Mozart Complete! Finally!!!

Well, I finally decided on a trim for the bottom of this purse and I'm happy to say, that it is now complete and I've already used it! So without further delay, here is the finished Mozart purse:



If you would like to see a larger photo, click on the image to go to my Flickr site.

I'll keep this short today. I still have some chores to do, laundry mostly - the "always & forever task"! and then I plan to stitch.

Mozart & More!

I spent most of the day yesterday working on Maxine's quilt. I think I only have 3 more patches to replace but I got a bit bored with doing that so I started reworking the seam stitches on some of the ones that I've already replaced.

I also noticed this velvet piece with a hand-painted flower:



This needs more embellishing! So I started by stem-stitching around the flower:



I'll be adding some beads to this and then perhaps some more embroidery.

I realized that I'm obsessing about this quilt and what to do with it. My peacock idea isn't going to work out the way I had planned. That beaded area, that I spent 5 hours repairing last week is in the center! Argggg.........

Scott suggested that I start working with what's already here and once I get into that, the rest will work it's way through on it's own.

I'm overwhelmed because of the size of this quilt. The largest whole cloth quilt I've ever done is my Lucky quilt which is 29 inches square. First I'll focus on the rest of the repairs.

My other project, that I'm obsessing over is my Mozart purse. Again, thank you to everyone who took the time to give me your opinions on the 2nd trim. Taking your comments into consideration, I decided to look through my stash and find something else.

I had 3 different trims that worked. One was a salmon colored trim with a velvet ribbon running through it. It worked, but my eye went straight to the trim rather than the design.

The 2nd trim was a light blue with silver threads in it. Again, it worked but it just wasn't right.

Finally, I pulled out this ruffled trim with the metallic gold threads in it and I like but it I'm still not sure this is what I will use.



Stop by tomorrow and see what I decide on.

Finishing Mozart

I apologize for not posting yesterday. I didn't really have anything to share with you. I have been working on Maxine's quilt, replacing damaged patches. At this point, it's just not all that exciting.

The real excitement will begin soon. I was thinking about it yesterday and decided to give a focal point. This quilt is really big and I feel that it needs something in the center to draw the eye in. So, what's my favorite crazy quilt theme? If you guessed a peacock, you're right!

I'm going to do a big peacock in the center. The body will be appliqued, probably with a blue lame fabric. I haven't a clue as to what to do for the tail yet but I'll figure that out when I get that far. Once I get that done, I think further embellishments will be easy. I still plan on adding some sunflowers and some velvet pansies to it. Stay tuned on that one as it will get more interesting very soon!

I've also found that I'm missing my original creations. I'm starting to need a bit of "instant gratification" so later today I'll put out one of my small pieced blocks and get that ready to stitch on. I'm going to have to alternate projects for a bit. I've never been one to have too many projects going at once. I guess it makes me feel overwhelmed, like I have too many loose ends and not completing anything. I'm thinking now, that it might be fun to have several "works in progress" like normal stitchers! Ha, ha, ha!!!

Anyway, my goal for tomorrow is get my Mozart purse assembled. Thank you to everyone who took the time to give me your opinions on the fringe. I think what I liked about the fringe was the color but it did seem a bit too heavy to me after seeing it on the computer.

When I was in WalMart yesterday, I found a different trim in the same old gold color and I bought a yard of that. I like Allison's suggestion of some beads (I love beads!) so now I'm going to ask your opinion one more more time. What do you think of this:



Does this look a little more balanced to you? Normally, I have no trouble with the finishing but what to put on the bottom has thrown me a bit on this one. Remember, I wanted this to be absolutely classic & elegant. So does this work?

New Meaning To The Word "Crazy"!

Yeah, that would be me! Can one of you, my dear readers, explain to me what the BLEEP I was thinking when I bought this quilt and decided to restore it? Ha, ha, ha!

My intention yesterday afternoon, was to replace 2 damaged patches on my quilt and then move on to working on Maxine's quilt. It didn't quite work out that way:



I was going to replace the red stripe and then the patch with the little victorian boot on it. I did my usual thing of snapping a photo with the digi, tracing the outline of the 2 patches onto tracing paper and then I tore out those 2 bad areas. While looking at it, I realized that the navy blue patch with the work boot on it needed to be replaced as well. Yikes! It was a little scary to have 3 pieces off at the same time! Since they all ran together, I didn't have a choice.



The boot repairs were the same as the first one that I did over the weekend. I had to cut into the foundation. Unfortunately, I found (in this area) that the muslin foundation is deteriorating. I also found that this quilt suffered some serious water damage before the backing and binding were put on. After reading this article titled, "Crazy Quilts In America Then & Now" by Patricia Cummings, I may have the reason for the deteriorating muslin.

I'm sure you're now thinking "why"? Well, fabric in the old days was not measured by the yard like it is today. Instead, it was measured by weight. To make fabric "weigh more", merchants soaked it in salt of one type or another. We all know what salt does to things! And in cheating the customer of the day, these merchants also cheated many future generations from having these beautiful heirloom works of art in good condition.

Back to my rotting muslin issue, I suspect that since the quilt got wet at one time, any residue salt on the fancy fabrics, soaked into the cotton foundation and therefore has rotted that as well. So far, most of the foundation fabric is fine. But this area is an exception.

I spoke with my mom about this and she told me that it's a good thing there so much that needs to be replaced. Since I'm stitching through everything that's here, the front, the flannel layer and the back, it should hold everything together just fine. Whew!

Ok, so onto my repairs:



I was a little freaked out over having 3 patches off at one time and as you can see, I didn't quite get them back on right. I really need to not stress over this so much! In some areas, there are 5 and 6 pieces all in a section that will need to be replaced and I know that I just have to do the best I can.

I'm sure you noticed that my stitching is a bit different than what was there. The red herringbone stitch to the right of the ladies victorian boot was intentional. I wanted more stitching on that area to make sure it was all held together well.

My stitches under the work boot are a bit different because I couldn't quite see what was there in my photo on the tiny little screen on my camera and I was just too lazy to get up off my butt, come in here to the computer and transfer the image!

Anyway, this area does look much better now and I still feel good that I have the ability to save Evelyn's quilt even if I don't get it exactly the way she had it.

I'm wondering now too if the 3 boots on this quilt represent something. Perhaps 3 family members? Mom, Dad and child? I may never know for sure but it's a gut feeling that I have. Do take a moment and read the article by Patricia Cummings. It's facinating!

Ok, now I would like to ask your opinion on something. I'm going to stop at Michael's Craft Store tomorrow to pick up the gold toned handles for my Mozart purse so I can get that assembled and use it! I was wondering what ya'll think of this trim:



I like it but wonder if it's too heavy? Or does it work? Please let me know you're opinion. I have gobs and gobs of this but if you think It's too much, I'll go with something else.

A New Counted Cross Stitch Design!

I spent yesterday afternoon working on Maxine's quilt. There isn't anything all that exciting about the process on that one at the moment. All I'm doing is cutting away the deteriorated patches and appliquéing new patches on in their place. I'm not even worried about replacing the stitches at the moment since I will be doing some insane embellishing on it.

So for today, I thought you would enjoy seeing one my newest counted cross stitch designs just released in the June 2007 issue of The Cross Stitcher magazine:



The Christmas Cat appears on page 40:



This design is based on a gorgeous kitty named, "Miss Lily" who belongs to Vicki, one of my fellow bloggers. Vicki's blog is Turkey Feathers and what a great blog it is! Do check it out if you have time.

Vicki had posted a photo of Miss Lily on her blog about a year ago and I absolutely fell in love with her. I emailed Vicki and asked for her permission to use Miss Lily as a model for a cross design. The Christmas Cat is that design!

I have an extra copy of this issue of The Cross Stitcher. If anyone wants it, I'll gladly send it out to the first person who emails me with a request for it.