Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine Summer 2019

I had a lot of ladies asking when the Summer 2019 issue of Crazy Quilt Quarterly magazine would be available.  I usually release the issues on the 1st but decided not make anyone wait any longer!

Here you go, the Summer 2019 issue:

Crazy Quilt Quarterly magazine Summer 2019

Our cover artist is Margaret Tuite. Her unique and colorful textile art is not only breathtaking but quite inspirational! Another textile artist featured in this issue is Julie Brand of Tigley Textiles. Anne Haughan shares her concern over environmental issues with her Troubled Waters quilt.

You may recognize Stephanie Novatski by her gorgeous dolls but did you know she did some crazy quilting too? Shirl Hubbs shares the work of her father, Gen Tracey offers some Wedding Pillow eye candy and Janese Morris shares another of her fabulous CQ toys, this time a kitten!

We have a Nativity quilt by Kathy Billings who also graciously agreed to let us interview her regarding her 2020 CQ challenge project. Pat Winter shared an article on Snippet Rolls, Darlene Kliewer is working on a hexagon project and Angela Grasse shares another of her pretty CQ projects! Mary Anne Richardson gives us more ideas on what to do with all those orphaned CQ blocks.

Available in both print and digital at Magcloud:  http://www.magcloud.com/user/kitty-and-me

Available in print only at Etsy:  http://www.kittyandme.etsy.com/

Free Crazy Quilt Blog Background

I've been playing around with creating my own blog backgrounds.  I've done a couple but this morning, decided to do a crazy quilt design.

If you would like to use this on your blog as well, please be my guest:

Copy and paste this code in your HTML gadget:

<style type="text/css">
body { background-image : url(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4339/35553708674_0a26d16e49_o.jpg); background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat;  background-attachment : fixed; }
</style>

<script type="text/javascript">
var div = document.createElement('div');
div.setAttribute('style',"position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 30px; z-index: 50; width: 150px; height: 45px;");
div.innerHTML = '<a target="_blank" href=" "></a>';
document.getElementsByTagName('body').item(0).appendChild(div);
</script>




I'll do a few more when I have time.  I only know how to do these for Blogspot.  If you have a different blog venue, I'm afraid I can't help.  If you have any trouble with this, please let me know.

Enjoy!

Saving The Past

I think most of us have a fondness and appreciation of old things.  Especially things that are handmade.  Years ago, I found this little piece of an old appliqued quilt in an antique mall:

It was in pretty good shape at the time.  I brought it home, washed it and sewed a back on it.  I stuffed it with polyester fiberfill and called it a pillow.

Over the years it of course has continued to age.  Time is not always so kind to vintage textiles.  It was time for another good cleaning and some repairs.

I washed by hand in my kitchen sink and replaced the missing french knot for the birds eye.  It had a few tiny tears so I tucked a tiny piece of fusible web beneath the tears and ironed those in place.

Finally, I added a piece of lightweight iron-on interfacing to the back and squared it up.

I pulled a few of my 1930's reproduction prints out, soft shades of green and yellow:

I decided to do a border on the top and bottom of the vintage piece using strip quilting which I do on a foundation:

When I finished up the strip piecing, it kind of screamed "new fabric" against the vintage piece.  I didn't want to "olden" it by tea dying or running through my washing machine a bunch of times so instead, I pulled out some of my cream colored laces and sewed strips of that down over or next to the seams:

This definitely softened the look of the new fabrics also adding a feminine quality to it.  Once I completed that, I squared up my "sheet of fabric":

It was at this point that I realized I had made a much bigger piece than what I needed!  I really just wanted about 3 inches on the top and the bottom of the vintage piece.  That's okay though.  I'll save the rest for something else.

Here is the finished pillow:

This now sits in my living room in an antique spindle chair that my father in law gave me.

Marathon Sewing Day

I spent all day yesterday piecing new projects to stitch on.  I must have put a good couple of miles on my Treadle Machine because I ran it from 9 am to 7:30 pm.  I pieced everything from purses, to hearts, dolls and pillows.  I like to have a pile of things to choose from and I like a few extra things in my stash drawer, all ready to stitch on in case I don't have time to pull everything out and sew.  I don't have a sewing room (at this moment, I hope to change that) so when I pull things out, I have to put everything away when I'm done.

Before I share a few of my pieced blocks, I finished up this little cat doll for a friend:

I just packaged this up and will mail it tomorrow.

I've also been working on my Happy Birthday Hanging Pillow:

I'll be stitching on this some more later today.

Okay, now for my pieced blocks.  Well, some of them:

This is just a small sampling of pieced blocks from my marathon sewing day yesterday.  I may take another day next week and sew up some more things.  I love running that antique Singer machine!

Seascape Progress

I didn't accomplish much of anything yesterday.  I pulled some fabrics for the backs of my Seascapes and I trimmed them up so now they're ready to sewing together:

 I have to run for groceries this morning.  When I get back, if I feel up to it, I'll try and put these together.

Machine Embroidery Vintage Hankies

I've been collecting vintage hankies for quite a few years now and I love to use them on my crazy quilt projects.  My favorite hankies are the ones with machine embroidery flowers on them.  They're quite easy to find for a dollar or 2 at flea markets and antique shops.

The purple rose on this hanging pillow is from a vintage handkerchief:

I finished embellishing this door hanger yesterday and then last night, I started on one with a pink rose:

I spent all day yesterday sewing.  I put a good couple of miles on my sewing machine, piecing loads of new blocks.  I wish I could sew some more new blocks today but I have other things that need to be done.  I do plan on having a few hours of stitching time later today.

Irish Lady Pillow Is Ready To Sew

My Crazy Quilt Irish Lady Pillow piece is complete and ready to sew together:

And here are close up photos of the seam stitching:

I also mentioned when I started on this, that I'm going to be experimenting with "fill in" patterns.  Here's a closeup of that:

I have to run to WalMart this morning and pick up a few things.  I may also pop into our new Hobby Lobby and check that out.  When I get back, I'll sew this piece up with some pretty lace.  I'll share a final photo of it soon!

A Sewing Machine Day

I did absolutely nothing yesterday but what I wanted to do!  Sometimes, we need one of those days.  I don't mind in the least, doing laundry, dishes, the floors and so on but sometimes, I feel like a slave to my house.  So yesterday, I ran my sewing machine.  I finished up my little Mint Green Cat Doll:

This one is a gift for a friend so I'll be getting this packaged up and ready to mail over the weekend.  I also sewed some small blocks for St. Patrick's Day door hanging pillows.  That was fun!  I could have kept going but decided that 6 blocks were good for one day and that it was time to stitch.

I started on this little St. Patrick's Day door pillow:

I'm going to paint the edges of that lace piece with some purple.  That should make it stand out a bit more.

For today, I need to run uptown and pick up some groceries and when I get back, I plan to pull out my steam cleaner and do my hardwood floors.  I expect to finish up this block today.

Yes, A Few More Cat Dolls

As always, between larger projects, I like to stitch up a couple of little things.  I always gravitate to my little crazy quilt cat dolls.  I stitched this one up the other day:

And this little one is what I'm working on now:

They never really look like much until I get them sewn together!

Anyway, at this moment, I don't have to go anywhere today.  Unless mom calls and needs me to run uptown for something, I plan to sew these 2 pieces together today:

I'm thinking pillows but we'll see.

Crazy Quilting - Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt Block #5

Well, now that the holidays are behind us and our Shabby Chic Boutique is at it's new location, I was finally able to get back to my Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt.  This is Block #5 before I started stitching on it:

And here it is with some Embroidery and trims:

I found that little fan at a Flea Market over the summer.  It's a real fan that opens and closes!  I've been saving it for the center block of this Crazy Quilt.

I sewed it down which was a challenge but where there's a will, there's a way! I just made some soup and some bread so now I can stitch the rest of the evening!

The Mozart Journey Begins

First, since "loose ends" make me crazy, I decided to take today and do the finishing on my 3 most recent crazy quilt projects.

My Little Brown Bird purse is all together now. I just have to do the hand-finishing:



Next is my Heart Shaped Peacock piece. I have no clue on what to do with this. I want to make it into a cellphone pouch and I have several ideas for accomplishing this. First, I could sew it up into the heart shape with a backing and then do the same with another heart and then top stitch the two together. This will automatically give it a lining and I would only have a little bit of hand-sewing to do then. But my top stitching is not always perfect so I'm think my best option would be to sew it into a heart shape with a backing, then sew my regular cellphone pouch and attach the heart to the front of it. My mind is telling me that this is my best option so that's probably what I will go with.



Finally, I want to finish my Button Flowers into a cellphone pouch:



This one will be finished just like all my other pouches. I was asked how big this was. The stitched/beaded area is approx. 4 inches. This pouch will be just a twinge bigger then what my CQ pouches are. I'll have to go 5 inches X 5 or 6 inches. No big deal. More room for more money and hands-free shopping!

The Mozart Journey began last night! But it was a slow start. I think I put way too much thought into this and when I looked at it, I had no idea what to do with it. I decided that I didn't need to see the whole staircase, I only needed to take one step at a time so I started with auditioning some lace pieces:



The lace isn't sewn down yet. I need to look at it for a bit and see if this works. I'm pleased with the antique metallic gold lace to the left and the cream colored lace to the right but I'm not sure about the rose appliqué yet. If I do go with it, I'll give a hint of a salmon pink color and then antique it.

So what do you all think? Does the rose appliqué work? Or do you think it's too large?

Cellphone Pouch Finishing Tutorial

I was asked for directions on how to finish things like cellphone pouches, purses and so on.

I did the finishing on my Ocean Garden Cellphone Pouch so I thought now would be a good time to give you the tutorial. It's very easy!!!

First, trim your stitched piece to the size you want it leaving and extra 1/4 inch on all sides. Cut one piece of fabric for the back and 2 pieces of fabric for the lining the same size as the stitched piece. In this case, I used the same fabric for the back and the lining:



With right sides together, sew one lining piece to the top of the stitched piece and one lining piece to the top of the backing piece, using a 1/4 inch seam:



Press your seams. Again, with right sides together, making sure that the stitched piece and the back piece are together on the same end, match up your top seams and pin these two pieces together.

Note: if you use a lot of embellishments close to the seams like I do, you will want to use the zipper foot for your machine!

Starting on the lining side, sew your piece together with 1/4 inch seams leaving a 3 or 4 inch opening for turning your piece right side out. The more embellished with beads and do-dads, the larger the opening will have to be:



Your opening should be in the lining.

Once your sewing is complete, trim your corners, turn your piece right side out, blind stitch the opening closed by hand and then push the lining into the pouch.

Hand sew some pretty trim or lace on the bottom, add a snap for closure and a chain or cording and you'll have a pretty neckpouch for hands-free shopping, walking or gardening.



This one was a bit tricky because of all the seashells that I used. If you've never done one of these before, I wouldn't recommend an extremely embellished pouch as your first sewing project. But if you're sure of what you're doing, the tip for something like this is to sew the bottom first, and then the side with the least amount of do-dads on it. Once I had that sewn, I was able to line up the other side where the big seashell is. I simply pulled the lining piece a bit to match up with the edge of the stitched piece and I was able to sew it together.

Turning this one right side out was a challenge too. With a piece that's extremely embellished, you have to take care not to pull on your embellishments. Take your time and work the lining down first and then from the bottom, carefully push the stitched end out.

I'm planning on taking this one up to my showcase in Richmond. I like to offer my blog readers first dibs on my things so if anyone wants this, please drop me an email and I'll reserve it for you in my Etsy shop.

All of the crocheted edgings on my cellphone pouches are made by mom. She will gladly do custom orders if anyone is interested. Just drop me an email.