Thank you!!!

Hello everyone! First, I just have to say "thank you" to my readers who take the time to leave such lovely compliments for me on the projects I've done. I can't begin to tell you how happy I feel when I hear that you find inspiration from my stitching. It means so much to me! Thank you very much everyone!

I completed the stitching on my little "Good Luck Robin" design yesterday:



I just love St. Patrick's Day so I'll be keeping this little one for myself. I'll sew it into a doorknocker during the week sometime.

When I finished up that little project, I started on this one:



Again, Kim stitched up the little pansy for me which is one of my "gift" designs:



If you would like to stitch this for one of your projects, click on the image to go to my Flickr site where you can download the large version.

Today will be another stitching day so I'll finish up on the pansy doorknocker and then perhaps work up a Comfort Cat Doll.

I have several larger projects on my list too but haven't decided on which one to do next. Allie asked me about manipulating Waste Canvas in order work the borders from my book around curves. I hadn't really thought about it until Allie suggested it. I have no clue how she does that wonderful curved piecing technique of hers. I asked her if she would consider piecing a block for me so I can give it a shot and she very kindly took the time to do so.

I have a good idea on how to manipulate the Waste Canvas and I think it'll work perfectly! That will be one of my next projects so I'll be posting a photo of the pieced block that Allie did for me in the very near future. As soon as I'm sure of what I'm doing, I'll offer that as a tutorial here.

I also am feeling the need to have a new purse. A Spring purse actually and I have one pieced already. I'll share that one soon too. It'll be a bit different than anything I've done before. I just have something really cool to sew onto it!

You may remember my January Blizzard purse. I have to tell you, I only used that one for about a week into January. With all the storms we've had this year and way more snow than we usually get, I just couldn't stand looking at it so I put it away. I've been using my Blackwork Peacock purse but pretty soon, I can start switching them around again. It just doesn't quite feel right to carry a purse with a bunch of flowers on it when there's 2 feet of snow on the ground!

Anyway, be sure to stay tuned for these upcoming projects. I'm sure you'll find them quite interesting and maybe get some more ideas for your projects!

Also, next Saturday is the first of March. Yah!!!!!!! Sharon will be announcing the concept and color palette for the Take It Further challenge which I have to tell you, I am so much enjoying! I haven't put my Apollo 13 block away yet. It's sitting on my Hoosier cabinet where I can see it each time I walk by. I never would have thought of such an interesting theme had it not been for Sharon's challenge. Needless to say, I'm quite excited to hear about the next concept.

We're planning on our Eagle weekend for next Saturday. We couldn't go last week due to weather conditions but so far, it looks like next weekend will be quite good for driving to Peoria, Illinois. The Bald Eagles hang out on the Illinois river during the Winter months. We'll spend the weekend with my in-laws, visit a few antique malls and see those gorgeous eagles! If our photos come out as well as they did last year, I'll share them here.

Last but not least for today, I wanted to share this with you:



I received this beautiful fabric CQ postcard all the way from Jo in New Zealand! What a thrill it is to receive something from so far away! It arrived safely in perfect condition and I have it sitting here on my desk. Jo's stitching is perfect, isn't it? Jo, I know you're having computer issues but if you happen to be online somewhere, thank you so much!!!!

Well, that's my ramblings for today! Have a great weekend everyone. I know we're going out for breakfast in the morning but I'll try to post a photo of my finished little pansy block before we leave.

Floral "A" Block Continued.....

I did a bit more embroidery on this block yesterday and added some more beads:



As you know, I have a bit of dilemma as to what to do with that hard corner at the bottom left of the "A". Allie suggested that I embroider a fan there but that just doesn't call to me.

Crazy quilting is of course an "abstract" artform. I've always thought of abstract art as something that exists in another dimension. A dimension which our physical eyes cannot see. It's the type of art where both the creator and the observer must use an intuitive sense to comprehend the piece.

For me, it's not just a matter of technique, color and composition. Yes, those are indeed necessary components but they are only tools so to speak.

What I'm really doing in my crazy quilting, is conveying a thought or a memory. Thoughts & memories are absolutely real but they exist in a realm outside of the material world. Our general term for that is "abstract". Again, in order to interpret the abstract world, one has to rely on their "feelings" in order to express their thoughts and memories.

You've probably noticed that in most cases, I start with a touch of realism and expand on it in a non-realistic way.

In this case, working off of that gorgeous floral "A" from Allie, my thought is that of Summer and it's vast array of bright colors found in a garden. That is certainly a cheery thought for me considering it's only 2 degrees outside right now!

In attempting to deal with that hard corner in the conventional way, trying different lace appliques and a few other little do-dad's that I have here, and finding that none of them visually suited my purpose, I reached deeper into my thoughts and feelings and memories of Summer. I remembered that not only do bright, cheerful flowers dominate the Summer landscape, but so do a variety of beautiful busy bugs!

When I start on a block, I'm not usually aware of the final result. I've always considered work on a crazy quilt to be a journey rather than a destination. Certainly, it's fun to arrive at the final work but the joy is in the creation for me, feeling my way through and around a block as it develops.

So, to get on with how I will soften that hard corner, I have decided to allow the perfect imperfections of nature take care of itself. Not all gardens are perfect (esp. mine) yet they are all beautiful and filled with living things, both seen and unseen. I have a nice collection of little bug pins that I can use to soften any area that isn't quite what I'd like it to be. I have a beautiful bee pin, a dragonfly and a butterfly. I'm sure one of them will work on that corner and I'm sure I'll be adding some other bugs here and there throughout the block. Of course, being a garden theme piece, this block must have a spider and web on it. Does anyone want to guess where I will put it?

Comfort Cats & Update On Floral "A" Block

I did some finishing yesterday on a few projects including these two little cat dolls for The Comfort Doll Project:



I don't know which one I love more! The yellow one is so bright and cheery but the green one so pretty with the purple embellishments! I'll package these up today and mail them to Pat later this week when I go to the Post Office again.

I also did some stitching yesterday on my Floral "A" block:



I tried every little appliqué I have and nothing seems to work to soften that hard corner at the bottom left of the "A". I have some ideas but want to do some more beading on the seam treatments before I start working on that area.

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!