Bits And Pieces

I've been keeping busy with loads of things here!  First, I started a new project:

I used a lot of little bits and pieces left over from other projects.  The center is from a vintage hankie.  The little blue pansies to the right of it are the edge from another vintage hankie that I used on something awhile back.  The purple scalloped trim on the center right is from a vintage tablerunner.  I bought it a flea market a few years ago.  It was tattered but there was a lot of useable fabric.  I only paid a dollar or 2 for it and it's gone a long way so far with plenty left for other projects.

The seam treatment on the right took quite awhile to work.  It's a combination stitch using both my waste canvas technique for the feather stitch and then Sharon B's Crazy Quilt stencils for the tiny lazy daisy flowers.  Here's a close up:

It will show up better once I add some beads.

I did some sewing the other day and pieced up a custom order cellphone pouch along with new purses so I have some new projects waiting in the wings for when I finish up on this piece.

In other news, I'm already putting pages together for the Spring 2015 issue of Crazy Quilt Quarterly magazine.  I'm really enjoying the process!  I always did like doing graphic work!

Just a quick reminder, all articles, tutorials, ad copy and eye candy photos are due to me by November 1st.  I need a lead time of 3 months so if you have anything to send for the Spring 2015 issue, please email me. 

If you would like more information on submitting projects or photos, please see my Submission Guidelines page. 

For information on placing an ad in the Spring 2015 issue, please see my Advertisement Information page.

Purple Cellphone Pouch

I've been busy as a bee stitching on cellphone pouches and finished up on my purple one early this morning:

I used my waste canvas technique for this seam embroidery:

And I used Sharon B's CQ stencils for the crazy quilt stitches on these seams:

The combination of my charted borders and Sharon's stencils gives me an excellent variety of borders!

Here's a closeup of the grapes:

The grapes are a vintage brooch that I picked up at an antique shop a few years ago.  I made the leaves from a piece of green velvet.

I'll get these last few projects sewn in later this week and show photos of the completed projects.

Sharon B's Stencils

I wanted to share with you a new tool for Crazy Quilting.  In case you've never been to Sharon B's blog, Pintangle, Sharon is a master crazy quilter who lives in Australia.  She's been stitching and teaching for many, many years and has recently released a wonderful set of stencils for marking crazy quilts:

I'm not going to post a ton of Sharon's photos here.  Just this one.  I'll let you hop over and check out Sharon B's Stencils for yourself. 

I just received mine on Friday and have already used them to create several borders:

I'm currently working on small projects so I haven't been able to experiment too much yet.  But I will be!  These stencils are awesome! 

In other news, here are a couple of new photos of my baby kitties:

I tried to get a new photo of Cotton but he still has that eye infection and I think the flash hurts his eyes.  Cotton and Wrigley are best friends, as you can see in this photo!