Take It Further March - Completed

I finished this up yesterday:



As you can see, I added some button clusters to give it a more garden-like feel. If you look at the cluster under the hummingbird, you can see a pair of vintage crystal earrings. They were clip on's so I had to cut the clips off of them. I had to top sew them down and hide the threads, to the best of the ability, underneath the crystals.

The concept was, Little Things or Details In Life. I chose the hummingbird because of the personal significance it has for me but I won't go into what that is here.

Now that I've completed the March block, and I must say, I always feel a little sad when finish up my challenge block, I decided on a small project:



I like to alternate large and small projects so last week when I was running my treadle machine, I pieced up a few 6 inch blocks. I've always been taken with Sharon B's "I dropped the button box" quilt. I looked for the link on her website and I don't see it. I will email Sharon and ask her if she still has a photo of it online somewhere.

Anyway, I have gobs and gobs of old buttons and thought it would be fun to use some of them on small blocks which I'll eventually sew into a quilt. I'll be starting on this one today.

Take It Further March - Day 4

I'm running a bit late today. I had troubles getting my photo to upload to Flickr. It's there now so here's an update on my March Take It Further block:



I have all of the seams beaded now so next I'll start adding some of the larger do-dads. I decided against SRE iris's under the bird. Scott's step mom just gave me a huge bag of vintage buttons that she found at a garage sale so I thought I'd do some button clusters on this.

I'm sure I'll finish this today as I just plan to relax, stitch and listen to movies all day. I haven't decided on what to stitch next. I have some new small blocks that I put together last week on my treadle machine. I may choose one of those. I like to alternate small and large projects.

Take It Further March - Day 2

This is actually kind of day 2 and 3. I just didn't get much done on it the 2nd day. Anyway, I have all of the seams stitched now:



The hummingbird isn't permanently attached yet. I may move him a bit. I pinned him on to get a feel of space there. I want to stitch some irises underneath him.

I'll start beading on this later today.

Also, I thought I'd mention that you can get a feel of "curved seams" but using lace and trim. Both pieces of lace are antique and they had a natural curve to them so I just went with it. It adds some movement without actually doing curved seams. Crocheted lace is great for this! It's very easy to manipulate so if you have some laying around, give a try!

Finally, I just have to tell you that I saw Robin's today! I was really surprised because it's only 19 degrees outside. I heard a familiar sound, but one that I hadn't heard in a long time. I looked up at the maple tree and there they were. Four big, fat robin birds, sitting up there singing away! I guess there's hope after all, that Spring might actually show up one of the days.

Take It Further March - Day 1

Just a quick update for today:



I'm off to clean out the cupboards in my kitchen.

Take It Further Challenge March & Finishes

I did some sewing yesterday and finished a few of my projects. First are my little doorknockers:





Next, I finished the Floral "A" block into a pillow/cushion for my mother for her birthday:



I didn't get to the finishing on my Spring purse yet because I need to pick up some purse handles. I expect to get that sewn up next week.

In the meantime, I have my Take It Further Challenge March block all pieced now:



You can see the little hummingbird pin that I found over the weekend. I'll start stitching on this later today.

I'd also like to mention that my "Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments" E-Book is now available in PDF format.



I want to take a moment to say thank you to Carolyn Cibik at Evening Star Designs for her kindness in offering to convert it to PDF format for me. Thank you Carolyn! I'm not a computer whiz. I know what I need to know and creating a PDF file was not one of them! I very much appreciate Carolyn's generous offer to help me.

Finally for today, there's a Flickr group set up for stitcher's who are working with the designs in the book. A few ladies have posted photos so please stop by to see how other stitcher's use the designs!