Take It Further -January - Day 5 & Redwork Cats

I was able to use all 12 of my vintage dyed Mother Of Pearl buttons on this piece:



I really wanted to keep them all together so it worked out great!

I didn't get too carried away in beading the lace and trim. Because those pieces are antique, I wanted the beauty of those pieces to stand out. The vintage buttons and simple pearls seemed to be just enough to highlight the lace without overpowering it.

I'm almost ready for a few larger embellishments and I still want to add some pansies to the patch on the right of the tea lady.

In other news, the long awaited Redwork Cat designs are now available:



You can find them here.

Take It Further Challenge - January - Day 4

I started the beading on this yesterday:



I still have a way to go on it. I want to add some pansies to the right of the tea lady and of course, it needs some butterflies.

I remembered that I had these vintage dyed Mother Of Pearl buttons that Scott's mom gave me a few years ago:



On one hand, I hate to take them off the card because they are old and the card is complete. On the other hand, I've been saving these for something special and I know this project is perfect for showcasing them. I will use them because they aren't doing me any good sitting in a drawer. I do think they're perfect for this block.

Take It Further - January - Day 3

After spending several hours yesterday afternoon reorganizing the drawers in my rolling carts, which my husband did indeed fix for me, I finally got in some stitching time on my Take It Further January block:



I have all of the seams embroidered now so today, I'll start beading.

I added to the border at the top right using another of Carol Samples Dream A Seam Templates. Those are really fun! The templates offer an endless variety of border possibilities. You can find them at Carolyn's Evening Star Designs website. And don't think of them just in terms of crazy quilting. Some really lovely band samplers could be created using the templates as well!

I did the Maidenhair stitch in the center right, the Cretan stitch with some fans to the left of the Tea Lady and then above the lady, is a new border which I've never used before. I did Lazy Daisy flowers with Eyelets in between the flowers.

I've decided that it would be fun to offer you the charted patterns for any new borders that I come up with during the Take It Further Challenge so I charted this border out:



Just click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can download the large version. I used 8.5 count Waste Canvas to stitch my seam but I'm sure you can free-hand it if you like.

So that's my update for today on my January block.

On another note, I've been tagged by several bloggers for the "You Make My Day Award". I'm quite flattered and so happy to hear that my blog is enjoyable to my readers. I must say however, that every blog I read has already been tagged. So I will simply say thank you for tagging me.

Take It Further - January - Day 2

I spent most of my day yesterday doing machine finishing and bit of the hand-finishing. I didn't quite get my cellphone pouches completed but I'll work on those some more later today. My regular stitching time was a wee bit limited but I did manage to work one more seam on my January block:



I used one of Carol Samples Templates to mark the seam. I started with the chain stitch and then free-handed the lazy daisy stitches. Then I added the little black straight stitches. I'm thinking of adding to that seam on the top. I haven't decided what to do with it yet but I'm thinking I could make it even more interesting.

I'd like to thank Debra S. for mentioning that the point of this Challenge is to move beyond our comfort zone. Yes, that is quite true! And I very much intend to do so. That's why I chose to work with both the concept and the color scheme. On the other hand, I have to keep in mind that in the end, I want to have a nice quilt to hang on my wall. If the end of 2008 comes along and I don't like the blocks that I did, if they don't appeal to me visually and don't suit my personality and my decor, they will end up laying in a drawer and never make it into a quilt for my wall. I would find that very sad and I would feel that I have wasted my time. Escaping my comfort zone is not enough for me. Learning something new is not enough for me. In the end, I have to have a useful and beautiful quilt, something that I'm proud to display. So my intention is to make these blocks work on all levels and I know I can do that. For some blocks, I may be well outside of my comfort zone and for other blocks, I may have to walk the fence. Somehow though, I will work with both the concept and the color scheme and I will see to it that I personally find each of my blocks visually appealing and suitable for a wall-quilt.

I'll probably take about this a bit more as I work through this challenge so stay tuned.

I also want to answer a question that Dee asked of me. She asked how I go about adding lace and trim after my blocks are sewn up. I open up the seams, I tuck the ends of the lace or trim into the seams and then I take just a few tiny stitches to hold the seams down until I get my fancy stitches on there. I almost never chose my lace and trims until after the block is sewn. Thank for the question the Dee.

Before I end my post for the day, I thought you would enjoy seeing a photo of the my Kitten In A Basket Ornament:



This little one is already spoken for so I'll package it up now and ship it off to it's new owner tomorrow.

For today, I have some new beads that I want to organize. I like to keep my beads and sequins in little ziplock baggies so I have to sit down and take them out of the packaging and put them in the bags. I used to use the round, stackable plastic bead containers but they're so heavy, the weight of them put so much pressure on my roll-carts that the caster wheels broke off! My dear husband is at this moment, making wooden frames for the bottoms of the carts and attaching new casters to them. He told me that when he's done with this, I'll never have any trouble with my rolling carts again!

My stash is stored here in my computer room but when I stitch, I like to sit on the sofa in my living room so I roll my carts out there and then I have easy access to my entire bead stash!

Take It Further Challenge - January

I had my sewing day yesterday just as I had intended and I sewed up my January Take It Further Challenge block along with a few other things.

I started by pulling the DMC thread colors that matched Sharon's color palette and I thought to myself, "EWWWWW"! They just weren't colors that I would normally put together.

I doubled checked the DMC colors against my monitor and printout again and they did match up, however, and quite thankfully I'll admit, I did not have any fabric that matched DMC #964. The closest match I had in fabric is more like DMC #504. With a sigh of relief, I went for it:



My photo is a little fuzzy but this is the ready to stitch block with the original DMC floss colors. Since my light green fabric matched DMC #504, I switched the thread color as well and began stitching:



I did add some black crushed velvet to my palette to give it a very Victorian feel and to bring out the black in the image.

Now, onto a few special things about this block! First, the lace that I used on the bottom is from an actual Victorian cuff. It's hand crocheted and some of the tiniest crocheting I've ever seen! I bought it a flea market a few years ago and have been saving it for something special as it was quite pricy. I bought a second cuff at the same time, a little different than this one and hope to use it for this challenge later on.

The gold braids were a gift to me from one of my readers, Sandra G. I believe Sandra told me that the braids were from Germany and that they were old. I love my old stuff! Thank you Sandra! Again, I've been saving these for something really special.

The spider web of course, is a traditional Victorian crazy quilt motif and ya'll know I had to put a spider web on here or I just wouldn't be able to sleep!

The Herringbone stitch at the bottom left is an example of me not wanting to stop stitching! For some reason, I just kept on adding to that border until I couldn't add anymore. I thought perhaps some of my readers might enjoy using this seam treatment so I charted it out:



Click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can download the large version.

So that's where I'm at for now. I pulled out my Penny McMorris book, or rather "the Holy Grail of crazy quilt books" as Allison called it earlier this week, to get a feel for more of the popular CQ motifs from the Victorian days. Not only did the Victorians love their elegant and ornate things, but they had a true appreciation for nature. Something I can very much relate to! This block definitely needs flowers so I'm thinking of either some pansies or some violets. Oh, and speaking of Allison, do stop by her blog to see her January block! She does some gorgeous and very creative things with flower images.

One last thing that I want to mention is that DMC #333 purple is quite, I'll use the word "loud"! I will be using it but I'll limit that color to beads. The color will be there, but it won't jump out of the block like it would had I used it for the stitching.

My plans for today include sewing up my latest cellphone pouches. I'm not sure I'll get the handwork done today but I at least want to assemble them. I also want to do some heavy duty stitching on my January block because at the moment, I'm really into it and it's all I can think about!