McHenry Illinois Crazy Quilt Update On Block 1

Here's a progress photo of my McHenry Illinois Crazy Quilt project:

My plan is to keep this project as Victorian in style as possible.  No beads or sequins and the only lace I'm using is antique.

I stitched the name of the church in the upper right hand corner using 14 count waste canvas.  I also added the year that St. Mary's was built, 1898.

In the above photo, you can see how I embroidered over the lace.  I simply followed the pattern in the lace and highlighted it with some stitching.

I may use a little bit of metallic gold and/or silver thread to create some spiderwebs on this.  I love spiders and spiderwebs and the Victorians loved them too!  They were considered good luck!!!

McHenry Illinois Crazy Quilt

The other day, I talked about starting a new project using historical photos from my area.  I wanted to work it in the traditional Victorian style. 

The first thing I did was to secure the photo in the center.  I just used a little bit of fusible web to hold it in place.  Then, I hand pieced this block using needle turn applique which is quite easy to do.

I choose fabrics there were Victorian in color and type, or at least to the best of my ability using only what I have in my stash.  And then I started stitching:

The lace pieces are antique, not vintage.  My focus is on embroidery not embellishments.  The only other embellishments I might use are some of my vintage Mother Of Pearl Buttons.

The image in the photo is the church that Scott and I were married in, St. Mary's Of The Assumption Catholic church.   If you scroll down a little bit, you can ready the story about the St. Mary's.

I'll add some more stitching to this today and keep you updated on my progress.