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.

Another Model

This morning, I finished stitching up another model for my upcoming crazy quilt book:

And of course, I started on another project because I have to have a project in the works.  If I don't, I spend too much time thinking about what to stitch next.  It's best for me to just pick something and do it!

In other news, I want to share this photo from a recent class that Allison Aller taught:

Several months back, Allie asked me if she could teach my waste canvas technique at a crazy quilt retreat.  These ladies are Allison's students and they're waving to me!  How cool is that?!!!!

Finally for today, we're offering 20% off in our Etsy shop, now through the end of Thanksgiving weekend.  Please hop on over and take advantage of our discount!

Pink and Yellow Embroidery

I didn't have much on my "to do" list for yesterday.  Yes, I have a list a mile long but other than updating a few things on my computer, I pretty much took it easy and stitched most of the day.  Here is my latest crazy quilt piece:

Pink and yellow embroidery is so cheerful, isn't it?  Very happy looking!

This piece started with the embroidered motif from a vintage hankie.  Then I had an "s" shaped beaded applique that I took off of a flea market wedding dress I bought last Summer.  (A wedding dress loaded with beaded appliques for only $5.00!)   I cut it in half and used it to create a heart shape around the floral hankie piece.

There was a little flat area on the top right of the heart.  The perfect space for a little bird.  Using my waste canvas technique, I cross stitched one of my own little bird designs on to fill that space.  I used 8.5 count waste canvas and DMC #5 Perle Cotton. 

Yes, this will be another little hanging pillow.

In other news, Betty Pillsbury, an absolutely incredible crazy quilter and herbalist, has put together several YouTube Videos on working with embroidery floss and how to avoid knots and kanoodles!  Please hop over to Betty's YouTube page for these "working with embroidery floss helpful hints"!

St Patricks Day Hearts

I think we only got about 5 inches of snow yesterday.  More than I care to look at but better than 8 inches!  I made my soup, I put a Harry Potter movie on to listen to and I stitched a heart shaped, St. Patrick's Day door pillow:

The robin on the nest is a little brooch that I found at a flea market last Summer:

I guess you can see where my mind is right now!  I always say, Winter wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't cold and it didn't snow!  LOL!!!

Here are close ups of the seam embroidery on this piece:

Be sure to click on the photos to see them up close.  Both of these seams are worked with my waste canvas technique.

I have a few more of these little hearts sewn up so I'll start on another one today.

Yellow Crazy Quilt Cat Doll

Well, we made it 1/2 way through Winter without snow.  Today, they're calling for 3 - 6 inches.  I'll spare you my complaints!  You may be thinking, "Winter just started on 12/21.  What's she thinking?"  You see, I have my own system of determining the seasons.

According to my calender, Spring always starts on March 1st. It has to! Therefore, Summer starts on June 1st, Fall on September 1st and then Winter starts on December 1st.  It has to be that way.  It's the only way I can get through the dark, cold days of Winter.  Ha, ha, ha!

Okay, so I hope I've amused ya'll with my odd way of dealing with the cold and snowy months of the year.  Mom always asks me how I got to be so weird.  I tell her, I'm not weird, I'm eccentric!  LOL!!!  Now that I'm 50, it's ok for me to be eccentric!  Besides, you know the reputation we artistic people have!

Anyway, I somehow managed to finish up my little yellow cat doll that I started last week:

This one is a gift for a friend who recently lost her little fur baby.  When I can, I like to make a cat doll for my friends when they lose a kitty.  It gives them something pretty to look at and something to hold when the emptiness gets to be too much to handle.  Our fuzzy babies give us so much while they're here with us and when it's time for them to go, the empty space that they leave in our hearts is almost unbearable.  My cat dolls truly are, still Comfort Dolls.

Anyway, here is a close up of the stitched seam that I did with my Waste Canvas Technique:

Since I'm planning to put a few miles on my sewing machine today, I'll sew this one up so I can get it mailed to my friend either tomorrow or Saturday.

I'm going to stitch up one more cat doll and then I'm going to move on to some other things.  I want to sew up some new blocks but haven't decided yet what to make.  I'll guess I'll wait and see where my muse takes me!

Winter Lady Crazy Quilt Purse Continued

Other than going into town for groceries and doing some laundry, I spent most of yesterday stitching on my Winter Lady Crazy Quilt Purse:

I'll be sitting here and doing some more beadwork on this before I head over to mom's for the day.

Also, I've decided to add a new feature to my blog.  As I stitch on my Crazy Quilt projects, I'll take close up photos of some of my seam treatments and post them on the page titled, "Crazy Quilt Seam Treatment Inspirations".  You can find it at the top of my blog.

Since I use my Waste Canvas technique for the majority of my embroidery on crazy quilts, I thought this would be a nice way to give my readers some ideas for seam embroidery and how to embellish them.  I'll start doing this when I complete this purse.

Finally for today, we're having a nice Christmas Sale at our Boutique:

Christmas Village Houses and Bottlebrush Trees are on sale.  We won't be doing anymore of these of so please, get them while you can!  The sale is only available at our Boutique.

Teaching Crazy Quilting

I had a wonderful day with my students yesterday!  2 sweet ladies from DeKalb came up to learn Crazy Quilting from Start to Finish.  I taught them how to do the Sew & Flip method of foundation piecing and how to embroider the seams with both my Waste Canvas Technique as well as Carol Samples Dream A Seam Templates technique.  I also showed them how to do basic Silk Ribbon Embroidery stitches.

Today, we'll be beading, embellishing and finishing into a door pillow.

I'm thinking of offering another class for Crazy Quilting.  I see the need for Basic Embroidery stitches such as the Lazy Daisy stitch, Stem stitch, Feather stitch, Herringbone stitch and so on.  I could combine it with Silk Ribbon Embroidery.  I'll start working on putting that class together in a week or so and then offering that option.

For now, I have to get myself together for today!