Embellishing Maxine's Quilt

I spent almost all day yesterday working on Maxine's quilt. I spoke with her on the phone yesterday afternoon and I'll be meeting with her on Friday. We're going to re-evaluate this project a bit. I'll let you know over the weekend where this will be going.

In the meantime, here are the things I did yesterday. First, I had a lot of trouble with the velvet pansies that I made. I've made them before and they always worked out great but for some reason, they didn't this time.

Instead, my mom crocheted a few pansies for me:



I love these! They look so old-fashioned. I sewed them onto a large patch and added a few vintage velvet millinery flowers. The leaves are the ones that I bought in Galena on Monday. I sewed them on and then added a few sequins down the centers for sparkle.

Next, I did some Yo-Yo flowers. Ladies, if you enjoy working with Yo-Yo's, this is the way to go! I made 3 Yo-Yo's in less than 10 minutes using the Clover Yo-Yo Maker that I mentioned in yesterday's post:



This patch has a "ready to stitch" design printed on it. It's velveteen and was printed in white. Some of the design was under the patch above it so I stitched the leaves and then added the Yo-Yo flowers. I made these from Panne Velvet. Not easy to work with as it's stretchy but with the Yo-Yo maker, it was a piece of cake!

Using some of the Chenille thread that Sharon sent to me, I did some big Lazy Daisy stitches and then beaded inside of those.

This was an interesting piece. The design was painted onto this silk patch:



The paint however, was starting to crack so I followed what was there, stitching the stems & leaves and then added my signature bugle beads to the centers of the Lazy Daisy leaves. I then used some vintage velvet Forgetmenot flowers from Maxine's collection of things that she gave me to use on this quilt.

Last but not least, I added some silk flowers to this already couched on vine:



Again, I added some beads to the center of these.

I'll be working on this again most of the day today. What I think we're going to do is to balance it out a bit more, adding just a few more "points of interest" here and there and then adding a new back and binding. I'll explain more on that over the weekend.

Goodies From Galena

We had a lovely day yesterday. We drove to Galena, had lunch and did a bit of shopping. I found a few things that might work nicely on Maxine's quilt.

First, I found the silk flowers and leaves in the Rubber Stamp store:



They were on sale and I thought I could sew them onto the quilt and then embellish them with some beads.

Galena also has a fabric store called "Phat 1/4's". Cute name huh? Anyway, we looked in there and I found these Yo-Yo Makers:



In the past, when I've made Yo-Yo's, I've just used a saucer from my dishes for large Yo-Yo's and the lids from my Tupperware cups for small Yo-Yo's. I thought I'd give these a try and see how they work. Some velvet Yo-Yo's should work nicely on Maxine's quilt.

These are made by the Clover MFG Co. If you would like to visit their website, you can find it here. And this is the direct link to the Yo-Yo makers. It looks like they have several different sizes as well as heart shaped makers and flower shaped makers. Oooh, I would love to have those!

It was a busy weekend and I feel that I need some quiet time so I'll spend the majority of my day working on Maxine's quilt.

Stop by tomorrow to see my progress.

Maxine's Quilt

I've added a few things to Maxine's quilt now. I'm really happy to have the majority of the repairs out of the way! I'll admit, I'm still a bit overwhelmed with embellishing a quilt this large so I'm kind working here, there and everywhere at the same time. When I get an idea, I just do it. Basically, there's no rhyme or reason to how I'm working. I figure it'll come together eventually.

So here's what I have done so far. You may remember this painted flower that I stem stitched around last week:



I added a vintage button and some beads to that now. I'll be adding more things to this motif but I haven't decided on what yet.

Next, I found this little leaf on the quilt. It was just hanging around by itself doing nothing so I added a crocheted flower to it and then beaded that:



Last, I painted some small vintage tatted flowers, did some stem stitched stems & leaves and beaded those with some bugle beads. The flower centers are vintage mother of pearl buttons:



As I suspected in the beginning, this quilt was one that someone got bored with and lost interest in. While repairing it, I found some silk patches with outlines of flowers done in light pencil marks. Very interesting. They're a bit hard to see so I won't be stitching those. Instead, I'll be doing my own embroidered motifs on it. In some cases, I will be stitching them on fabric first and then adding them to the quilt. It'll probably be easier that way.

I doubt I'll have time to post tomorrow. Scott's birthday is today and he has tomorrow off so we'll be driving up to Galena for a nice lunch and a little shopping.

I'll see ya on Tuesday!

Red Hat Lady Finished!

I so much enjoy making these little pouches! I did the finishing on this one yesterday:



I would like to have a sewing day next week for piecing a few new blocks, esp. cellphone pouches. I think I only 1 or 2 in the drawer that are ready to stitch.

Speaking of piecing blocks, Allison has posted a tutorial on her blog for crazy quilt foundation piecing. If you've been wanting to try this but have no clue where to start, Allison's instructions and photos will give you all the information you need.

My plan for later today is to continue on with the process of embellishing Maxine's quilt. Stop by tomorrow for an undate on that project.

Lots Of Stitching Time Yesterday

I completed the stitching on my Red Hat Lady pouch:



Don't you just love my little green spider?!!!!

After that, I worked on Maxine's quilt for a few hours and added this motif:



I found a whole package of these at an antique shop in Peoria Illinois. I think they were taken off of curtains or a dust ruffle. There's something familiar about them. Maybe they remind me of something my mom or my grandma had years ago.

Anyway, I trimmed the excess fabric away from the outside and then I hand painted it, sewed it onto the quilt and then beaded it.

Looking at this quilt, I feel that I'll be able to do anything I want, just as I would my own pieces. The only thing that I need to do is to keep everything in the muted antique colors. Anything new that I use will have to be "aged" with fabric dye before I use it. In fact, I "aged" a few other things yesterday and hope to have time later to work on this some more.

In the meantime, I'll be sewing up the Red Hat Lady pouch and getting it ready for it's new owner. Stop by tomorrow to see the finished pouch.