Spring Purse and Home Decor

Finally, I have some finishes to share today!  My Spring Lady Crazy Quilt Purse is done and in the shop:

As you can see, I found a gorgeous purple and green cotton print in my stash for the lining.  I used a Spring green suede fabric on the back and purchased handles.  I crocheted the fringe for the botton using 2 different funky yarns and some large sequins for sparkle.  The lace pieces on this purse are all vintage!

My next finishes are these sweet little cottage style, heart shaped crazy quilt hanging pillows with matching wall plaques.  First, the pink one:

 And here is the green one:

Perfect for a narrow little wall that needs a little something!

In other news, I finished up my little Victorian Easter Bunny hanging pillow and will have a photo of that tomorrow.  I'm also getting ready to start on another little project. 

Easter Bunny Pillow

As planned, I did the finishing on my Spring Lady purse yesterday.  I must say, it's gorgeous!  My little Spring Hanging Pillows are done too so I'll add all 3 things to the shop later today.

When I finished the purse, I did a little more stitching on my Easter Bunny Hanging Pillow:

Today is a "I don't have to go anywhere day" so I'll be sitting here, drinking coffee and stitching on this for awhile.

Stitching A Bunny

After running errands yesterday morning, and running up to WalMart for the 3rd time this week to finally get Nightmare's medication (Walmart's Pharmacy system is a big time problem), I was able to do some sewing and I finished up on my little crazy quilt hanging heart pillows.  I'll have photos of those this coming week.

Today, I'll be finishing  up my Spring Lady Purse and again, photos are coming soon.

But I finally did get to do some stitching on my Bunny piece:

Not a lot of progress but it is ready for beading and embellishing now.

As always, I'm experimenting with new border designs and many of the seam treatments you've been seeing here will be in Volume 3 of my Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments Ebook.  I'll be starting on this new book this week.

Thinking of Spring, it occurred to me yesterday that the Robin's will be coming back in another week or two!  That's always a special day for me, when I see the first Robin of Spring!

If you're thinking Spring thoughts, here's a little pattern you can enjoy.  It's from my collection of vintage iron-on embroidery patterns:

If you download this pattern, please leave a comment for me.  I love to hear from my readers!

Spring Embroidery

Spring!  By the time I reach mid-February, Spring is the only thing I can think about!  Bunnies, chicks, pastel colored eggs and flowers!  Oh, and Robins!  Like most of us, I've now reached my point of having had enough cold, cloudy, dreary, grey days and I'm ready for sunshine and warmer temperatures.  I can't wait to see tulips and daffodils!

My stitching of course, is an example of where my thoughts are.  My current project is definitely Spring related:

I hand painted the lace flower applique which I had to cut apart into pieces to make it work where I wanted it.  This goes back to the "layering" effect that I was talking about last week.  Layering lace on top of fabric, and then more lace on top of lace and then embroidery and embellishments layered on top of that, adds texture, color and interest to any type of collage work.

The tatting lace on the bottom right hand corner is vintage.  I find vintage tatting and other lace pieces at flea markets and antique shops.  Thankfully, those places are in abundance where I live in northern Illinois!  And flea market season starts in April!

This sweet little Easter Bunny piece is now ready for embroidery!

More Crazy Quilt Hearts

I spent most of yesterday morning stitching and completed this little green Crazy Quilt Heart:

I'll spend some time over the weekend getting my last few projects sewn up and finished.

Here are close up photos of the embroidered seams worked with my Waste Canvas Technique:

And speaking of Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments, I will be starting on Volume 3 of my EBook next week!  Many of the borders that you've been seeing here on my blog will be included in this upcoming book!

Our 1929 Ford Model A Tudor Sedan

I'm putting together an online class for Maureen at Maureens Vintage Acquisitions.  I spent most of yesterday afternoon working on it and didn't have much time for stitching.

So, for today, I thought you would enjoy seeing some new photos of our 1929 Ford Model A Tudor Sedan.  We had to take new pics for our insurance company so here they are:

This car started out as a rusty, crusty, ugly mass of moldy oldie metal:

This thing had bullet holes in it from someone using it as target practice.  But now, it's a gorgeous streetrod!  We still need the side windows but the windshield and visor is on!

Scott did the majority of the work himself with just a little bit of help from me.  He works at Friendly Ford in Roselle, Illinois and Friendly Ford now does Classic Car restorations!  If you live in the Chicago area, be sure to stop in at Friendly Ford.  It's a beautiful Ford dealership!  If you need a car restored, Friendly Ford is the place to go!

Crazy Quilt Hearts

It's so nice to wake up and not be freezing!  The new furnace is working great.

I finished stitching up my little pink Crazy Quilt heart yesterday:

I'll sew this into a hanging pillow that will go with this:

Basically, this wall plaque get hung on the wall and the pillow hangs on the knob.  I made a couple of these last year and then forgot about them.

Here's my next little project:

And this hanging pillow will go with this wall plaque:

Very cottage style huh?  I love pink and green together!

Pink Heart

I'm sitting here, all toasty warm, drinking coffee.  My new furnace is in and other than the bill, I'm a happy camper!

I did a lot of baking yesterday just to have the oven on.  A double batch of Chocolate Chip Muffins and a double batch of Cornbread Muffins.  My laundry is done too!  I did anything I could think of to get a little heat in house.  The installer had it running by 6 pm so I slept good last night.  No waking up at midnight, freezing and shivering! 

Oh and my poor little kitties.  They kept looking at me like, "MOM!  What's up with this no heat thing?!!"  I had Nightmare and Simba wrapped up in quilts on the bed and I had Lucy out here with me on the heating pad with my stitching lamp shining on her.

I felt so bad for them.  They're all older and have some health problems.  Nightmare is has a heart condition, Simba has Colitis and Lucy had that stroke just before Christmas.  And I hate that I can't explain things to them.  But I managed to keep them warm as best as I could and they're no worse for the wear today.

In between baking, I did do some stitching.  This will be a little heart shaped door hanging pillow:

I used the corner of a vintage hankie for the center.  I think it needs some vintage Mother Of Pearl buttons now!

In other news, the Spring issue of Pat Winter's Gatherings magazine is now available for purchase:

Is that a gorgeous cover or what?!!!  Preview and order from Magcloud.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Getting A New Furnace

Our heating company recommended a new furnace.  At the moment, my heat is out again.  I just called and told them that I need it replaced today.  Okay, that's all I'll say about that for right now.

I finished up my purple cat doll yesterday and sewed up both the purple and the green one:

They're so Springy, aren't they?  Here are closeups of the seam treatments:

Both are worked with my waste canvas technique. 

Well, I don't know how much stitching I'll get done today.  It's hard to stitch when you're shivering!  But we'll see what happens. 

Cold Again

Well, my furnace is out again.  I have the heating people coming out.  It's probably just time to replace it again.  We had this one put in about a year after we bought the house.  We've had the house now for 19 years.  Don't know where the money is coming from for that but we'll figure it out.

I didn't get to doing any stitching yesterday so here's an oldie but a goodie:

I use this purple purse a lot during the Summer months.  The grapes are acrylic.  I bought them at Michael's and was determined to sew them on a purse!  I have another little bunch of grapes that I bought.  Maybe I'll make one to sell this Summer.

Cold Night

Well, in the middle of the night, on the weekend, when it's 11 degrees outside, my furnace decides to go out!  I've been up since 12:30.  Freezing!  LOL!  It's 6:30 now and fixed at the tune of $700.00 but it's warming up in here now and I'm not longer shivering.

I tried stitching but I was shivering so much from being cold that I couldn't get the thread in the needle!  Anyway, I'm almost done with my little purple cat doll:

I think I'll add some silk ribbon flowers to this while I sit here and warm up!

Another Cat Doll

I finished up my St Patricks Day Cat Doll yesterday:

I hope to get this little guy sewn up over the weekend so I can mail him.  I'll share another photo when he's done.

I started one more cat doll as gift for another friend.  This one is purple:

I did another blackwork fill in design at the top using Kreinik metallic #4 braid:

I absolutely love this technique however, although pulling the waste canvas out dry, from small areas like my seam treatments is quite easy to do, larger fill in areas is not so easy.  With crazy quilts, because of the fancy fabrics and fancy threads, I can't wet the waste canvas to get it out more easily. 

Since one thing usually leads to another, I'm going to start looking for some kind of doable alternative.  Because this is fun and this is cool looking!

Green Cat Doll

I'm only doing 1 Cat Doll for St. Patricks Day this year.  This one will be a gift for a friend who loves my Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls:

I'm still experimenting with Blackwork style fill-in patterns and waste canvas.  Here's a closeup photo:

Blackwork embroidery is a beautiful way to show off the sparkle of Kreinik metallic threads.  Here, I used a #4 Braid.

This fill-work came from me wanting to put more embroidery on my crazy quilts but also wanting to use lots of lace and trims.  I truly feel that variety is the spice of life when it comes to crazy quilting.

St Patricks Day Tussy Mussys

I didn't get any stitching time in yesterday.  I did do some sewing though.  I pieced a couple of cellphone pouches, a purse and a change purse.  Now I have a nice little pile of things all ready to stitch on!

Since I don't have stitching to show at the moment, I thought today would be a good day to share photos of my mom's latest Tussy Mussy's for St. Patrick's Day:

I also added 2 new pretty pairs of Kathi's earrings to the shop:

I'm going to do a little stitching now before I have to go into town.  Stop by tomorrow to see what I'm working on!

Spring Lady Purse Stitching Completed

I finished up my Spring Lady Purse yesterday morning:

I really feel that layering is the key to interesting and beautiful crazy quilts.  Lace layered over fabrics, trim layered over lace, embroidery layered over seams and then beads, sequins and other embellishments layered on top.  That is truly the key.

Here are photos of my seam embroidery:

Last night I crocheted some fuzzy trim for the bottom using funky yarn and some spangles:

As soon as I have time to assemble this, I'll share a final photo.