The Peacock Quilt

During my blogging break, I've been trying to clean out and rearrange cupboards and working in my yard which was done a long time ago due to the extreme heat and lack of rain back in July.  I have just about everything cut back and ready to try again come Spring.

It's been a tough Summer, losing my Simba in May and then my mom's Lakota in August.  But I have worked on some projects.  One of them is my Peacock quilt.  You may remember me posting about it quite awhile back:

I finally pulled it out and stitched on it:

Here are closeups of the side panels:

You can click on the photos to see larger versions of them.  Most of the seam treatments were worked from Volume 1 & Volume 2 of my Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatment books.  I will be working on putting Volume 3 together soon.

And here's a closeup of the embroidered peacock:

This was a pre-stamped design on black satin.  I stitched it back in the early 80's but never sewed it into anything.  I came across it a few years ago while rearranging my stash and thought it would make a nice focal point for a crazy quilt.  I added crystals to the eyes in the feathers for added sparkle.

I'll put this together soon and post an update when it's done.

Mom's Lakota

Mom's Lakota went to Rainbow Bridge yesterday:

Lakota 2002 - 2012

He was the sweetest, smartest, most wonderful dog.  I miss him terribly.

Blog Break

Taking a blog break ladies. I'll be back.

Christmas Fabric

It was 100 degrees here yesterday.  Needless to say, I didn't spend much time on my deck.  Scott and I sat out there for a few minutes in the evening but it was so humid, I could hardly breath so inside was the place to be.

I pulled some lace and trim for my Christmas Purse:

This purse was inspired by a fat quarter:

I need a full fat quarter to line a 9 inch purse.  To get the image, I just scanned the fabric into my computer and printed it on inkjet fabric so I can use it as a focal point for the design.

We have another hot day in store for today but not quite as bad as yesterday.  Hopefully I'll have a little deck time later.

Christmas Purse

It was quite warm yesterday but with my deck shaded in the afternoon, I was able to sit out there for awhile.

This is my next project, is a Christmas purse:

I've already crocheted the trim for the bottom.  I used fancy foo-foo yarn and added large hole sequins.

If you'd like to make some crocheted trim yourself and add the sequins, first, you have to string all the sequins onto the yarn before you start crocheting.

Then chain as long as you want your trim to be.  In the case of this purse, it'll be 9 inches across so I had to double that and then I add an inch for overlap on the back.

For the second row, single crochet adding a sequin every other stitch.

Third row, just do a single crochet with no sequins.  For the 4th row, single crochet adding the sequins every other stitch.

That's all there is to it!