patterns but I didn't do them entirely in sequence.  

March of course has a Springy St. Patrick's Day theme complete with a few Shamrocks for good luck!!

But then I skipped to July.  There's a method to my madness. I wanted everyone to have time to complete the special America 250 cat in time for Independence Day.

 

These are now available for purchase.  Ask you favorite needlework shops for my patterns or find them here:  kittyandme.etsy.com