Monday, July 31, 2006

100 Details In 100 Days - Day 41


Motif Peacock
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.
I'm a little late in my post today but I think you'll find it worth the wait.

Today's crazyquilt detail is another peacock. This one is charted for cross stitch. I suggest that you stitch this on cross stitch fabric and then work it into your foundation piecing.

Feel free to change the colors or to add beads to this design. Lots of room here for embellishing!

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Halloween Blocks


Halloween 1
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.
This will be next little crazyquilt project. I decided to do a few Halloween and Thanksgiving doorknockers for my Etsy shop. I did 3 of each.

Unfortunately, I had only 2 pieces left to sew onto the last block and my sewing machine decided to have an attitude problem. I'm a bit devasted at the moment because it's now with the repairman! But at least I have enough things ready to stitch on so this will be my next piece. It's a 5 inch block. And hopefully, my machine will be back here very soon!

Working With Color Completed


1930 Crazy Quilt Block
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.
I think you can see now where the logic is to my style of craziness. I balance my blocks by repeating my fabrics and my colors and working in opposites or across from each other.

For those of you who have followed this quick little lesson in how I work, Mad Stitcher was correct when she guessed that I would use yellow in the top right-hand corner. It balances with the yellow flowers in the applique.

Those yellow flowers by the way, are not the cast-on stitch that Sharon has shown us. I tried and tried but had a terrible time working directly on the fabric. Once I reached the point of giving up on that idea, I pulled out my handy-dandy tatting needle and worked my cast-on stitch flowers off site. Then I just sewed them onto my block.

For adding beads, the process is the same. As you can see, I added some red flower beads to the blue lace on the right. That balances with the red buttonhole flowers on the top left.

I used red buttons for the centers of the yellow flowers in the applique along with few red bugle beads. Again, this balances with the fabric on the top right.

Button clusters work the same way. I like to pick a "focal point" button and then add smaller buttons around it in similiar colors to the quilt. The big red button is the focal point. Once the focal point is established, the eye can move around to see what else is there. Without a focal point, the eye doesn't know where to start looking.

Lastly, I added just a few beads to the flowers in the hankie print. Without the beads, it looked like I forgot something! I also added the gold dragonfly charm. This definately gives the eye a place to start!

The block is complete now. I hope this quick tutorial helps you to understand how I work with color. I use the same process when I design my charted patterns as well.

Again, there is no right or wrong with crazyquilting. This is just my way of doing it. If you're seriously considering a good lesson in crazyquilting, I strongly suggest watching for Sharon's next class over at Joggles.com. Sharon is a master crazyquilter and she is truly the one to learn from. I had so much wanted to take her last class but my work schedule didn't permit it.

100 Details In 100 Days - Day 40


Motif Peacock Feather
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.
I can't believe we're up to day 40 already! I've enjoyed this project so much!

Today's detail is sort of a repeat. I've shared this pattern before but since we're in "peacock mode" and for those of you who are new to following my blog, I thought I'd make it today's motif.

I use this feather on every peacock themed quilt I do. Sometimes it has to be adjusted a little bit to fit the space and you can certainly use whatever colors you want to for this.

I trace the design onto tissue paper and then pin it to my quilt and stitch it use 2 strands of DMC floss. I do the fill in satin stitching after I tear the tissue paper away. Yes, that part can be tedious and time consuming as well as a bit frustrating but it works well and the results are worth it.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

100 Details In 100 Days - Day 39


Ginas Peacock 2
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.
Another gorgeous peacock design from Gina's collection. This is on a WW2 postcard.

This design will require working from both the pattern and the photo. The feathers overlap so to keep the pattern readable, I did not overlap the stitches. I had a terrible time tracing this one too but I hope it's enough for you to work from. Even stitched the way I drew it out, it should make for a lovely peacock pattern.

I'd like to publically say thank you to Gina for allowing me to create patterns from her gorgeous peacock pieces.

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