Take It Further Challenge - February

Today is the 1st of February. On one hand, I am feeling terribly annoyed by the current weather conditions (I have so had my fill of snow for one season) and on the other hand, I'm excited because Sharon announced the concept and color palette for the February Take It Further Challenge!

Sharon's chosen concept for this month is "What Are You Old Enough To Remember?" At age 46, I am old enough to remember all sorts of interesting things. A regular joke between Scott and I, usually when the Direct TV bill comes, is that I remember when television and water were free! Ha, ha, ha!

Strangely though, as I was reading Sharon's post for today, the first thing that popped into my mind was the Apollo 13 Mission in 1970. Being that I was born in 1961, I can't image why that particular incident came to mind above all other things but it did so I decided to go with it.

At the time of the mission, I was only 9 years old so I don't remember having any opinions on it. I just remember it dominating the news for awhile. When the movie with Tom Hanks came out a few years back, I remember thinking that surely, there were "angels among them".

Since I will be sewing my 12 challenge blocks into a quilt at the end of the year, I had to think about how I'm going to tie them all together. Another challenge in and of itself for me! Certainly, a photo of the Apollo 13 rocket will not work with my January Victorian block:



However, my thoughts of angels watching over them while sitting through the movie reminded me of this image from my collection of Victorian clipart:



I will be using this image as the focal point for my February block but I haven't figure out yet how I'm going to get the Apollo 13 idea in there. Perhaps I'll embroider the words and date on the block or maybe, by the time I get it sewn up, I'll have figured out a better way to subtly convey my theme. Or maybe, the angels with the earth behind them, looking up at the moon are enough. All I know for sure at this moment is that this will give me the opportunity to use a ton of glitter on it! And ya'll know I love my glittery stuff!

Again, I will be also be working with Sharon's color palette:



I matched up the DMC floss colors to Sharon's palette, using both a printout and the image on my monitor. These are the closet matches I could get and I am quite pleased as they are pretty darn close! Please keep in mind that printers and monitors will vary in their color displays.

So, that's my plan for my February block. I would love to hear what ya'll think!

In other news, I had a few questions on my Sunflower Purse:



I was asked how I attached the sunflower to the block. The answer is, I popped the center out of the sunflower, sewed the sunflower onto the block by hand and then glued the center back in place with E6000 Jewelry Glue.

I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that there is a little story behind this sunflower. If you remember, this purse is a custom order. The girl who ordered it asked for a burnt orange sunflower. Had I looked for one back in October when she asked me for this, I probably could have found one quite easily. But I was busy with gifts and other things at the time and knew I wouldn't get to this purse until January. By the time I went looking for a burnt orange sunflower, they had become elusive! So I bought the only color I could get and that was the traditional yellow color.

I knew at the time that I could paint it. It's just a silk sunflower so I pulled out my Lumier paints by Jacquard and I painted it with the copper color. It's not exactly burnt orange but at least it leans more towards what she wanted.

I was also asked if I would post a photo when I get it sewn up. Absolutely! I always post photos of my completed projects. Oh, and the little bee, which I hated to part with, is a vintage pin that I found at an antique shop back at Thanksgiving. I loved him but he worked perfectly on this purse so I used him. And the bee had to be there because the girl who ordered the purse is named Melissa. That name means, "Honey Bee".

Since it'll be a few days before I can sew up my February block, I'll start a small project to work on over the weekend:



Cathy D. was kind enough to agree to stitch up my ornament design for the 2008 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue. My ornament for this year is a Biscornu and since I've never finished one and it has to be perfect, I asked Cathy if she would do the model for me. In exchange, Cathy asked if I would make her one of my little cat dolls in red so that will be my next project.

Finally, I'm pleased to tell you that my E-Book, "Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments" is complete!



The book contains 72 charted borders plus 9 charted Feather Stitch borders and complete directions for stitching perfectly sized and spaced crazy quilt seam treatments with Waste Canvas like I do.

I just have to upload the final pages and then when Allison Aller returns from her trip this week, she will review it for me, making sure my instructions are complete and clear and then I will release it.

I'm very, very excited about this book! So excited to be able share my technique and borders with other crazy quilters that I have already started work on Volume 2 which will be a supplement volume focusing mainly on more border designs.

Well, I guess that's it for today everyone!

Sunflower Purse - Stitching Complete

Just a quick update for today everyone. I finished up the stitching on the sunflower purse yesterday:



I picked up some handles for it when I was in WalMart this morning and I do expect to do the machine finishing on it sometime in the next week.

Valentine Finishes

First, I thought you would like to see the cover of my upcoming E-Book:



I'm so please with how this came out! I no idea what I was going to do when I took the photo but somehow, it came together perfectly! The project is right on schedule so I still anticipate a release date between 2/7 and 2/10.

I also have a few finishes to share to with you. I made a few Valentine gifts and finally have them all put together. First, these little cellphone pouches:





Next are the little cat dolls that I made for gifts:



Finally, my Redwork Cat:



I also made some little 3-D Valentine tags to go with these:



It's a little difficult to see in the photo but these were done by cutting and layering portions of the same image, one on top of the other. In between the layers, are little foam pop-up dots and of course, this was a good excuse to use some glitter. To finish them, I glued them to some gold paper heart doilies and then added a ribbon bow.

I still want to make a nice Valentine card for Scott's grandma using this same technique. I'll share a photo of that with you when I get it completed.

Give Away

First, I thought you would enjoy seeing an update on the Sunflower Purse:



I finished beading all of the seam treatments which I mentioned last week are from my upcoming E-Book, "Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments" Volume One.

The daisy trim was just too bright for my tastes so I dyed it. And it came out a bit darker than I had wanted it to. There are no mistakes in crazyquilting though. For everything that doesn't come out quite right, there is a way to fix it. As you can see, I added bright flower sequins to the daisy centers and now, it works perfectly with the rest of the block.

The big sunflower in the center will go on next. That didn't work out quite the way I had planned either but again, I think I have that problem solved. I'll explain more once I get it sewn onto the block.

In the meantime, I have another cross stitch magazine that I would like to give away. It's the February, 2008 issue of The Cross Stitcher:



I will send this off to the first person who leaves a message for me in the comment section requesting it. US Residents only please!

For today, I'll be running my sewing machine. I want to sew up the couple of little Valentine gifts that I made so I expect to have a few finishes to share with you soon.

Sunflower Purse Continued.....

A quick little update on the Sunflower purse:



I started beading the seam treatments yesterday and will continue on with it again later today. Several of my readers commented that these colors are a bit out of my norm. Yes, that is quite true, although I really do like these colors! This is a custom ordered purse so the colors were chosen by it's future owner. This will be my last custom order for quite awhile. I have a stack of things that I want to make for myself and I want to get back to making some more Comfort Cats to send to Pat.

For now, my mom is coming over and we're going to treadle again! I just love that old sewing machine!

Tomorrow, I will reveal the Valentine Mystery design.