Crazy Quilt Christmas Purse

I just finished sewing my Crazy Quilt Christmas Purse together.  All that's left to do is to sew the snap on:

I have a friend coming next week who asked me if she could see this one.  These are even prettier in person than they are in photos.  Hard as I try, the camera just doesn't capture the texture and sparkle of my bags.

If you haven't been following my progress on this purse, the poinsettia fabric at the top is from a vintage hankie that I bought at a flea market earlier this year.  All the various lace pieces are either antique or vintage.  I used a lot of pretty Kreinik metallic thread because Christmas is all about the sparkle.   And heaven knows, all that glitters is gold to me!

I'll leave you today with a cute cat picture!  Cotton and Wrigley laying in my white wicker rocking chair together:

Crazy Quilt Bags and Other News

I just got back from a quick trip to JoAnn's for purse handles.  I didn't have anything here that worked with my Poinsettia purse.  I found a nice set with clear beads so now I have everything I need to sew it together which I plan on doing tomorrow.

And speaking of purses and bags, here are a couple of finishes.  First, my Harrison Fisher purse:

And then my Pink Cellphone Pouch:

Don't you just love all this pink?!!!  Both of these are already spoken for but I have other Crazy Quilt Bags available here.

In other news, Favequilts is offering a free ebook called, 17 Quilting Tutorials Quilting For Beginners Top Tips For How To Quilt. 

This ebook includes my tutorial for How To Clean A Non-Washable Quilt!  Do hop over and check it out.

Finally, I have a student's block to share today:

Karin did a beautiful job her Stumpwork leaf and grapes!  All the required elements are here and Karin's execution of the design is perfect!  Love the curly q's!  Thank you Karin, for sending me a photo to share with my blog readers!

And speaking of my Crazy Quilt Classes, I'm working on Lesson 9 now.  The Great Pumpkin will be ready and available in the next week or so!

Christmas Poinsettia Purse

I woke up at 1:30 this morning, sweating buckets!  Oh, does that ever end!!!!  So, since I'm not one to waste time, I got up, made coffee, put QVC on and stitched.  My Christmas Poinsettia Purse is done and ready to sew together:

I added some more Kreinik metallic to the border on the left.  I stem stitched around the leaves with a #4 Braid:

The leaves needed a bit more definition and I'm always up for more sparkle!  I love those Kreinik metallic threads.  Always have!  BTW - the free cross stitch design on Kreinik's main webpage is one I did for them a few years back!

And here is a close up photo of the antique lace piece at the top:

I had first used red seed beads on the antique lace but it was too much red.  I rarely take anything off once I sew it on but the red just didn't work so I replaced them with green seed beads and now it looks more balanced.

Finally, I added centers to the red Silk Ribbon flowers:

If you look closely at the photos, I scattered some clear snowflakes here and there on the block. 

I'll have to run up to JoAnn's tomorrow and get some purse handles for this bag.  I have a few sets here but nothing that works with this piece.  So, just twist my arm and make me to go to JoAnn's!  LOL!!!

And now for some more cute cat pictures.  Here's my little Cotton ball:

A rare photo of him with his eyes open!  He's on the top shelf of my garden window.  No, he's not allowed up there.  But I can't reach him when he's way in the back so instead, I grabbed the camera!

And apparently, Wrigley discovered the sink in the bathroom:

Oh, those little faces just melt my heart!  I'm still trying to get some new photos of Lucy but she's still a little crabby and fussy.  She's had a hard time adjusting to losing Nightmare (I know that feeling) and having 2 little aliens in the house.  Slowly but surely, she's coming around.  I'll try again later for some new photos of her.  She's always been a beauty!

CQ Seam Embellishments

I added some more Kreinik threads to my CQ Christmas purse.  The poinsettia flowers in the vintage hankie needed to pop a little bit:

 Please excuse Wrigley's ear in this photo.  Like most cats, he likes to be in the middle of everything!

And here are some close up photos of the seam embellishments:

I still have some stitching to do on this.  I've been asked several times, how does one know when one is done.  It's not so much a "knowing" as it is a "feeling".  You just get the feeling that it's well balanced and one more bead or do-dad would be too much.  It's like anything else in life, practice makes perfect.

Finally for today, I have a new Hanging Heart that mom made:

Kreinik Metallic Facets

My current project is this Crazy Quilt Christmas purse:

The top of the purse is part of a vintage Christmas hankie.  I kept looking at the edge of the hankie and felt that it needed some sort of definition. I didn't feel that beading around it was the right thing.  I just wanted it to have a little definition.  Then I remembered my beautiful Kreinik metallic threads. 

Kreinik offers a thread called, Facets.  It's available in a variety of sizes but for this project, I decided on the Petite Facets in gold:

The Facets are very glittery and actually look like little beads.  They're not intended to use for actual stitching but rather are meant to be couched on using another thread.  I used a Kreinik metallic cord for that which is very fine.

Here are some close up photos so you can see how it looks:

You learn more about the Kreinik Facets here on their website.

And before I turn the computer off for today, I thought I'd share yet another picture of my very cute baby kitty:

Cotton ball loves to play on the bed when I'm trying to make it every morning!  I was trying to put clean sheets on the bed yesterday when he decided it would be fun to lay in the middle of everything.