Friday, April 24, 2009

My block is done!

Here are some photos of my block. I finally finished it. You guys did an amazing job!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Rebecca's block on the way home!









Here is the final round or Rebecca's block. It was put in the mail to day to go back home.
I am sorry it took so long but with my new schedule I am lucky to get much else done. I did all of the work over several weeks during my lunch hour.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Cris's Block in the Mail




Cris, I am mailing your piece home to you today ~ sorry for the delay, I was just trying to fill it up as much as possible for you! I hope you like what I've done. Here are a few pix! :)

Monday, March 16, 2009

Ami's base done!


I will be mailing Ami's block to her today. Ami, hope you like what I have added!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Kathi's Fan Block - Full View


Here it is in all its glory! I changed the orientation so the pink beaded fringe would hang down. It's currently awaiting lint rollering and to be carefully packaged for mailing Monday.

Cris

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Kathi's Fan Block - Round 4





IF I can find hot pink ribbon to match the fabric, I'd like to add a twisted ribbon bow to the "blank" green spot under the bird. If not, I'm going to have to stop before I really do make this weigh 50#! I'm using scans rather than photos but will try to get a picture of the entire block soon.

In the fan quadrant, I added flowers made from flattened gold bead caps attached with hot pink Swarovski crystals. I also added some "peachy" beads to the bases of the blue buttonhole "half" wheels and pale yellow beads to the orangish lazy daisy/yellow pistol stitch seam treatment.

In the quadrant above the fan, I added gold sequins and beads to the buttonhole wheels, bright yellow beads to the herringbone and wheat ear seam treatment, gold bead "apples" to the tree, and the Phoenix bird charm.

In the wreath and web quadrant, I took advantage of Lou's "frame" to add the web (pale yellow rayon floss) and spider (copper beads and metallic copper DMC floss). The pale yellow beads on the lazy daisy/pistol stitch seam treatment are visible again. I also added some blue beads to the bases of the fans in the closed buttonhole/fan seam treatment, some pale yellow buttons to the groups of yellow lazy daisies; and I made the gold and green button cluster (the largest green button is vintage; the other green buttons are made from shell). This picture shows the way I meant the button cluster to look; they got "folded" in the next shot.

In the large ribbon rose quadrant, the gold bead "apples" are visible again. I also added pink beads in various shades and sizes to Lou's feather stitching.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Ami's Landscape Block Round 3 Done




Shortly after Rebecca posted that she'd placed the last stitch, I finished up my additions to Ami's block. I added snow to a mountain, waves to the river, a bunny (button) munching the flowers in Lou's garden, a pearl spider on silver web, a bird on Rebecca's tree. I don't think any of my additions show up well in the photos, but I'll be putting it in the mail Tuesday for sure.

Cris's Block round 3 done!




I just put the last stitch in this block.  Whew! LOL  The doggy was fun and it is my favorite.  I did use three different shades of floss on her but you can't really tell unless you look at it a certain angle.  OH WELL!  LOL  It is still cute!  I even put a bling bling jewel collar on her. 
I added some beads to some of the seams and put a "C" on it and did my first ribbon embroidery with my Gloriana hand dyed ribbon.  It was fun and not as hard as I thought.  Getting it to lay flat is the key I guess.  I am sure I will get the hang of it.  I also used some of my Wool/Silk Caron Collection thread, it is nice and fluffy.  Will have it in the mail on Tuesday!  Have a nice weekend all!  

Friday, February 13, 2009

Rebecca's block round 3 done







Here is Rebecca's block. I left a couple areas for Ami to do hard embellishments on. Hope you like it so far, mailing in the morning.

Progress on Kathi's Block

Sorry ~I posted the "before" block to begin with: Here is a full shot of what I've done so far!









Kathi, I hope you like my progress thus far. Sorry to keep you in suspense!

:-) I hope it was worth waiting for ~ :-/ I have a few other things planned to do before I mail so its not quite done!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Progress on Cris's block


Here is a butterfly I just finished on Cris's block.  Next I a going to add a doggy, since she is into canine rescue, and them some other things.  I used a motif from a new book I just got called Motifs for Crazy Quilting.  It has some great stuff in it.  

More Progress On Lou's


I love how this one came out. It was totally experimental........................can you tell I am getting into this? This is one of the ribbons I purchased at Hobby Lobby for Lou's block. I try to buy a few goodies for each block that comes my way. The ribbon is really stiff and kind of shine and also see thru. It is the same kind of ribbon as the light pink roses I posed that are on the blue patch a couple of days ago except this is only 1/8 thick so not really suitable for making flowers. Since I love bows I decided to try that. I tied a bow the size I wanted and attached it with the first of the french knots in the center of the knot. Then I worked my way around the bow twisting and securing with knots as I went. I like to make them twist and turn allot. Then I found I just did not have the right ribbon for this one and decided to experiment. I found this beautiful color in my DMC stash and used 3 strands to create very loosely stitched chain stitch roses. These really need to be loose to make them stand out and look like a rose. I really love the effect and will be making more of these in the future. The leaves are just lazy daises in a green that I also found in my stash.


This fabric is in the center of the block and kind of the focal point. I just could not cover this up with something so decided to instead accentuate the flower with a blanket stitch and french knots. I like how it really makes that rose pop out.



This last one is a very long narrow block. On this one I just did a long feather stitch vine and am not sure if I will have time to add anything to it. More can be added in the last round for sure.

Hopefully we will be seeing some of the other blocks here soon...............I am dyeing of curiosity what the rest of you are doing!!!!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

More progress on Rebecca's block




Here are more photos of Rebecca's block. I am really liking it so far. I have a few more things in mind to add before sending it off at the end of next week.


Wednesday, February 4, 2009

More Work On Lou's Block


I am making more progress on Lou's block. I love this blue patch, in fact it is my favorite part so far. I used a stiff ribbon I got the other day and made ribbon roses. I have never made ribbon roses before so this is a first for me. I first did a stem stitch for the line along which the motif would flow. Then added the roses, then the lazy daisy leaves and last the french knots which really add so much to bring it all together. You can also see the red patch where I have done a heart outline in a chain stitch. I will be adding stuff (still thinking about it) to that heart.


I tried to make spider web roses in the brown. Again this is something I have not done in a very long time. I used a 7 mm silk ribbon for these. The background is a feather stitch. With all of my stitching I always draw the lines I will be following first onto the block so that it flows nicely. I might add some leaves to this patch if I have time but if not then those can be added in the next round.



Here are more of the ribbon roses this time in a beautiful satin thread I got the other day at Hobby Lobby. I got 4 different ribbons in all for Lou's project so you will be seeing more things with these ribbons. They are not silk ribbon as I wanted to see what I could design with stain (the one in the photo is about 3/8 inch wide so fairly wide. The stitches in this patch are the same ones I used in the blue patch but they are put together very differently and the look is very different. That is really the fun part of this seeing how each idea comes together.

I am purposely leaving all the motifs simple so that they can be further embellished in the next round. They could be left as is too................at least some of them can. I have been getting much of my ideas off of other crazy quilt blogs. What I do is have paper and pencil and when I see something I like I do a little drawing. None of my motifs are exact copies but rather a starting place for ideas.

I would love to see more photos of what everyone is working on.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Go Check This Out!!

There is some amazing new eye candy over on Crazy Quilting International blog. Talk about inspiration! Go check it out here: http://crazyquiltinginternational.blogspot.com/

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Progress on Rebecca's block




Here is what I have added so far to Rebecca's block. I hope it looks autumny enough. Still lots to add.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Started work on Lou's





I have been having some fun adding some things to Lou's block. I love the group of greens with the ribbon tied around it. I am thinking of adding a few more flowers but I also want to work on other areas. The blue background with the leaves is still in process. The drawing is a sketch I did while crusing blogs and it is a tree with some really neat stuff at the base. I am trying to decide on the details of that. I also did a few other sketches from the same blog and will be doing a few other things in other areas based on my sketches.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Ami's Landscape Block ...

... arrived in Montana today from Lou. Can hardly wait to get started!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Kathi's Block Arrived

Rebecca & all, Kathi's block arrived yesterday. It looks so pretty! :) I can't wait to get started on it.

Kathi, could you please post instructions for this round? I can't put my hands on the email stating what we are to do. And this way we'll all be on the same page so to speak too, in case anyone else has also forgotten! Thanks!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Ami's Block/Landscape







I mailed Ami's CQ piece to Cris yesterday - it should arrive Monday. Ami, I hope you like what I did. Of course you can pull off anything you don't like! ;-) There were so many possibilities, I kept thinking of things to add. Here are some pix!

Thursday, January 22, 2009







Boy things have been busy for me. Right now I have two trouble makers fighting on my lap! I have two new kittens and they are about 9 weeks old and pretty tiny but they make up for it in being cute and mischievous. So in any case the photos are of Chris's piece. I added a treatment to each of Kathi's seams with the exception of the grapes which were awesome already. I sent this off on Tuesday so Rebecca should be receiving it in the mail any day now.

I got Lou's piece and have already begun working on it. I pulled out a bunch of new fibers for her piece as the colorway is more earth tones and deep hues. I will be fun to find some new things to do with it.

Here is a link to an awesome blog I found with tons of amazing ideas: http://www.nzjo.blogspot.com/ Her stuff is truly awesome and her seam treatments are a great source of inspiration!!!!!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Kathi's Block, 2nd round done




I just finished Kathi's block tonight. WHOOSH! I really enjoyed this one as I did a few new stitiches that I have been wanting to try. Kathi, I hope you like the roses, they are woven wheels with lazy daisy leaves. I thought they were the perfect touch for the treatment that Ami did. Will be in the mail tomorrow! Take Care all.