Wish You Painted Your Lace?

I've been stitching along on my current Crazy Quilt Purse project.  When I first chose my lace pieces, I liked the way they looked in white.  Once I had my seams embroidered, I decided I should have painted my lace:

It looked very stark to me so what did I do since my lace was already sewn on and embroidered?  I grabbed my colored pencils:

I have the watercolor colored pencils so once I colored my lace, I used a small paint brush dipped in water to blend the color into the fibers:

You don't want to soak the lace because you don't want it bleeding into the background fabric.  Just a light dab of water will help the color blend into the fibers of the lace.

This is a great way to deal with coloring fabric, lace or trim after it's sewn on.

Hand Needle Felted Halloween Mouse

My sister Kathi made this absolutely adorable, little hand needle felted Halloween mouse:

Is this absolutely precious or what!!!  I really don't know how Kathi does these soft sculptured dolls out of wool!  I can do needle felting but not the beautiful things that Kathi makes!

Stitching A Purse

Lesson 9 of my Online stitching class is done!  All I have to do is to type it up and send to Jason.  I'll share a sneak peek with ya'll tomorrow.

In the meantime, I started stitching on this purse:

It doesn't look all that exciting at the moment, so stay tuned!  Once I get more of the seam embroidery done, I'll post close up photos of them.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

The other day, I had some very ripe Bananas that I didn't want to go to waste.  I hate throwing food away.  I made what I always make with over ripe bananas, Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins.  My sister Kathi always tells people I put chocolate in everything but that's really not true.  I never put chocolate in my Blueberry Muffins or my Apple Muffins or my Apple Cake.  But chocolate and Bananas really go well together!  And chocolate after all, IS a food group!  Well, it is in my book!  LOL!!!

Anyway, now that it's just about Fall, I bake more often so you'll be seeing some more recipes pop up on my blog from time to time.  Here's my recipe for Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
5 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup vegetable oil
5 bananas
1 12 ounce back Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, mash bananas.  Use a fork or potato masher.  In another bowl, combine all dry ingredients.  In a Pyrex pitcher or another bowl, combine wet ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the bananas and mix well.  Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and mix well.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Line cupcake pans with paper liners and fill to the top.  I always add sprinkles!  That makes them pretty!

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 22 - 25 minutes (until done).

Enjoy!

Edwardian Lady Purse

Now that my Crazy Quilt  Christmas Purse is finished, it's time to start a new project.  Well, as soon as I finish stitching up the example for Lesson 9 of my Crazy Quilt Online Course.

This is the block I'll be working on next:

I haven't done anything in black for awhile so I thought this would be a nice change from my brighter pieces.

Here are the embellishments that I pulled for this purse:

There's some interesting things in this photo, don't you think?  I'm very fortunate to have a decorating store nearby who gives me their outdated fabric and trim books.  Some of these pieces are things that they gave me.  Beautiful things!  And who doesn't love beautiful things?  All perfect for crazy quilting!

Crazy Quilt Christmas Purse

I just finished sewing my Crazy Quilt Christmas Purse together.  All that's left to do is to sew the snap on:

I have a friend coming next week who asked me if she could see this one.  These are even prettier in person than they are in photos.  Hard as I try, the camera just doesn't capture the texture and sparkle of my bags.

If you haven't been following my progress on this purse, the poinsettia fabric at the top is from a vintage hankie that I bought at a flea market earlier this year.  All the various lace pieces are either antique or vintage.  I used a lot of pretty Kreinik metallic thread because Christmas is all about the sparkle.   And heaven knows, all that glitters is gold to me!

I'll leave you today with a cute cat picture!  Cotton and Wrigley laying in my white wicker rocking chair together:

Crazy Quilt Bags and Other News

I just got back from a quick trip to JoAnn's for purse handles.  I didn't have anything here that worked with my Poinsettia purse.  I found a nice set with clear beads so now I have everything I need to sew it together which I plan on doing tomorrow.

And speaking of purses and bags, here are a couple of finishes.  First, my Harrison Fisher purse:

And then my Pink Cellphone Pouch:

Don't you just love all this pink?!!!  Both of these are already spoken for but I have other Crazy Quilt Bags available here.

In other news, Favequilts is offering a free ebook called, 17 Quilting Tutorials Quilting For Beginners Top Tips For How To Quilt. 

This ebook includes my tutorial for How To Clean A Non-Washable Quilt!  Do hop over and check it out.

Finally, I have a student's block to share today:

Karin did a beautiful job her Stumpwork leaf and grapes!  All the required elements are here and Karin's execution of the design is perfect!  Love the curly q's!  Thank you Karin, for sending me a photo to share with my blog readers!

And speaking of my Crazy Quilt Classes, I'm working on Lesson 9 now.  The Great Pumpkin will be ready and available in the next week or so!

Christmas Poinsettia Purse

I woke up at 1:30 this morning, sweating buckets!  Oh, does that ever end!!!!  So, since I'm not one to waste time, I got up, made coffee, put QVC on and stitched.  My Christmas Poinsettia Purse is done and ready to sew together:

I added some more Kreinik metallic to the border on the left.  I stem stitched around the leaves with a #4 Braid:

The leaves needed a bit more definition and I'm always up for more sparkle!  I love those Kreinik metallic threads.  Always have!  BTW - the free cross stitch design on Kreinik's main webpage is one I did for them a few years back!

And here is a close up photo of the antique lace piece at the top:

I had first used red seed beads on the antique lace but it was too much red.  I rarely take anything off once I sew it on but the red just didn't work so I replaced them with green seed beads and now it looks more balanced.

Finally, I added centers to the red Silk Ribbon flowers:

If you look closely at the photos, I scattered some clear snowflakes here and there on the block. 

I'll have to run up to JoAnn's tomorrow and get some purse handles for this bag.  I have a few sets here but nothing that works with this piece.  So, just twist my arm and make me to go to JoAnn's!  LOL!!!

And now for some more cute cat pictures.  Here's my little Cotton ball:

A rare photo of him with his eyes open!  He's on the top shelf of my garden window.  No, he's not allowed up there.  But I can't reach him when he's way in the back so instead, I grabbed the camera!

And apparently, Wrigley discovered the sink in the bathroom:

Oh, those little faces just melt my heart!  I'm still trying to get some new photos of Lucy but she's still a little crabby and fussy.  She's had a hard time adjusting to losing Nightmare (I know that feeling) and having 2 little aliens in the house.  Slowly but surely, she's coming around.  I'll try again later for some new photos of her.  She's always been a beauty!

CQ Seam Embellishments

I added some more Kreinik threads to my CQ Christmas purse.  The poinsettia flowers in the vintage hankie needed to pop a little bit:

 Please excuse Wrigley's ear in this photo.  Like most cats, he likes to be in the middle of everything!

And here are some close up photos of the seam embellishments:

I still have some stitching to do on this.  I've been asked several times, how does one know when one is done.  It's not so much a "knowing" as it is a "feeling".  You just get the feeling that it's well balanced and one more bead or do-dad would be too much.  It's like anything else in life, practice makes perfect.

Finally for today, I have a new Hanging Heart that mom made:

Kreinik Metallic Facets

My current project is this Crazy Quilt Christmas purse:

The top of the purse is part of a vintage Christmas hankie.  I kept looking at the edge of the hankie and felt that it needed some sort of definition. I didn't feel that beading around it was the right thing.  I just wanted it to have a little definition.  Then I remembered my beautiful Kreinik metallic threads. 

Kreinik offers a thread called, Facets.  It's available in a variety of sizes but for this project, I decided on the Petite Facets in gold:

The Facets are very glittery and actually look like little beads.  They're not intended to use for actual stitching but rather are meant to be couched on using another thread.  I used a Kreinik metallic cord for that which is very fine.

Here are some close up photos so you can see how it looks:

You learn more about the Kreinik Facets here on their website.

And before I turn the computer off for today, I thought I'd share yet another picture of my very cute baby kitty:

Cotton ball loves to play on the bed when I'm trying to make it every morning!  I was trying to put clean sheets on the bed yesterday when he decided it would be fun to lay in the middle of everything. 

Autumn Needle Felting

My sister stopped by to see me last night for a little awhile after work.  She hadn't seen Cotton yet.  She took one look at him and said, OMG!  He's so pink!  LOL!  Even though he's a white cat, he does look pink.  Of course she also said, "you put a pink collar on a boy kitty!".  And in turn said, "no, I put a pink collar on a white kitty!"  Believe me, if they made pink kitties, I would have me one!  or two!  ;)

And now to the real point of this blog post, Kathi brought me a couple of new Needle Felted items for the shop.  First, this sweet, precious, tiny Halloween Teddy Bear:

Is he too flippin' cute or what?  Check out the tiny little tail on his butt:

So much detail and he's only about 4 inches high!  He's just too cute!

Kathi also made this very unique Needle felted Acorn brooch:

She gave this a really fun, wearable art feel but adding the dangling chains and the little key charms!

Crazy Quilt Christmas Purse

I just spent a couple of hours putting together my most recent purse and cellphone pouch.  All I have left to do on them is the hand finishing. 

In the meantime, I started stitching on a Crazy Quilt Christmas Purse:

The top piece with the poinsettia is a piece of a vintage hankie that I bought at a flea market earlier this Summer.  The lace piece on the left is antique, the tatted piece is vintage and so is the lace on the right.  Antique and vintage lace seemed rather appropriate considering the vintage hankie I used!

It didn't look like I did much stitching on this yet but I did.  The pine branches on the hankie are all highlighted with thread.  If you look closely at the photo, the stitching kind makes them pop!

Beaded Brooch

My current project is this little pink Crazy Quilt cellphone pouch.  My aunt asked me to make one for her for a gift so here's an update:

And here's a closeup of the beading I did around the brooch:

This is a little vintage Petit Point brooch that I bought a few years back at a garage sale.  I think I paid $1.00 for it.  It worked nicely with this piece so I beaded around it.

My chores (except for laundry) are done for the day so I'll get to stitch on it some more now.

Also, mom gave me a couple of new Hanging Heart Door Hangers to add to our Etsy shop:

Mom made this one from a pretty floral print fabric.  And the pink one is made from a vintage embroidered linen and vintage crocheted lace:

Fall Bowl Fillers

Before I get to the bowl fillers, I thought I'd share my latest project:

My aunt asked me to make another pink cellphone pouch.  She wants this for a gift.  I started on it yesterday and will get back to it shortly.

And now onto the Fall Bowl Fillers:

These are new goodies from mom.  I can't believe what she all comes up with for our Etsy shop!

Finally for today, more cute cat pictures of my little Cotton Ball:

I just took this one a little while ago.  He's been sleeping in my chair next to me with his little arms up in the air.  Makes me laugh!