Stitching Beading and More

It was a hot one yesterday!  I watered my plants and changed my hummingbird feeders early so I could spend the rest of the day in the house.  I did some stitching on my purple crazy quilt piece:

We have another hot one coming today so I expect to spend most of the day inside.  I'll stitch on this some more after I run for some groceries.

I also finished up my last crazy quilt Cat Doll:

I love the colors on this one.  Reminds me of Valentine's Day.

I'll leave you with yet another picture of Lucy:

Give a cat a box and they're a happy little camper!

Pink Rose Cellphone Pouch

Just a quick update for now on my Pink Rose Cellphone Pouch.  I've hand painted the lace appliques, stitched the seams and started embellishing:

I really like this color combo!  I'm off to do some more beading on this!

Tutorial - How To Make Button Clusters

Now that you've all seen my Crazy Button Quilt:

I thought I would share a tutorial on how to create Button Clusters.

Button Clusters are not only for Crazy Quilting.  They can be added to fabric bracelets, art quilts, art dolls, really anything that buttons can be sewn onto!

Step 1:  Gather some buttons!

I store my buttons in old mason jars.  They're separated by color and the jars look so pretty on a shelf in my craft storage room!

Step 2:  Determine where you want your button cluster on your piece.  In this case, I want my buttons to cascade down from the dark green patch on this Cat Doll:

Step 3:  Choose some buttons:

I like to start with a few larger buttons and buttons that are "interesting" to look at.  They will be the "focal point" buttons.

Step 4:  After choosing those "focal point" buttons, sew them down with bead thread or dental floss.  I use dental floss to attach all of my beads, buttons, charms and vintage jewelry pieces.

Once those focal point buttons are attached, start adding smaller buttons.  Overlap the buttons and be sure to use a variety of color shades.  If all the buttons are dark pink, it'll just look like a dark pink blob.  By varying the shades of pink, the buttons look more like a little flower garden.

 Step 5:  Once the buttons are attached, I like to add seed beads to cover up the threads in buttons:

3, 4 or 5 seed beads in the center of each button will add sparkle, dimension, interest and it'll cover up the thread holding the buttons on.

For the flower petals on the big purple 4 hole button, I picked up 12 seed beads for each hole and brought the thread back down in the same hole.  I added a large pink bead to the center.

Step 6:  Once you have all the buttons attached and the seed beads in the center, you can add a few little do-dads here and there like leaf charms, crystals, large beads and so on.

There's no rules here!  Just a few basics to add interest to your stitching!

You can see more of my Crazy Quilt pieces at my Boutique!

And be sure to check out my other tutorials!

More On Beading Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments

Yesterday, I painted the lace and did some more beading on this:



The cream lace was way too bright for this block. Generally, I paint my lace as I need it. I don't usually do a bunch of it at one time.

Another way to decide on where to put beads is to look for gaps. Empty spaces just scream for beads! Notice the bottom right-hand border. I added a few large beads in between the round beads.

When using sequins on lace or appliques, overlap your sequins a bit like I did on the leaves. It looks nicer than having gaps between the sequins and adds more sparkle.

Here are pages 4 & 5 of my Needlecrafts Embroidery & Fancywork Catalog:





Be sure to click on the images to go to my Flickr site where you can see the large versions. The cutwork designs are gorgeous!

Beading Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments

I started beading the seam treatments yesterday on Button Block #34:



I mentioned yesterday that I intended to chat a bit about how I go about the beading. Generally, with my own charted borders, or any borders for that matter, I always look for the points and intersections.

If you look at any of my CQ pieces, the points of any border are always topped off with a bead or sequin. This adds color, light and extends the border even further. It also adds clarity which keeps the points from getting lost in over all design.

Intersections are another good place to look for possible bead placement. I use quite a few cross stitches in my charted borders and if you look closely at the bottom right-hand border, you can see that I placed beads in between the arms of the "X".

I'll talk a bit more about beading CQ borders tomorrow.

For now, here are pages 2 & 3 of my Needlecrafts Embroidery & Fancywork catalog from the 1930's:





Click on the images to go to my Flickr site where you can view the large version.

Enjoy!

Maxine's Quilt

I've added a few things to Maxine's quilt now. I'm really happy to have the majority of the repairs out of the way! I'll admit, I'm still a bit overwhelmed with embellishing a quilt this large so I'm kind working here, there and everywhere at the same time. When I get an idea, I just do it. Basically, there's no rhyme or reason to how I'm working. I figure it'll come together eventually.

So here's what I have done so far. You may remember this painted flower that I stem stitched around last week:



I added a vintage button and some beads to that now. I'll be adding more things to this motif but I haven't decided on what yet.

Next, I found this little leaf on the quilt. It was just hanging around by itself doing nothing so I added a crocheted flower to it and then beaded that:



Last, I painted some small vintage tatted flowers, did some stem stitched stems & leaves and beaded those with some bugle beads. The flower centers are vintage mother of pearl buttons:



As I suspected in the beginning, this quilt was one that someone got bored with and lost interest in. While repairing it, I found some silk patches with outlines of flowers done in light pencil marks. Very interesting. They're a bit hard to see so I won't be stitching those. Instead, I'll be doing my own embroidered motifs on it. In some cases, I will be stitching them on fabric first and then adding them to the quilt. It'll probably be easier that way.

I doubt I'll have time to post tomorrow. Scott's birthday is today and he has tomorrow off so we'll be driving up to Galena for a nice lunch and a little shopping.

I'll see ya on Tuesday!

Red Hat Lady Finished!

I so much enjoy making these little pouches! I did the finishing on this one yesterday:



I would like to have a sewing day next week for piecing a few new blocks, esp. cellphone pouches. I think I only 1 or 2 in the drawer that are ready to stitch.

Speaking of piecing blocks, Allison has posted a tutorial on her blog for crazy quilt foundation piecing. If you've been wanting to try this but have no clue where to start, Allison's instructions and photos will give you all the information you need.

My plan for later today is to continue on with the process of embellishing Maxine's quilt. Stop by tomorrow for an undate on that project.

Lots Of Stitching Time Yesterday

I completed the stitching on my Red Hat Lady pouch:



Don't you just love my little green spider?!!!!

After that, I worked on Maxine's quilt for a few hours and added this motif:



I found a whole package of these at an antique shop in Peoria Illinois. I think they were taken off of curtains or a dust ruffle. There's something familiar about them. Maybe they remind me of something my mom or my grandma had years ago.

Anyway, I trimmed the excess fabric away from the outside and then I hand painted it, sewed it onto the quilt and then beaded it.

Looking at this quilt, I feel that I'll be able to do anything I want, just as I would my own pieces. The only thing that I need to do is to keep everything in the muted antique colors. Anything new that I use will have to be "aged" with fabric dye before I use it. In fact, I "aged" a few other things yesterday and hope to have time later to work on this some more.

In the meantime, I'll be sewing up the Red Hat Lady pouch and getting it ready for it's new owner. Stop by tomorrow to see the finished pouch.

Red Hat Lady & Velvet Pansies

Digging around in my stash, I found some white cotton velvet that mom had given me not too long ago. Well, you know what you can do with cotton velvet? You can dye it! And that's just what I did:



They don't look like much now. I still have to Blanket Stitch around the outside and then add the do-dads to the centers. I'll work on those today. I want to make some leaves too.

I then worked on the Red Hat Lady pouch:



This is ready for some beads! I'll work it again later this afternoon. If I complete it today, I'll do the finishing tomorrow.

I must say, I love the way red and purple looks together!

Cellphone Pouches

Yesterday, my goal was to do the finishing on the Dragonfly Cellphone pouch as well as do the foundation piecing on the Red Hat Society Lady Cellphone pouch which is a custom order.

Here's the completed Dragonfly Pouch:



OK, so my hot pink cellphone doesn't quite work with the colors in this pouch! It's only there for size reference!

Here's the pieced Red Hat Lady pouch:



I'll begin the stitching & embellishing process on this later today.

On to Maxine's quilt, I'm happy to say that I now have all the deteriorated patches replaced as well as the stitching. Now, I can start the embellishing!

Because this quilt is quite large, I want to put some larger embellishments on it first. I'll start by making some velvet pansies. Do you know how hard it is to find velvet or velvet-like fabrics in anything other than black, red and green? Geez! In this day & age!

Anyway, I'll also be making some sunflowers using yellow sparkle organza and brown velvet for the centers. Ok, wish me luck on this one because at the moment, it's only an idea in my mind. I'm hoping I can execute it the way I see it!

Stop by tomorrow for another update on my current projects.

Dragonfly Pouch & Gift

I spent several hours yesterday organizing my lace stash. I have a chest of 4 drawers in here and it's filled with all sorts of lace, from crocheted pieces to venice lace appliques, flat lace in a variety of colors, new things and vintage things and even some very old antique pieces. These are my treasures but after working on several projects, the drawers get a little messy. So every now and then, I like to sit on the floor, take everything out, refold it and reorganize it. This also gives me a chance to see what I all have again and to really appreciate my abundance.

Once I completed that task, I worked on my Dragonfly Cellphone Pouch and I completed it:



Isn't this pretty? It's quite different than many of my past designs!

As soon as I get a sewing day in, I'll assemble this one. I want to sew up some more cellphone pouch blocks too but in the meantime, I'll have to pull another project from my stack of already sewn ones.

I'd also like to share with you some new stash that I received. Several weeks ago, Sharon B. posted an example on her blog of stitching done with Chenille thread. This was right after I accepted the job of repairing and further embellishing Maxine's quilt. Her quilt has a lot of motifs on it worked with Chenille thread.

I emailed Sharon and asked her if she had a source for these threads and she said she would check into that for me.

Yesterday, I went to my mailbox and there was a package from Sharon:



Aren't these absolutely yummy?!!! I just can't wait to stitch with these. Can you see these couched on to make flowers? That's what I see.

Sharon, thank you so very much for sending me these gorgeous threads! I am so looking forward to playing with them!

On a final note for today, you must hop over to Allison's blog and see what she's doing with vintage floral hankies. Allison does the most amazing things with flowers so you absolutely have to see this!

Dragonfly Cellphone Pouch

After agonizing over the trim for my Mozart purse, and working on repairing the 2 antique crazy quilts that I have here, I decided it was time for some really fun stitching! I was feeling the need for some instant gratification! I pulled out this block:



I like the colors but I wasn't sure what to do with it. I went through my little box of vintage jewelry pieces and found a pretty little green dragonfly pin. I think I bought that one at the flea market that we went to on Easter morning.

Anyway, I thought it looked really nice so once I had the focal point chosen, I started stitching:



When I think of dragonflies, I often think of cattails. That's something I've never added to a CQ before and I thought it would be kind of cool looking and it is! I plan to add a few more to the other side of the solid red piece in the center but first I need to figure out where to put my cat.

It's a dreary, rainy day here, the perfect day for stitching! I want to neaten up my lace drawers a little bit and then I'll sit and stitch. If I complete this today, I'll work a bit more on Maxine's quilt afterwards. I think I only have 2 more patches to replace and then I can start embellishing that one more.

Mozart Complete! Finally!!!

Well, I finally decided on a trim for the bottom of this purse and I'm happy to say, that it is now complete and I've already used it! So without further delay, here is the finished Mozart purse:



If you would like to see a larger photo, click on the image to go to my Flickr site.

I'll keep this short today. I still have some chores to do, laundry mostly - the "always & forever task"! and then I plan to stitch.

Antique Crazy Quilt Repair Begins

First, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who left me comments regarding my Galena and Field Of Dreams photos. I'm so happy to know that you enjoyed seeing them. Thank you everyone! I love having comments to read even though I don't always reply to them. It's not that I don't want to, it's a matter of time. You know me, I'm always into a lot of different things!

Today, I'm back in the real world and ready to start the repair on my 2 antique crazy quilt projects. I cleaned them both yesterday. What a tedious project that was!

To clean them, I put several layers of cheesecloth over the hose of my vacumm cleaner and worked over the quilts doing a "set & lift" motion. After several hours and quite a bit of cheesecloth (yes, you wouldn't believe how dirty they were), I'm happy to say that they are clean. Or, at least as clean as I can get them.

The first repair that I will make is on my commission piece:



I'm going to start by repairing the beaded area. The beading was worked on netted lace and then sewn into the quilt. I have some beads that are a close match to the antique ones on this quilt so I think I'll be able to replace the missing ones. My plan is to anchor all of the beads to the quilt. Remember, when I complete this, I'll be adding a new back and binding to it so I'll be working through everything that's all ready here.

I plan to meet with the quilts owner on Friday to discuss my ideas with her regarding more embellishing and embroidery. Basically, I want to share my ideas with her first before I go any further on it. So once I have the beading repaired, I'll put this one to the side and figure out what to do with mine.

To be honest, mine feels extremely overwhelming. There's just so much to repair on it. I honestly don't even know where to start. Scott reminded me last night that I don't have to look at the entire "staircase". I just need to take one step at a time. I'll just have to pick a place to start and work from there.

Tomorrow, I will have some interesting information for you on my quilt. My friends Susan and Bennie shared some history with me that you might find interesting!

The Mozart Journey Complete!

The stitching is complete on this:



Mozart looks happy, doesn't he? I would like to think that he would be pleased with my tribute to him!

I'll assemble this next week when I have some free time. Michael's carries beaded gold purse handles so I need to run up there for a pair.

Also next week, I plan to start work on the antique crazy quilts. My sweet mom was at Hobby Lobby earlier this week and she bought some fabrics for me that will work nicely to replace some of the damaged pieces. I need to pick up some #8 perle cottons in a variety of colors. I usually use #5 on my CQ's but my antique CQ is worked with finer threads.

Quick question for you: Does anyone have any clue as to when varigated threads were introduced? I was looking at my commission quilt and there are varigated threads on there. If I could find out when shaded threads started showing up, it would help me to "ballpark" date that quilt.

Ok everyone, I'll be away from my computer now until Tuesday, May 22nd. We're off to Galena, Illinois for the weekend and this time, I hope to see the "Field Of Dreams" movie set in Iowa!!!

Have a great weekend everyone. I'll see ya on Tuesday!

My Beloved Mozart

I don't know why I didn't think of doing a Mozart themed purse sooner. I have loved Mozart's music for as long as I can remember. I do enjoy other Classical composers such as Bach, Beethoven and Vivaldi. But Mozart...how could I ever describe what his music does to me? Mozart's music is glorious! When I listen to it, I'm instantly uplifted. I get lost in it. It puts me in a "higher" frame of mind and I can focus for longer periods of time. Certain pieces, such as Symphony #25 and The Requiem, almost make me incapable of doing anything but listening.

Oddly enough, I've never heard anything by Mozart that I didn't like. In most cases, I don't care for vocal music. It's kind of like fingernails on a chalkboard to me, almost like the words get in the way. Mozart's choral works, even his operas (and I do not care for opera)are soothing on my nerves.

Well, I know Classical music isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'm sure you can appreciate my tribute to whom I believe is the greatest composer of all time:



All I have left to add to this is my little signature cat so I will stitch him on this afternoon and then this will be ready to assemble.

I would like to share a photo with you that was sent to me by one of my readers. This is Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg:



What a thrill for me to see this! Thank you Michele for sending this image to me and for granting me your permission to share it here on my blog so that my other readers can enjoy it too!

Magnificent Mozart

Yesterday afternoon was cloudy and rainy. Although I always prefer sunshine, it was a good day to curl up in the middle of my sofa and focus on my stitching. I stitched for 6 hours straight!



As you can see, I've done quite a bit of embellishing on this. I added the vintage millinery roses to the antique metallic gold lace and then added some green glass leaves to that.

There are now Mother Of Pearl flower beads on the SRE vine and some Czech glass fire polished beads and seed beads.

I added some beads to the seam on the top left and I will be adding some more beads to that.

I also started beading the rose applique. I still need to finish up the leaves.

The Rhinestone Treble Clef pin will go in the center blue patch on the bottom. I'll be sewing that on today.

So this is how it looks at the moment. I'll be stitching on this again shortly so stop by tomorrow for another update!

The Mozart Journey Continues.......

The Mozart Journey is coming along nicely:



As you can see, I have his signature on here now. I think that makes it very clear as to who this is.

I added a SRE motif with roses because, when I think of Mozart, I think of roses. That will get some beads as well. I also have some vintage millinery roses that I will be adding to the antique metallic ribbon strip later today.

Don't you just love that salmon color? It really adds life to this piece and works well with the red in the painting. If you remember, I didn't want any more red on here so the salmon color is perfect!

I still need to figure out where to put my rhinestone treble clef pin. I'm sure that will fall into place when I get a bit further along on this piece.

Stay tuned! I'll be working on this again later today!

Antique Crazy Quilt

Dear readers, do I have a treat for you today!



I have been commissioned to repair and further embellish this antique crazy quilt! And this is the first of 2! Wait until you see the 2nd one! But that's down the road a ways because this one will take a couple of months to complete.

It's actually in pretty decent shape. The first step is to clean it. The proper way (and only option) is to put some cheesecloth over the hose of my vacumm cleaner and vacumm it well on both sides using a "set & lift" motion. Never drag the hose over a quilt like this.



If you look closely, there are a few patches that are almost completely rotted away. So the 2nd step will be to replace those patches by hand-appliquéing new pieces over the top and then restitching the seam treatments. Thank goodness I have such a huge variety of threads on hand!

This is the center square:



Looking closely at this quilt, it seems to me that the stitcher tried several embellishing techniques on this but I get the feeling that after awhile, she became bored with the project and finally just assembled it.

So far, I haven't found a date on it but I need to examine it further. Using the fabrics as a guide, I may be able to put it into a decade. At the moment,I'm thinking 1910's or 20's but I really need to look at it better.

There is one beaded motif on here, 2 or 3 examples of decorative painting and some embroidered motifs.





The majority of the fabrics are velvets but there are some others and most of the seam stitching is done with a double feather stitch.

The backing is in good shape but I will be adding a new back once it's complete.

The current owner wants more stitching and more beading on it. I have several ideas, including some velvet pansies. I'll use Judith Montano's pattern from her Elegant Stitches book for that rather than my pattern. Judith's pansy pattern was recreated from pansies on an antique pillow.

And one thing I won't be using is a hoop. I'll be stitching this in hand. Because of the age, I don't want to strain the fabric any more than I have to. I plan to roll the quilt up in a sheet of muslin, to the area that I'll be working on. The excess will have to lay next to me on the sofa.

So that's the news for today! How exciting huh? I will post my progress as I work on it. I need to lay it out on the floor and look at it for awhile. Once I get a better idea of where to go with it, I want to meet with the quilt's owner again and share my ideas with her before I start on it. She's given my creative license to "get crazy" with it but I feel it's best to talk to her about my ideas first.

So, stay tuned for and Antique Crazy Quilt Journey! In the meantime, Mozart is calling to me.....

Mozart In Slow Motion & TAST

Yesterday was a bit hectic and rather tiring. By the time I completed my work for the day, I didn't have much energy left to use for stitching. I did however, manage to cover one seam:



Sharon's stitch pick for week 18 (last week) was the Woven Wheel or Whipped Wheel. I was intrigued by her Woven Fans so I thought I'd give it a try. Now, I should have made my fans larger. They're a twinge small but they look like little shells. And I truly enjoyed doing the weaving. I think these will look great once I add some beading to it.

I did this using 8.5 count waste canvas. Stitching the fans first, removing the waste canvas and then weaving the fans. I will definitely be experimenting more with this stitch.

In the meantime, I've charted out several Fan Borders for you to use if you would like to try this using Waste Canvas. Click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can download a larger version of the pattern.



For now, I'm off to take some things up to my showcase at the Brick & Mortar store. When I return, I plan to stitch the rest of the day.