100 Details In 100 Days - Day 55

Yesterday, I mentioned that my husband and I went to an antique flea market in Wisconsin and I hit the transfer jackpot!

Well, I came across a large ziplock bag full of what I thought was misc. iron-on transfers. They were simply marked, "embroidery patterns" and at only $3.00 for the whole bagful, I didn't care of there were any duplicates to what I already have. I didn't look through them, I just handed the dealer my $3.00 and went on my merry way.

When I got home and sat down with my goodies, what I found in this bag was what I believe are all original hand drawn patterns. All done in pencil on either tissue paper and brown paper bags. The variety is amazing and most of them are signed, "Ella".

I thought it would be fun to share a few of them with you so today's detail is one of Ella's patterns. If you would like to see what outline embroidery looks like on a crazyquilt block, visit Karen South's blog. Be sure to scroll all the way down because she has several photos with beautiful embroidery and much of it outline work.

Click on any of my photos to go to my Flickr page where can download a larger version of any of my 100 Days patterns.

Halloween Block #2 Complete

Halloween 2
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I finished this piece yesterday afternoon while watching a 2 hour show about Moonshiners and Rumrunners on The History Channel. Facinating!

Anyway, I'll be starting on #3 in the next day or so. I'd like to stitch one of my vintage transfer designs first and I'm just itching to stitch one of Gina's peacocks! Sure wish I didn't have to sleep!

100 Details In 100 Days - Day 54

Tudor Rose Garden
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I'm running a bit late today. We just returned from a huge antique flea market in Elkhorn Wisconsin where I hit the jackpot on vintage embroidery patterns!

Todays detail is kind of a repeat. I offered this as a complimentary design on my website a few years back. I'm sure it will be new to many of my readers and it would certainly make for a lovely crazyquilt focal point!

100 Details In 100 Days - Day 53

Motif Blackwork Maple Leaf
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I noticed just this week, that the sun has changed position a bit and it's very much looking like late Summer outside now. With Autumn moving closer and closer here in the US, I thought I would do another crazyquilt motif with that theme.

This little blackwork maple leaf design can be worked in the thread color of your choice. Try a varigated thread or one of those wonderful overdyeds! Try adding seed beads for some sparkle. For those of you who are like me and can't seem let go of Summer, stitch it in green! Of course, for a traditional blackwork design, work it entirely in black thread. A metallic gold thread would look stunning too!

I would use 2 strands for the outline of the leaf and then 1 strand for the blackwork pattern.

Halloween Block 2

Halloween 2
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

I started on this little Halloween block yesterday. I really want to break away from my usual and comfortable stitches but I've found that these seem to be the best for the little 5 inch blocks. I plan to broaden my stitch variety when I get back to doing some larger blocks.

In the meantime, I'll be adding my signature cat to the black patch on the bottom right and then a spider and web to the orange patch on the bottom left. I really love doing spiderwebs! And I see room for some buttons to the right of the image where I didn't expand my image background far enough. A nice thing about crazyquilting is that you can always find a way to hide your mistakes! And somewhere, I think I have a little pumpkin button so I'll have to look for that and maybe use on this piece.