Crazy Quilting and My Crazy Life....

To assist getting over my humilation, I worked on my assembling my Crazy Quilt Journal cover for a bit this afternoon. The above photographs are of the front cover, the inside with the journal added, and the completed backside. I worked without using any pattern so it isn't perfect but I love it anyways!

After Don left for work tonight...

I worked on my CQ journal cover a bit more. I finished up the perle cotton blanket stitch and then decided to add a bit of whimsy by embroidery "CQ journal" on the section that will later become the front cover. I love it! It's childlike and whimsical, adding to the image that Pat so generously shared with me. To use up some more of the purple thread within my needle, I added a few daisy chained daisies to the upper green print. I'm really liking those as they fill the square in a bit more.

A Crazy Egg....

A friend, Daniel, who is also a published designer has been challenging some members of an online message board to strive outside of their comfort zones. So, while posting my embroidered stamp image, I visit the message board to see he had issued a challenge using an egg template. I love it's design, so I downloaded it, printed it off to fit a 5x7 and this is what I created. The section of the bee is stamped with black acrylic paint and a textile medium and I crazy quilted the rest. The egg is approx. 3 1/2" x 2" --- perfect for hanging on a little tree. I have several more in the works and am giving some thought to how I'll create a tree. I may just spray paint a branch white and drill a hole in a chunk of wood to hang these on. I'd also like to create one just for Alexxis' Easter Basket.

CQ For Newbies - Squishie Mingle

As an example, my “Squishie” for this mingle contains the following:
• 7” square of 14 ct. adia cloth;
• a generous piece of muslin;
• cotton fabrics: 1 solid, 1 batik, and 5 prints --- three of them small and two paisleys;
• satin – one of the following colors: dark purple, lilac, and a sparkly teal blue;
• my first attempt at creating a siggie – although the image is faint;
• 4 white cotton fabric pieces using stamped images created with acrylic paint and fabric medium for embroidering upon;
• 1 yd. of lace;
• 3 color coordinating full skeins of DMC floss;
• 3 bobbins of silk ribbon – two 4mm and 1 7mm:
• 1 yd. or more of perle cotton
• a small baggie filled with seed beads, pearls, crystal beads, charms, coins with holes, ribbon, silk flower and leaf, and colored buttons.

Blanket Fan stitch...

This photograph is of the second blanket fan stitch that I've sewn on this block. My first was created using two strands of yellow DMC floss on the green print block near the appliqued lace heart. It turned out okay but I quickly decided that I should make my stitches longer so the fans are a bit bigger and display themselves more prominently. On this attempt, I use purple perle cotton size 5 and created them bigger. I worked until I became a bit sleepy and decided to stop for the night. I intend to extend it around the outer edge of the entire block of lilac colored satin. This one was a easier to do than the first as I learned to start at the edge of where I desired the fan to begin vs. in the center as I attempted previously using the floss on the other piece.

Also, do you see the ripples in my fabric pieces? Those are the results of machine stitching. I did a bit of research by reading more in The Magic of Crazy Quilting book and learned that the fabric needs to be guilded and held taunt in front of and behind the needle. No easy feat for a begining seastress, LOL! I concluded that on my next CQ block creation that I will hand baste my stitches to see if I can elimate that and practice more using the sewing machine with scraps of fabrics.

Another lesson in learning was no matter pretty all the trims and accent pieces look on the quilt block, save those embellishments for end of embellishing the block. I really had to watch my threads ensuring that the were no tangles or catching upon them as I stitched. Ah, the lessons I learned by doing! Thankfully, I'm documenting them within my CQ stitching journal as I continue to work; those notes will be wonderful little reminders as I continue to learn and explore. {smiles}

Catching Up...

I've been busy... working on my CQ, establishing a sewing and stitching area within our home so computer time has been a bit limited. This photo is an update showing the recently added stitches to my CQ journal cover. I experimented with the buttonhole and blanket stitches and even learned how to do a blanket stitched fan! I'm still learning, getting a little braver about learning directly upon my quilt
block, and loving the process. I figured if I didn't like the way a stitch was turning out, I should also learn how to undo whatever it is I've done and this is the result. I decided that I love it with all its little imperfections and like my paper arts it will be exciting one day to look back and see how I've grown and how far I've came during the process.

This is the buttonole stitched using an off-white perle cotton size 5. As this block is a small block and also forms the border of the block it was a little difficult to sew through all the layers and to keep the spacing even, although I felt that I was improving as I worked.

I like how the off-white provides a unifying look to this piece of the block. It balances with the lace heart applique in the lower corner and pulls the white background out a bit more in the siggie. Deciding I like it, I next stitched a herringbone stitch using it on another block directly over a pink herringbone stitch I'd previously added.

Today has been a quiet day....

spent my morning browsing online, blog-hopping.... before getting up and going. I cleaned the kitchen up, washed the variety of drinking glasses, and cooked up some sloppy joes for our lunch and dinnner.

This afternoon, I worked more on my CQ while watching an afternoon movie. I love how this is beginning to turn out... it becomes more and more beautiful to me with every stitch and embellishment that I add. I added a herringbone stitch in pink floss around the blue paisly print, sewed on a applique to the purple paisley print before deciding to embellish it more using a satin stitch and a lazy daisy with green floss. I found a deep purple ribbon flower that simply shouted, "Add me" to the upper right corner of the square before finally moving on to tacking on a beautiful pink ribbon trim around my center image. I've six more blocks to embellish in some way; not that all of them need to be embellished... I believe I'll check out Sharon's blog for some stitches that go great together and pair a few of them up or practice learning them, LOL!

Today was a bit of mix...

of activity and rest all rolled into one. I had a chiropractor appointment this morning, we ate breakfast out, stopped to pay our telephone bill, a quick stop into our Dollar Tree store, and we headed over to my parents to discuss the Jeep with Dad some more. We returned home, picked up just a bit, played with Chaos, and took a nap. It seems neither Don or I can keep up lately.... or the recent resting I've been doing has become a habit, LOL! I woke to the telephone ringing and shortly afterwards Amber and I were our shopping for shoes. Don was a sweetheart and cooked us up a nice spaghetti dinner while I was gone and before he headed in to work this evening. Feeling a little guilty... wanting something to do but nothing too strengthous, I worked on my Crazy Quilt!

Here is what I've done so far:
I had to add the classic spider web and spider, so I started off with it first. Next, I added the buttonhole stitch around the blue satin, sewed on some pink trim, added some bead trim and the pink ruffle on the right is actually a very pretty ribbon that I scrunch up with a basting stitch and tucked here and there along the seam. I'm excited to practice some new to me stitches on some adia cloth or muslin before actually working more on my actual journal cover. So far, I'm loving this and am excited to keep creating upon it and working on even more!

My First Crazy Quilt Block!

Isn't it pretty? It is fairly large, 9"x14". I decided to create the Crazy Quilt Journal cover first and the journal I decided to cover has a spiral binding. Of course, I could have created my own but why re-invent the wheel? The object is to learn crazy quilting not practice my bookbinding skills, LOL! I originally cut my muslin 10"x15" onto which I laid out my fabric as I worked; then, proceeded to turn an tuck adding a very thin border before trimming the back side. Once this piece is embellished, the left side will cover the backside of the journal while the right side will cover the front. I will have to create some satin insert panels and sew them on to the reverse side for the journal to slide into.

I will say that creating this piece was a challenge! Not so much in assembling the crazy quilting, but fighting with my sewing machine. My thread kept breaking, I fiddled with the tension, my stitches were to short and had to be lengthened, two broken needles and various setting adjustments later, I finally got it sewing correctly when I was about 6-8 seams from having this piece completed.... Go figure!

I made a couple of mistakes along the way. Okay, maybe not really mistakes as they both can be dealt with.... Let's call them "lessons learned", that is a much better term and a bit more truthful. Can you find them?

The first is with the first piece of fabric that I stitched, just to the left of the photo transfer. I didn't leave enough fabric so when I folded it over to make my second seam, I fell just a bit short. No biggie, embroidery and embellishments will easily cover it.

The second mistake, see the pink thread? That is the thread that was on my sewing machine when I began and it kept breaking. After a few breaks and adjustments, I put on an ecru cotton quilting thread; it seemed to work a bit better. Of course, I could have used the seam ripper and ripped them out; but I liked the way the pink provides a nice contrast, especially against the deep purple satin. It is my little reminder to use something vibrant here --- hmmm, maybe some bright green? Anyways, I'm loving it and am hopeful that I can do this justice with my feeble embroidery attempts, LOL! Ahhhh... well, there's only one way to learn and that is by jumping in and attempting it. I suppose it is like anything else that I've ever taught myself to do, the more you do it, the better you get at it! Wish me luck!