A Few Stitched Pieces

Yes, I've been stitching away the early morning hours so I thought I'd share a few of my stitched pieces today.

First, an eyeglass case that my mother in law asked me for:

And then this pretty pink Dragonfly Purse:

The dragonfly is a piece of vintage jewelry.  It's a beautiful piece and in mint condition.  Be sure to look at it closely.  Obviously, I need to sew these 2 pieces up so I'll post another photo when they're ready but I thought you'd like to see some of my latest stitched pieces.

My Easter Blessings Hanging Pillow is model for my upcoming book:

This one is so cheerful and Springy!  I for one have had enough of Winter now.  I'm ready for the Robin's to come back, the snow to melt and the grass to turn green!

Finally, I started this purse yesterday:

So that's my latest stitching!  Have a great Sunday everyone!

Student Blocks

I thought I'd share of few of my students blocks with you today.  These are from my Color and Composition Class, Lesson 2:

This block was worked by Joyce:

Look closely at beading and silk ribbon work on the ribbon behind the Irish lady.  Beautiful!  Joyce did a very nice job balancing her colors.  There's plenty of purple there to compliment the greens and be sure to look for Joyce's little spider!  Ya'll know I like my spiders!

This block belongs to Kathleen.  She did a beautiful embroidered vine over purple ric rack.  I'm not sure if Kathleen is finished with this one yet or not.  Kathleen's silk ribbon spray in the top left corner is gorgeous!

And this block is by Jane.  Jane couldn't find any purple lace to put behind the Irish Lady so she improvised and used some purple ribbon.  That's exactly what I want people to do.  Work with what you can find!  Jane did a beautiful floral vine and lovely beadwork on the lace at the top.

This is Maria's block:

Maria's embroidery and silk ribbon work is stunning.  Look closely for all the little details.  Plenty of purple to enhance the green background.

This block was worked by Julie.  She used lots of sweet little embellishments and look close at that butterfly.  It's cross stitched!  Excellent creativity!

Finally, this is the block that Cris is working on.  She did a great job with the lace behind the Irish Lady.  Cris is still working on her block so I'll post updates again when there's a few more photos to see.

In my next lesson, we're going to start working on "clustering".  Yes, we're going to be piling it on.  Lesson 4 will be released on March 17th.

Crazy Quilt Classes Lesson 3

I know some of you have been eagerly awaiting Lesson 3 of my Crazy Quilt Color and Composition Classes.  Lesson 3 is titled:  Rabbit Tales!

Lesson 3 - Rabbit Tales

* The theme for Lesson 3 is Rabbit Tales.* The color scheme is Mint green, purples and pink.
* The techniques we'll be using are:  Blackwork with Waste Canvas and Gathered Lace Flowers

The publication is available at Magcloud.

Redwork Embroidery

My poor little neglected blog!  Actually, I haven't been neglecting it.  My backup battery unit went out last week and I didn't want to take a chance with my computer by having it on without the back up battery.  I bought a new one over the weekend and got it hooked up today.  Our power goes out a lot here.  We live in a very wooded area.  Anyway, things are back up and running fine now!

My latest finish is this Redwork Cat Pillow:

Several years ago, I designed a set of 4 of these pretty little kitten embroidery designs.  I thought it would be fun to use one as a focal point for a crazy quilt piece.  I've always loved the old fashioned look of outline embroidery.  In keeping with tradition, I stitched this piece in red and white and used lots of vintage mother of pearl buttons and vintage red buttons.

 I've also re-released the patterns in case anyone else would like make one:

There are 4 Redwork Cat designs in this booklet and it's available at Magcloud.

In other news, Lesson 3 of my Crazy Quilt Color and Composition Classes will be available tomorrow, February 14th.  I'll have photos of my students blocks from Lesson 2 in the next couple of days.

Lesson 4 will be available on March 17th, 2013.

Waiting For Spring

We have snowflakes coming down right now that are the size of half dollars!  Okay, ya'll know that by this time of year, I'm ready and waiting for Spring!  It's really piling up fast outside.  Good thing I didn't go over to mom's like had planned.  I'll go tomorrow.

I started working on Lesson 4 of my Color and Composition Classes so I can't share the photos of that right now.  Instead, I'll share a photo of my next project:

I love pink and black together!  And I love making purses so be sure to stop back and see this when it's done!  I'll start on this over the weekend.  For now, I'm off to stitch and maybe watch a movie.  Anything to get my mind off the snow, that's piling up really fast right now!  Wait, I already mentioned that!  LOL!!!!