A Little Crazy Quilt Eye Candy!

I've gotten a little behind on things like email and blogging lately!  I've been doing some organizing, cleaning out, straightening up and so on.  Getting the house ready to the best of my ability to hold crazy quilt classes here. 

My husband is in the process of painting the hallway upstairs.  When the tree hit our house back at Christmas of 2009, it cracked some of the drywall upstairs.  As many of you know, I went into a horrible state of depression a week later and it wasn't until now that I've been able to focus on getting him to fix the drywall and and repaint for me.  I'll paint the trim as soon as he has the walls painted.  It's hard to keep him in the house this time of year.  He loves to be outside and I can certainly understand that but I asked him to focus that ADD mind of his and try to get the painting done by the end of this coming weekend.

My next project is to repaint the bathroom which I've been planning on too since before the nightmare depression hit me.  So that's next on my list when the hallway is done.

As you know, my Marie Antoinette Crazy quilt is completely done now.  Well, I still need to make a quilt label for it which I'll do tomorrow.  Once I get it hung on the wall, I'll share a final presentation with you.  I also bought a rod today for my Button quilt which will hang in the bedroom over my husband's dresser.  I need to make a quilt label for that tomorrow as well.  When I have that hanging on the wall, I'll share another photo.

I have been doing a little stitching and worked up these two little crazy quilt door pillows:

Wait till you see how I finish these!  They'll be a little different than the way usually do my door pillows.

In other news, I've just finished up another round of horrible Zoloft withdrawals.  Every time my Dr.drops the dosage, it's 8 weeks of pure concentrated hell.  I didn't really plan on talking about depression too much anymore but I'm thinking, that maybe it would be helpful to someone if I just talked about the withdrawals, the symptoms and coping skills for getting through it.  Is anyone interested in me writing about that?  Please leave comments for me and let me know.

For now, I'm off to fold laundry.  Yeah, that's what I live for!  LOL!!!

1925 Bakers Chocolate Recipe Book

Ya'll know how much I love to bake!  And I love anything vintage as well!  I've been collecting vintage baking booklets for quite a few years now.  I find them for a few dollars here and there in my flea market and antique shop travels.

The prize in my collection is this 1925 Bakers Chocolate Recipe Booklet.  It's loaded with recipes for chocolate and cocoa:

I've made a Free PDF file of this little Chocolate Book available in my Cottage Boutique.  Enjoy!

How To Assemble A CrazyQuilt - Step 7

There's one final step in finishing a crazy quilt.  We need to hold the front of the quilt to the back of the quilt.  The best way I've found to do this is to sew buttons onto the back:

I simply sew a button on the back of the quilt at every intersection with the exception of where the sleeve is.  My stitches on the front of the quilt are hidden behind the trim.  These buttons also add extra support to the quilt.

I hope you have found this tutorial for finishing a crazy-quilt helpful!  I will have a final presentation of my Marie Antoinette crazy quilt for you next week.  Before I hang it, I want to show a few friends in person.

Be sure to see the entire tutuorial for How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt!

How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt - Steps 5 and 6

On to steps 5 and 6 of How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt.

Step 5

At this point, we're going to add the sleeve for hanging the quilt.  It will be done entirely by machine so no hand sewing will be necessary.

First, you'll want to trim away the excess foundation fabric as I've done here:

If you find you need a helper, one your cats will always be more than willing.  A little too willing!  LOL!!!  This is Simba!  He always helps me assemble my crazyquilts.

To make the sleeve for my quilt, I cut a piece of the backing fabric about 2 inches narrower than the width of the quilt.  The length will be determined by the width of the rod used for hanging.  In my case, my quilt rod is 1 1/2 inches around so I cut my sleeve approx. 9 inches in length.  Yes, I make my sleeves much bigger than I need:

Fold this piece in 1/2 lengthwise and sew up the side seams:

Turn this piece right side out and press the seams.

Top stitch the raw edges along the top of the sleeve:

Next, you're going to want to cut your backing fabric the same size as your quilt.  I use a heavy Quilter's Cotton on the back of my crazy quilts:

At this point, you're also going to want to make sure your quilt is square and the edges are straight.  If you made sure your squares were square and straight and when you sewed the blocks together, your quilt should be square and straight.  The edges might just need a little trim so do that now.

Next, pin the sleeve, with the raw edges at the top of the right side of your backing fabric.  Pin, pin, pin!  Use a 1/4 inch seam allowance for this step.  When you have the raw edge sewn down, top stitch the bottom edge of the sleeve onto the backing fabric close to edge.

Remove all pins and press the backing fabric.

Step 6

With right sides together, pin the quilt top to the back making sure that your sleeve is at the top of the quilt:

Pin, pin, pin!!!!!  Pin the top of your quilt to the back of your quilt.  You'll be sewing this like a pillowcase.  You will have to leave a large opening at the bottom of your quilt for turning right side out.  I start at the bottom, sew about 6 inches, turn and sew all the way around until I get back to the bottom and then sew only about another 6 inches.  Again, I use a 1/2 inch seam allowance on crazy quilts.

When you're done sewing, remove all pins and trim the corners so they don't bunch up then carefully turn your quilt right side out.  Press the seams and then hand-sew the opening closed using a blind stitch.

I will have the final step for you soon.  In the meantime, be sure to see the entire How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt Tutorial.

How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt - Steps 3 & 4

Steps 3 and 4 in the Crazy Quilt assembly process are both optional.  In the case of my Marie Antoinette quilt, I wanted to sash my blocks with a pretty pink trim..  This has to be done at this point.  If you choose to use trim to sash your blocks, add that now:

I hand sewed the trim on down the seam lines.

Step 4 - Adding Borders

Again, this step is optional.  If you choose to add borders to your crazyquilt, this is how I do it.

First, you'll have to decide on how wide you want your borders.  I wanted 3 inch borders on this quilt and since I'm using 1/2 seam allowances, I cut my fabric strips 4 inches wide.

There are several ways to sew the borders on but I chose the easiest for this quilt.  I added the side borders first and then did the top and bottom borders.

Lay your first border face down on your quilt.  Line up the edges and pin, pin, pin!

Repeat the process on the other side border.  Now you can sew them down.  If you're wondering how to find your 1/4 inch or 1/2 seam allowance when the markings on your sewing machine are covered up by the foundation fabric, what I do is to measure and mark my seam allowance:

I use an air dissolving pen but you can use a pencil if you'd like.  Mark you seam allowance every 2 inches and keep your marks small.

When you have both the side seams sewn down, remove the pins and press your seams.

Next, pin those first 2 borders down onto the foundation fabric, then add your top & bottom border repeating the process:

Again, remove the pins, press your seams and pin those borders down to the foundation fabric:

Trim any excess border fabric and then top stitch the edge of the border to the foundation fabric.  You just want to sew it down along the outer edge.

At this point, I chose to hand sew more of my trim around the seam where the borders meet the quilt blocks:

If there is anything else you would like to sew on to your quilt, now is the time!

In Step 5 & 6, I will show you how to add a sleeve for hanging and how to add the "pretty" back at the same time.

Be sure to see Steps 1 and 2 of my How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt on my Tutorials Page.

How To Assemble A CrazyQuilt - Step 2

I've completed Step 2 of the assembly process on my Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt.  If there's one coping skill that I've learned with having ADD/ADHD, it's how to break things down into manageable portions!

Assembling any type of quilt can be overwhelming however, when we take the time to look at each step of the process, and focus on only one step at a time, it instantly becomes more "doable".

Step 2

The 2nd step in assembling a crazy quilt is to sew the blocks together.  My crazyquilts are quite heavy due to all the embellishments that I add to them.  To give the quilt stability and to support the weight of the quilt, I sew my quilts down onto yet another foundation.  For this, I use a heavy weight muslin.  This helps to distribute the weight evenly and keeps it from sagging when the quilt is finally hanging on the wall.

So the first part of Step 2 is to sew the blocks vertically into strips:

Again, I leave a 1/2 seam allowance and I also use the Zipper Foot for my sewing machine.  Using the Zipper Foot allows me to get right up to where my beading ends without the pressure foot having to deal with going over the beads along the edge.

So in the case of my Marie quilt, I now have 3 vertical strips consisting of 3 blocks each.  Now we will start sewing it down onto the foundation fabric.

Center the middle strip, right side up, onto your foundation fabric.  Next, line up one of the side strips face down on top of the middle section. 

Pin, pin, pin along the sewing line.  Pin all the layers down onto the foundation fabric.

You will want to pin the opposite side down as well to keep your blocks straight and in place while you sew the first seam.

Now it's time to sew:

When you have everything secured and well pinned, sew that first seam directly down onto the foundation fabric.

When you're done, remove all the pins and flip over your strip:

Repeat the process for each vertical seam making sure to line up your seams and pinning, pinning, pinning!

Once you have your quilt all sewn down to your foundation fabric, make sure everything good and flat.  Pin all the way around the outside of your quilt and then top stitch with your machine along the outside edge.  I use a 1/4 inch seam for this.

This will the hold the entire quilt in place onto your foundation:

So that's it for step 2.  It's really quite easy once you understand how to sew your quilt onto the foundation fabric rather than just sewing the blocks together.

I'll have Step 3 ready soon!  Be sure to see Step 1 of How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt.

ECommerce Help For Small Businesses

For my readers who have a Small Online Business, I thought I'd share real quick, a service that I found to help increase traffic to your site. 

Arcadecache - Affordable SEO help for the Small Online Business Owner.

I was having some trouble with my Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  SEO is learning to work with Tags and Keywords so that your site shows up in the search engines and people can find you!

Anyway, Arcadecache is a very reliable and affordable service.  They are well versed in helping Etsy and Ebay shop owners as well as those who have their own domain like I do. 

If you're not getting much traffic or sales, you might want to try Arcadecache.  I'm quite pleased with the fast and friendly, reliable service that they've given me. And they're quite affordable!!!

Custom Crazyquilting

I had a couple of custom orders that I finished up this week and thought I'd share photos for everyone to enjoy!

First is one of my Crazyquilt Cat Dolls.  The request for a cat doll in seafoam green:

Believe it or not, I don't have a lot of fabrics in seafoam green but at least I had enough for this little kitty doll.  A I don't think there's any color that goes better with seafoam green than pink!

Next, I had a custom order for a cellphone pouch.  The request was for a pouch in pinks, mauves and blue/greens with a hummingbird:

I must say, I think this is one of the prettiest cellphone cases I've made yet!  The trim at the bottom was hand-crocheted by mom.

Ladies, I'll get your orders out in today's mail!  Thank you so much!

How To Assemble A CrazyQuilt - Step 1

Since I'm putting my Marie Antoinette CrazyQuilt together, I thought I would share step by step, the process that I use to assemble my crazyquilts.  I know other crazyquilters have shared their process but I'm sure we all do things a little differently.

How To Assemble A Crazyquilt

Step 1

The first step is to trim and square up the blocks.  I use a self-healing mat and a rotary cutter:

You may be wondering why I have so much extra fabric.  I like to stitch in hoop.  Many crazyquilter's don't but for me, without a hoop, my hand gets tired  Using a hoop also keeps my stitching from distorting the blocks.  The excess foundation fabric is so the block fits in my 12 inch quilters hoop.

I always allow a 1/2 inch seam allowance.  Again, many crazyquilters leave the traditional seam allowance of 1/4 inch. I prefer to leave a 1/2 inch seam for crazyquilts.  The reason for this is due to the variety of fabrics and thicknesses.  A 1/2 seam will lay flat no matter what fabrics are used.

The blocks for my Marie Antoinette quilt are 9 inch blocks.  With a 1/2 inch seam allowance, my blocks are trimmed to 10 inches.

 Now that my blocks are all trimmed up, I will start sewing it together.  Due to the weight of my crazyquilts, I sew my quilts down onto yet another foundation.  I'll show you how in Step 2.

Cards With Glitter

I thought for today, I would share a few of our new handmade Cards With Glitter.  I usually go over to mom's a couple of times a week and one of our favorite things to do is to make cards.  We use vintage greeting cards, recycled newer cards, rubber stamps and loads of sparkly glitter:

These and lot's more can be found in our Cottage Boutique!  Don't laugh, but we're already working on some Fall cards!  We have to work a season in advance!

I had planned on squaring up the blocks for my Marie Antoinette quilt today but I didn't get to it.  Bubba is in the process of repainting the hallway and some of his stuff on the counter in the kitchen where I do my fabric cutting.  Instead, I did some stitching.  It's supposed to be nice tomorrow.  I think I'll do a bit of yard work and then try again to work on my Marie Quilt.

Designer Cellphone Cases

I finally had time to do the finishing on these cellphone cases that I stitched last week:

I don't think I could pick a favorite as I really love them both!  Any cellphone, IPhone or Blackberry Phone will fit in these pouches which measure 6 inches high X 4 inches wide.  They are fully lined with a large snap closure.  My purses and pouches are padded (between the layers) for added protection and stability.  I use iron-on fleece!

I have another style of cellphone cases that I make and I sewed up a few blocks a couple of weeks back.  I'm looking forward to stitching on those.

First, I want to do the finishing on my Marie Antoinette quilt which I plan to start on this weekend.

I guess that's my news for today.  We went from 95 degrees yesterday to 65 degrees today.  I can't believe it's June and I have to keep switching back & forth between my Heat and my A/C!  Isn't this some crazy weather?

Elegant Crazyquilt Seam Treatments - Try Me Patterns

If you've been considering my Elegant Crazyquilt Seam Treatments EBooks, I thought you might enjoy trying a few patterns first.  I worked up 2 charted borders for you to use on your Crazy Quilt seams using Waste Canvas:

If you've done Counted Cross Stitch, you'll know how to work with Waste Canvas.  If you haven't, the basic principle is that one square on the grid = 1 stitch on the Waste Canvas.  It's a matter of counting out your stitches and duplicating them on your Crazy Quilt.  Full directions are available in Volume 1 of my Ebook.

For Crazyquilting, I recommend using 8.5 count or 10 count Waste Canvas.

If you already have my Ebooks, then please, enjoy these new additions to your seam treatment collection!

Marie Antoinette Quilt

I arranged the Marie Antoinette crazyquilt blocks in one image so you can see how the quilt will look when it's put together:

I have pink satin for the outside border and a pretty trim to hand sew on the seams.  Couldn't you just stare at this all day long and never get anything else done?  LOL!!!

Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt - 9 Blocks Completed!

I'm pleased to say that I have completed the stitching on all 9 blocks of my Marie Antoinette Crazyquilt!

Block #9

Block #8

Block #7

Block #6

Block #5

Block #4

Block #3

Block #2

 Block #1

Blocks before stitching:

As soon as I get a few other things finished and caught up, I'll start the assembly process on this quilt.  I have everything I need to finish it and I'd like to complete it before I teach my next Crazyquilt class so I can take it with me!