Contest Drawing!!!

Hello everyone!  I have a really nice surprise for you all today!  I'm having a contest!  A drawing actually.  I made this sweet little sewing art quilt and thought about how nice it would be to offer it in a drawing for my blog readers:

Here's how it works!  There are 3 ways to win. 

***First, become a follower of my blog by clicking on the "Follow" button in my sidebar.  (If you are already a follower, you are automatically entered once.)

***Your name will be entered again if you mention my drawing on your blog.  Please leave a comment on this post so I know that you mentioned it!!!

***To receive a third entry in the drawing, post my blog button in your sidebar on your blog.  You can find to the left in my sidebar.  Again, please leave a comment here on this post so I know that you added it.


All entries will be put in a basket and when my blog reaches 300 followers, my husband will draw a name and I will post the winner's name here. 


So that's it everyone!  Good luck and please spread the word.  I had a lot of fun making this little quilt.  I used some vintage velvet berries from an old hat.  I hand-dyed the berries!  I ran all over the planet looking for a little sewing scissors charm.  I added some silk ribbon embroidery and wound thread on the tiny spools myself!!!

Good luck!

Art Quilting 101 Tutorial - Finishing

This is the final part of how to finish an art quilt.  Of course, you can do it however you want to.  I just thought I'd offer you one way to do it if you've never made an art quilt before.

First, you'll want to choose a backing fabric.  I like something light in color so I can sign and date it.  Lay it right side down on your work space:

On top of that, lay down a piece of quilt batting.  I prefer cotton quilt batting:

Finally, on top of that, lay your stitched piece down right side up:

Now, pin all three layers together just along the outside edge:

Next, simply top stitch around the outside of your quilt.  I used the same gold metallic thread that I use when I pieced it:

You can either make it a rectangle or curve the edges like I did:

Here's a photo of the back so you can see how I sewed it:

Now for the fun part!  Trim the edges with pinking shears about 1/2 inch from sewing line:

If you don't have pinking shears, just use a regular pair of sewing scissors:

Now you'll want to add something for hanging it.  You can use lace, ribbon, fabric, yarn or whatever you choose  I used some dyed strips of fabric:

You can sew them to the top of the quilt or on the back side of the quilt.  There's no right or wrong way:

I like to leave some excess so that it dangles.

Finally, you can use a tree stick, a knitting needle, a dowel rod or again, whatever you have on hand or choose to use will work.  I used a tree stick and wrapped it with lace and some dyed fabric strips and then added some fuzzy yarn:

Carefully slide the hanger into the loops.  When you have it in place where you want it, use a little glue gun glue to hold the loops in place on the hanger.

At this point, if you want to add some flowers or anything else that can be glued on, go for it!  I used some old flowers from a vintage hat to finish it off.

I hope you've found this tutorial helpful.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me.  If you've been working on an art quilt using my tutorial, please send me a photo or a link to your blog or website and I will gladly share it here.

Crazy Quilt Peacock Purse At Etsy

I'm pleased to tell you that I have finished my Peacock Purse and I've added it to my Etsy shop:



I've now got a bee in my bonnet to do a pink peacock purse!  I don't think I have any pink eyelash yarn so I'll have to see if I can find some when I'm out and about.  I've noticed that all the wonderful fancy yarns that were available just a few years back are getting more and more difficult to find.  I remember that Michael's had tons of fancy yarn and now with the exception of just a few skeins, most of what they carry is worsted weight.  What fun is that?  I don't crochet sweaters or scarves.  I can't even read a pattern.  Well, I can read a pattern, but the abbreviations totally mess with my ADD mind so I just make it up.  I do the same with tatting.  I can follow the pattern but the abbreviations make me crazy so I make that up too.

Anyway, I crocheted the trim at the bottom of the purse.  The sequins are crocheted on as I went along.  Then I hand-sewed the trim on once I had the purse sewn together.

So now that my peacock is complete, I started another purse project.  One of my favorite subjects is Marie Antoinette.  I love the fluffly-ness and the flowers and the pastel colors associated with Marie.  I also see her as someone who was so misunderstood and pretty much screwed the minute she was born.  If you don't know too much about Marie Antoinette, Wikipedia has an excellent biography on her.

Here's the block before stitching:



And here's the block before beading:



This will be incredibly glittery.  I plan to use a ton of sequins on it.

I decided to experiment with some curved seams.  Boy, did I fight with myself on using a glue stick on a crazy quilt.  But I kept reminding myself that if it's good enough for Judith Montano's quilts, it's good enough for mine!  I only used 1 curved piece on this block.  Future blocks will have more.  I like the look!  While the sides of that piece are sewn into the block, the curve is simply held in place with a glue stick.  To cover the edge, I just hand sewed some trim over it.

The image of Marie, which I printed on commercial ink jet fabric, is trimmed as well and then tacked in place with hand sewing.  Again, trim covers the edges.

I'll leave you for today with a couple of new pretties from mom & Kathi.  First, is mom's latest cottage style pillow:

And Kathi's latest, a gorgeous set with earrings, bracelet & matching necklace. Real amethyst beads are the focal point:

Both can be found here at Etsy.

Pams Peacock Tutorial For Crazy Quilting

Hello everyone!  As promised, I've put together the tutorial for the peacock that I use on my crazy quilts.  Peacocks were a very popular motif with the Victorians.  They loved anything exotic! I've seen photos of Victorian crazy quilts with embroidered peacocks, satin stitched peacocks, cross stitched peacocks and painted peacocks!  I myself have even used real peacock feathers on my crazy quilts.

This particular project is my own original design.  I own the copyright!  Please do not sell the pattern or the instructions.  You may of course post a link on your blog or website to this tutorial.  All I ask is that you give me credit as the designer.

I've taken a lot of photos to make it easy to understand so here goes!  First, you'll need the pattern:

Print the pattern and trace it onto tracing paper.  Next, pin the pattern onto your block:

Stitch the outline of the peacock using a stem stitch.  I used #5 Pearl cotton to stitch the outline.  I used 3 strands of embroidery floss to stem stitch the branch.  I did not stitch the leaves this time.  And I do not stitch the top of the tail feathers.  That's for placement purposes only.

Once you have the stem stitching complete, carefully tear away the tracing paper and carefully remove from underneath your stitches:

You may need to use a pin or needle help get the paper out but it should pull out easily as the stitches pierce the paper:

Next, you'll want to fill in the peacock with long & short stitches.  I used a darker blue in DMC Rayon thread with 3 strands.  I know, call my crazy!!!  Rayon is hard to stitch with because it's so slippery but I love the shine of it and it does fill in nicely.  You can use silk threads or cotton threads, whatever you're comfortable with:

Now for the fun part!  The tail!!!  You need some eyelash yarn in a coordinating color.  Cut 12 strands approx. 10 inches long.  (You can always trim them down a bit later.)  You'll also need a glue stick and a small floral brooch or pin:

Lay them all out on top of each other and then using some bead thread, tie them together in the center:

Leave the bead thread strands long enough to pull through the fabric. 

Next, fold the yarn bundle in 1/2 where the bead thread knot is.  Thread a needle with one strand of the bead thread and pull through to the back of your block:

Repeat with the other end of the bead thread, pulling to the back side of your block about 1/8 of inch from where the first one is:

The photo above is the back side of the block.  Tie a double or triple knot with the bead thread strands and then weave the strands under the stitching of the peacock body.

Turn your block back to the front and using a glue stick, add a bit of glue at the top of the tail:

The purpose of adding a bit of glue is to hold the bottom layer of the yarn to fabric temporarily.  This step is optional but I've done quite a few of these and find that it helps to have that bottom layer held in place while I do the beading.

The next step is to add a brooch.  I usually use something that looks like leaves or a flower or something swirly and abstract.  I buy inexpensive vintage jewelry pieces at flea markets and antique shops.  If you don't have a rhinestone brooch, you can use a pretty button or a new piece of jewelry.

I pin my brooch on and then I also sew it down with bead thread. 

Next, you'll want to add the "eyes" in the tail feathers.  Use beads or sequins, whatever you like that adds some sparkle and holds the eyelash yarn in place:

Sewing the beads or sequins down should help to hold the "tail feathers" in place.  You may need to tack the eyelash yarn here and there as well.  Look close at this last photo.  I leave a bit of the tail to just dangle.  It's only tacked down to about where the beads on the tail end.

You may want to trim your tail a little bit but I recommend that you wait until you sew your project together and then trim it.  When you do your finishing, you'll want to pin up those dangling feathers so they don't get caught in your seam.

So there you have it!  That's how I do my peacocks.  I hope this tutorial was clear and easy for you to follow.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  I'll be happy to answer them!

Happy 4th Of July!!!

Good Morning everyone!  Happy 4th of July!  I made cupcakes:



I confess, I used a box cake to make these.  I had a bunch of things I wanted to do so I thought a box cake would save me a little time.  I should have read the label though. There's corn starch and corn syrup in it!  Bad, bad, bad!!!  Esp. for ADD people.  Too much corn aggravates the symptoms of ADD so Scott and I try to avoid it as much as possible.  I'll go back to making my cupcakes from scratch!  They are pretty though, aren't they?  Very festive!  I made them to take to my parents house and my neighbors.  I actually made a double recipe.  I did make the cream cheese frosting from scratch!

I'll keep this post short today as I know everyone is out and about and celebrating the holiday.  I thought you would enjoy seeing my completed Peacock purse block:



I will have a tutorial ready for you in another day or so in case you want to make my peacock.  I've done quite a few of these peacocks in the past few years and they really are a great addition to traditional crazy quilting.  The Victorians loved peacocks!!!

Well, as I said, I will keep this post short.  Thank you to everyone who left comments for me on my Pink Saturday post!  I like to reply to everyone's comments but sometimes, I don't have an email address to reply to.  I always feel a little bad when I can't thank each and every commenter personally.  Please know that I just love comments and feedback!!!

Have a very happy and safe 4th of July holiday!  Mom is making homemade pizza today and homemade Cherry Pie!!!  YUM!!!!