Take It Further February - Completed!

I finished up on my February Take It Further Challenge block yesterday:



Just to rehash the specifics of this block, Sharon's concept is "what are you old enough to remember". The first thing that popped into my head while I was reading Sharon's post on the February concept was the Apollo 13 space mission. I don't know why that stood out in my mind. I was 9 years old when that happened but I thought it would make for a unique block so I went with it.

While watching the Apollo 13 movie with Tom Hanks years later, I remembered thinking that surely, they must have had angels watching out for them. The little angel image with the earth behind them is from my collection of Victorian clip art.

I didn't use anything particularly special on this block. The blue trim on the top right is antique. I bought it a flea market last Summer. That's the probably the oldest thing on this block.

The Apollo 13 insignia had to be there for clarity. It's printed on inkjet fabric, appliquéd onto the block and then I added some pretty trim and beads around it. It was actually supposed to go in the top right-hand corner but I misjudged the size when I printed it and it didn't quite fit. That gave me the opportunity to add the comet there instead. The tail is stitched with 3 different sizes of metallic gold thread.

All seam treatments are from my "Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments" E-Book and that leads me to answer a few questions that were left for me in yesterday's post.

First, in reference to the photos I posted yesterday showing the waste canvas before & after stitching, Lynne asked, "Is there some reason why you use what appears to be a lot more canvas than you need to do the area?"

The answer to that question is that I had planned on stitching along both the top and bottom edges of the ribbon and then, after I had the waste canvas pinned to my block, I changed my mind. Usually, I leave about 1 inch of waste canvas on all 4 sides of the border the design.

Kathy asked, "How do you decide what size to make each design when you embellish a seam so that it fits and you don't have empty space at the end because there was not enough space for another motif?"

This is an excellent question but not an easy one to answer as there are several possible answers.
There is a formula for determining the height and the width of the charted borders and that is included in the book.

In some cases, I start stitching in the middle of a seam and just stitch as far as I can go on either side. In other cases, I start at one end and go as far as I can.

Notice the border to the right of the angels on this block:



There is some empty space on either side of it. I started in the middle of the seam and just worked my way out on either side which gave me 3 repeats of the design. Had I started at one end, I probably could have gotten 4 in there. I honestly don't freak out over this. There are no mistakes in crazyquilting and should something turn out less perfect than what I would prefer, there is always a way to fix it or camouflage it. In this case, I used it as an opportunity for some button clusters. They fill in the gaps nicely without covering up the border.

Quite honestly, working with waste canvas and charted borders isn't all that different than free-handing your borders except that you will get perfectly sized and spaced stitches with the waste canvas. It's a matter of simply following the design on the chart and duplicating it on the block.

I hope this answers your questions. If anyone has more questions for me, feel free to post them here or send me an email and I will gladly address them.

Here are a couple of charted borders for you try:





Click on the images to go to my Flickr site where you print up the larger versions.

Take It Further February - Day 5

I did some more beading on my February Take It Further Challenge block yesterday and I added the Apollo 13 Insignia:



It didn't quite end up where I originally wanted it to be. I printed it on an inkjet fabric sheet but my judgment on size was a little off. It came out a bit larger than I had wanted and then it didn't fit in the top right corner.

I decided to sacrifice a bit of my stitching and put it on the top left corner which as it turns out, seems to work well. It looks like the angels are looking up at it.

For the top right hand corner, I decided to stitch a comet there. I'll add that later today.

Again, all of the seam treatments are from my E-book, "Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments":



The borders are worked with waste canvas and the book gives complete instructions for using this special technique.

Debbie asked me if I could post a photo of a seam treatment "in progress" with the waste canvas in place. Here you go Debbie:



This photo shows the waste canvas in place before stitching.



And this photo shows the waste canvas after stitching is complete. You can see I've started to pull the waste canvas threads out from under the stitches.

Click on the photos to see a larger version at my Flickr site.

I was also asked if pulling the waste canvas threads out distorts the stitches in any way. No, not at all. Just pull the threads horizontally across the fabric. Don't pull up on them and your stitches will be perfect!

Take It Further February - Day 4

I had a good couple of hours to stitch on my February Take It Further Challenge block yesterday and added quite a few more beads to it:



I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to compliment my stitching. You're feeding my ego, you know! That can't be good! I'm really enjoying this project and the unusual theme of this block. I have some beautiful carved Mother Of Pearl buttons and I think I'll use one to represent the moon in the upper left-hand corner. The Apollo 13 logo will go in the upper right-hand corner.

Ginger sent me an email to let me know of another online source for Waste Canvas. She orders her Waste Canvas from Needle In A Haystack. Click here for the direct link.

Several of my readers have told me that Waste Canvas is available in other sizes than the ones I recommended. Yes, that it is true and I am aware of that but for stitching on crazy quilts, my recommendations are 8.5 count, 10 count and 14 count.

Waste Canvas in 6 count is too chunky looking for my tastes. Waste Canvas in 16 & 18 count is just suicide. I have used those sizes to do cross stitch but I have hard time seeing it so I wouldn't recommend them for crazy quilting. In all honestly too, your stitches will be so small, I doubt you'd be happy with them. The choice however is yours. If you want to give them a try, have a ball! But for me, I stick with 8.5, 10 & 14 count Waste Canvas for my borders.

Is It Spring Yet?

As my husband promised me, the moment he could get his hands on some Spring flowers, he filled my garden window with them:



He said there will be more this coming week. As you know, I deal with Seasonal Affective Disorder. I was actually doing pretty well until we got dumped on with a foot of snow last week. This has been a very cloudy Winter, with snow almost every other day. And yes, it's snowing now too. Thankfully, March is only a couple of weeks away.

Speaking of March, I've already made some Shamrock cards:



Again, these are 3-D although it's a bit hard to tell in this photo. Click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can see a larger version. I really enjoy making these. I usually do the cutting while my printer is running. And, it's the perfect excuse to use lots of glitter! I'll be doing some Easter and birthday cards next.

Take It Further February - Day 3

It was a very cold windy day here yesterday. We went out for breakfast, stopped at Borders bookstore and came home. I spent the rest of the day stitching:



As you can see, I have all the seams embroidered now and I've started beading.

I think the Apollo 13 logo will fit in the top right-hand corner. I'll print it up on an inkject fabric sheet and then I'll applique it on and then add some pretty trim around it.

We watched Apollo 13 yesterday with Tom Hanks. It really was amazing how they got home. I still say they had angels watching over them. I think it's odd too how this was the first thing that popped into my head when I was reading Sharon's post on the February concept. I'm not sure why that incident stood out in my mind but I never would have thought of an Apollo 13 block had it not been for the Take It Further Challenge. I think when the year is over, I'm going to have an amazing quilt to put to together!

In other news, I've received several messages asking where to purchase Waste Canvas. I have 2 online sources for you:

123 Stitch carries all 3 sizes of Waste Canvas from both Charles Craft & Zweigart. Here is the direct link to that page.

Also, Welcome Stitchery, my local needlework shop carries it and they will do mail order. I don't see it listed in their online catalog so you may have to email for info on it but I do know that they carry it.