Lady In Blue Purse

I decided to go with the original color themes already in the fabrics on this purse instead of introducing more colors.  I thought it would keep with the vintage theme:

The only color I'll be adding more of is some greens.  I have some shibori ribbon that I plan to make leaves out of so be sure to watch my follow up posts on that.

It is actually above 0 degrees today!  So got in my little car and went up to Meyer to walk around a little bit and then I went to the Post Office.  Not really an exciting day but it sure felt good to get in my car and go! 

St Patricks Day Ornaments

I finished stitching my little birdie door hanger that I was working on yesterday:

I'll get this assembled in the next few days and post another photo when it's completed.  My next project will be the blue Crazy Quilt purse piece that I posted about yesterday.

In the meantime, here is a St Patricks Day Ornament that Mom made:

I guess that's my news for today.  If you're looking for more interesting reading, please hop over to Terri Lee's blog and tour her beautiful 130 year old home.

New Crazy Quilt Projects

I have a few new Crazy Quilt projects to share today.  One is started and the other is my next project.  First, a door hanger:

This is a special order which I usually don't accept but because the theme was birds and it's door hanger, I didn't mind doing this one.  I expect to finish this up today so I'll post another photo when I have it done. 

My next project will be a purse in shades of blue.  I don't work a lot in the darker shades of blue and I'm not sure why.  I guess I go for the pastel colors of pinks, greens and purples:

I think it'll be fun to work with this color palette for a change.  As I mentioned, this will be a purse.  I'm also working on some more little needle felted brooches.  So stop back to see where my latest projects go!

In other news, Mom gave me a few new things to add to our Etsy shop.  These are her St Patricks Day Door Hangers:

Finally for today, I have a new photo of my beautiful Lucy.  She was laying on my treadle sewing machine and I had the camera right there so I was able to grab it get a nice picture of her:

Isn't she pretty?  Lucy is 15 now.  Geez, where does the time with them go?  She has the early signs of kidney disease but we had her to vet on Saturday for tests and the special diet is working.  Her kidney numbers are in the normal range now.  Thank goodness!  She's tolerating the babies a little better.  There isn't too much pounding going on anymore but she has gotten really good at hissing at them.  Especially Cottonball because he tends to push her buttons!

Inspired By Pat Winter

I have always loved the work of Pat Winter.  I discovered her work years ago on Art-E-Zine.  Once she started blogging, I followed her religiously and still do to this day.  Pat's delicate embroidered crazy quilting, in soft Victorian hues can calm and quiet the busiest of minds!

I was quite taken with Pat's Embellished Brooches.  Beautiful Victorian images surrounded by needle felting, silk ribbon embroidery, beads, sequins and charms.  Here is an example of Pat's work:

Is this stunning or what?!!!!  Now I've been making needle felted heart brooches for a few years but Pat's pretty ones kept showing up on Pinterest and I finally asked her if she minded if I made a few for my shop.  Now I have to tell you, in case you've never talked to her, Pat is absolutely delightful!  She is sweet as can be and quite generously told me that she didn't mind at all.  I truly felt that I had to ask her because I know she sells some of her handmade pieces in her Gatherings Etsy Shop.  I believe in being respectful and I didn't want to take away from her sales.  I just felt that it was proper etiquette to ask her first.

So, here are my newest embellished needle felted art brooches worked in the beautiful and elegant style of Pat Winter:

I really enjoy making the little heart brooches but I have to tell you, I love making these even more!  And I am planning on doing a few more but I need to do some crazy quilting first.  Thank you so much Pat! 

If anyone is interested in making some of these, Pat offers a tutorial in her shop:

You can find the Instant Download for Felting And Embellishing A Brooch here.

And speaking of crazy quilting, I spent all day yesterday running my treadle sewing machine.  I'm sure I put a good couple of miles on it!  I sewed up a ton of purses, a pillow and a door hanger.  So have loads of new things in the works.

Finally, on a sad note, my mom lost her beloved Chooch this morning:

Chooch was the most wonderful and gorgeous black lab.  In her earlier years, she was a therapy dog.  Mom would take her to the local retirement center and she would visit with the residents there.  Chooch was awesome at that!  My mom gave her a wonderful life and she lived to be over 14 years old.  I will miss her terribly.

Crazy Quilt Hanging Pillows

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you might remember the examples I did for the online crazy quilt class I taught last year.  There were 9 blocks all together.  I sewed them all into little Crazy Quilt Hanging Pillows.  So here is what they look like now:

It took me over 3 hours just to stuff these and sew the little butts shut on them!  LOL!!!  Anyway, most of these little Crazy Quilt Hanging Pillows are over in my Etsy shop in case anyone would like to have one.

Sewing and Brooches

I spent all morning and part of the afternoon sewing up the example blocks from the online Crazy Quilt class that I taught last year.  They will be little door hangers.  All I have left to do is stuff them and do the hand finishing.  I expect to have photos of those ready tomorrow so please stop back to see them.  They're gorgeous!

In the meantime, here are 2 more needle felted brooches that I made:

There are more coming!  I have 4 more of them in the works!  Special thanks to my sweet friend Pat Winter for her inspiration! 

More Needle Felted Valentine Brooches

Since I've only had small amounts of stitching time lately, I've been making some Needle Felted Brooches:

All are embellished with embroidery, silk ribbon work, beads, sequins, lace and some fancy trims.  It's nice to make some small things now and again that go fast.  Instant gratification can be a good thing sometimes.

I'll get back to Crazy Quilting later this week.  I have some more finishing to do this week too and since it's supposed to snow almost everyday this coming week, I believe I will accomplish a lot!  Spring starts on March 1st, right?

Crazy Quilt Purses

I don't think I shared photos of these while I was stitching on them.  I worked on them between Thanksgiving and Christmas and since that's sort of a crazy time for me, I just stitched but didn't snap any pics.  I finally got around to doing the finishing on them the other day so here are my latest Crazy Quilt Purses:

I have a few more things to finish up on.  I decided to finish the example blocks that I made for my online crazy quilt class into Door Hangers.  There's 9 of them all together.  I'll be keeping 2 of them but I'll put the rest in my Etsy shop when they're ready.  Just in case anyone would like to have one.  I'm planning on getting them assembled next week so I'll post them all here again when they're ready.

I also plan on having a fun sewing day next week.  One where I can just pull out my fabric collection and sit in front of my treadle machine all day.  I love to piece blocks and I want to sew up a huge pile of them!

Marie Antoinette St Patricks Day Crazy Quilt Pillow

Well, that was a lot to squeeze into the title of this blog post!  Ha, ha, ha!  But that's what it's about!  I sewed up my Marie Antoinette St Patricks Day Crazy Quilt Pillow today and I did the hand finishing so this is all done and ready to enjoy!

And here's a close up photo of the organza ribbon embroidery and beadwork that I did on the dress:

And here's what this looks like sitting in a chair:

Today, I also finished up 2 purses that I made in December so I'll have those to share with you tomorrow.  I still have some more pieces to finish but I really need a fun sewing day.  A day to just run my treadle machine and sew up a bunch of blocks to stitch on!  Maybe over the weekend.  I only have to get groceries this weekend!!

Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt Pillow

I have a cute photo of Cotton to share with you today but first, I finished up on my St Patricks Day Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt Pillow.  Well, the stitching is done.  If all goes well, perhaps I can sew it together tomorrow:

Be sure to look closely at the dress.  I used some organza ribbon to accent the ruffles and I beaded the bottom of the skirt!  I also highlighted the fab with a few straight stitches in light grey.  Those few little touches make the image pop instead of it falling into the background.

Now, for this cute picture of Cotton:

Scott and I were watching a documentary on National Geographic channel about Hummingbirds.  Cotton sat in front of the television the entire hour and watched all the little birdies!  He was fascinated with them.  It's not at all uncommon for him to watch TV but I thought this was cute!

Marie Antoinette St Patricks Day Pillow

Sorry for disappearing over the weekend.  I get caught up in things and sometimes just don't get back to the computer or run out of time and don't get over here to my blog.  Anyway, thank you to everyone who took a guess on which pillow was my favorite.  For those of you who guessed this one, you were right!  I love this one with the little white kitty in the teacup!  And it's pink!

I've been working on another pillow, this one with a Marie Antoinette St Patricks Day theme.  Yes, it's kind of a silly combination but I've always loved this vintage postcard image:

I'm going to go put a ham in the oven and then wash my kitchen floor.  Once that's done, I'll stitch on this until Bubba gets home.

Oh, I also have a few other finishes to share.  First, a couple of things that mom made:

Mom loves making Door Knob Hangers!  And then she made this Small Pillow from a vintage tablerunner:

And I made some little Valentine Hanging Ornaments.  I hand dyed some quilt batting an old pink color and then filled them with hearts and doves:

All are available in my Etsy shop.

I think I'll make some of those little bags for St. Patricks Day.  I'm already thinking constantly of Spring.  I've had enough snow, cold and freezing rain this Winter to last me the rest of my life!!!  I have tulips, daffodils, shamrocks, bunnies and robin birds all floating around in my head!  So who knows what I'll come up with next!

Crazy Quilt Pillows

I have a few more finishes to share today.  These are the last 3 Crazy Quilt Pillows that I made before Christmas:

Would anyone like to take a guess as to which one is my favorite?  Leave a comment!!!

I still have 2 purses and some door hangers to finish but I don't think I can get to them until the weekend or next week.  I'm currently stitching on a St Patricks Day Crazy Quilt pillow so stop back to see that.  I'll post photos of that in the next few days.

Crazy Quilt Hanging Heart Pillows

You may remember me stitching on these back at Thanksgiving.  I think I was stitching them at Thanksgiving!  Anyway, I finished up my Crazy Quilt Hanging Heart Pillows:

Tomorrow, I'll have my most recent pillows to share.  There are 3 of them and I just have to do the hand finishing on one of them.

I still have 2 purses to put together and a ton of door hanging pillows but I think I'll take a break from finishing tomorrow.  I need to straighten up some things around here.  When my nose is in my sewing machine, I don't get anything else done!  LOL!!!