Student Crazy Quilt Block Lesson 5

I have another beautiful block to share with you today from my Crazy Quilt Color and Composition Class:

This is Jane's block.  I'm seeing such an incredible amount of creativity from my students now!  Jane did something a little different with her bird.  She has him sitting on a tree stump.  Awesome!  Also, noticed how Jane worked with the fabric at the top right and embellished it further with flowers!

The elements are all here, the button spray, the beaded leaves, the bird and an exceptional amount of creativity.  That's what I want to see.  My students are taking the elements that I give them and then taking creative license with those elements!  Excellent job Jane!

Color and Composition Classes Lesson 1

Good Morning everyone and Happy New Year!  2012 was a challenging year for many of us and not necessarily in a good way.  But instead of looking back at unpleasant challenges, let's look forward to new, fun and exciting challenges!

I'm pleased to announce the release of Lesson 1 of my Color and Composition Classes.  If you're new to my blog and would like to learn more about these online Crazy Quilt Classes, please click the above link.

*The theme that we'll be working with for Lesson 1 is Forget Me Not. 
*The color scheme is pink, blue and white/cream.
*The techniques we'll be using are:  counted cross stitch, applique and seam embroidery beadwork

Crazy Quilt Color and Composition Lesson 1 is available as a digital download and as a hard copy and it can be ordered from Magcloud.

The 25 lessons will run as a stitch along so I've set up a Flickr group where we can share photos and discuss the lessons.

If you have any questions regarding this series of crazy quilt classes, please feel free to email me or leave a comment for me here on my blog.

Again everyone, Happy New Year, Happy Stitching and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's projects!

Stitching Valentines

The week between Christmas and New Year's is always busy for me.  My cousin has some time off of work so I get enjoy an extra day with her.  Scott and I like to go our antique malls where I always find a few little goodies to use on my crazy quilts for the upcoming year.  Then there's my annual trip to the big Super JoAnn's on New Years Eve.  We have a small JoAnn's here in McHenry but the Queen Mother of JoAnn's stores is in Algonquin.  Lot's of traffic between here and there so I always ask Scott to take me there for a nice shopping spree on New Year's Eve.  Talk about living the high life huh?  LOL!!!!

On New Years Day, I do my end of year paperwork and then mom and dad come over.  We order Chinese and mom and I sit and make our plans for our Etsy products for the upcoming 6 months.

I'm still stitching up Valentines.  I love Valentine's Day and I love making things for Valentine's Day.  Here's one of my projects that I finished up this past week:

I'll probably spend all day on Wednesday sewing my Valentine's together.  Then I'll have to stuff them all and get them ready to list at Etsy next weekend.  Not sure I can get everything done by next weekend but I'm willing to give it the old collage try!

In other news, Lesson One of my Color And Composition Classes will be released first thing Tuesday morning, January 1st.  Be sure to stop by here that morning if you're planning on taking my classes.  I'll post a direct link over to Magcloud where you can order either the digital version or a hard copy.

I guess that's my news for today everyone.  Hope you all had a nice Christmas and hope you're having a great weekend!

Update On Bee Purse

Other than some cleaning, I spend most of the morning stitching on my Bee Purse:

I just love these colors!  This is so cheery to look at!

I'm going to work on Lesson 1 of my upcoming Crazy Quilt class and a my next book for awhile and then I'll stitch on this some more later this afternoon.

How To Finish A Purse With Handles

I've written a tutorial on how to finish a purse with handles:

 

You can find the "Take Anytime Class" at Maureens Vintage Acquisitions. 

Online Crazy Quilt Classes

I spent the majority of day yesterday working on my custom order.  Here's where I'm at with it:

This photo looks kind of washed out again.  It's much prettier in person.  I'll try to get a better photo tomorrow.  The next step is to add beads and sequins.  Lots of bead and sequins!  And if you look closely to right of the focal point, you can see my spiderweb worked with Kreinik gold Blending Filament.  I'll add the spider today too!

In other news, Maureen at Maureen's Vintage Acquisitions is hosting Online Crazy Quilt Classes!  She added my first class on working with my Waste Canvas technique.  If you'd like to learn how to create perfectly sized and spaced stitches everytime, do sign up!  Maureen is offering all sorts of creative classes.  Please hop over to her website and check them out!

Finally for today, I thought you'd enjoy seeing my new table centerpiece:

Yes, that's my Simba!  He suddenly thinks it's fun to lay in the middle of my dining room table!  I don't think it's fun, but it is cute!