Crazies at International Quilt Festival ~ Chicago

Have you heard the good news? International Quilt Festival returned to Chicago this summer! That's a lot closer for me than Ohio, so I took a little trip there last week. I took tons of photos, but today I'm just going to show you some of the crazy quilts that were displayed, since crazies often get overlooked. Keep in mind that the lighting's not great, the quilts are hung on black fabric, and it's not an ideal photo-taking situation, so some of my photos aren't all real good!

This first quilt had cute dogs appliqued on a neutral background, surrounded by crazy patches. Unfortunately, it was one of the very first quilts I saw, and I didn't take note of the title or the quilter's name. If you know this information, please leave it in the comments and I'll add the info, so I can give credit to the quilter.

This second crazy is called "The Shoulders I Stand Upon", by Carmen Huggins. She put black patches to give the eye a rest from all the craziness. I love all her beading..

This house quilt is called "Beach House Crazy Quilt" by Carli Heinrichs. Lots of cheerful colors.

Susan Jaenen-Griffin made "Diversity". I love how she made the map of Canada and included lots of regional details.

Isn't it fun how different from each other these crazy quilts are? I hope that we continue to see more crazy quilts at big (and small) quilt shows in the future!

Happy stitching!

CQJP April

I've finished all my April seams for CQJP 2013. I'm so happy to be done on time!

I think I got all of these seam ideas from Carole Samples' book Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches. As usual, all the fabrics are black, but some look grayish in the photo, probably because of where the sun was when I took the picture.

Here's how the whole quilt looks so far. April's section is on the middle right.

CQJP March block

I finished stitching the seam treatments for my March block of CQJP (Crazy Quilt Journal Project) 2013. The fabrics are all black, but when I take close-ups, they look a bit washed out.

Almost all of my seams are from Carole Samples' book, Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches. I could make crazy quilts until I die and probably not use every stitch in that fabulous book! There is one seam, above, that was inspired by Susan at CQ4fun. The half circles above are kind of similar to a stitch she did recently, although when I went to copy her stitch, mine didn't quite turn out the same. If you haven't seen her wonderful CQJP blocks, you have to go over to her blog. She's making all of them with mini "war propaganda posters" - very fun!

Here's how the whole thing looks now. The March block is the one in the upper right corner.

Happy stitching!

CQJP 2013 February Block

Here's the stitching I've done on the February portion of my 2013 CQJP (Crazy Quilt Journal Project). I've realized that a main reason I'm not as motivated to work on CQJP this year is because I'm not doing lots of fancy, colorful stitches and I'm not adding any beads or other embellishments to the black fabrics. Once I get to the center, I will add lots of bling, though, so I just have to get through this part. It's certainly been challenging to come up with seam treatments that will look okay with the colors (or lack of variety in colors).

I'm not sure if I'll keep the two seams on the left as they are. They're a bit boring compared with the other seams.

Here's a closeup of the "basket weaving" I did on one seam. You can also see the "Danish knots" to the left of it and the curvy buttonholes with chain-stitched flowers and the triangles with French knots to the right of the weaving.

Here's how the whole thing looks so far. February's section is the top middle.

Happy stitching!

CQJP 2013 background piecing

I've finally finished piecing the background fabrics for my CQJP 2013 project (Crazy Quilt Journal Project). As I mentioned back in November, I'm going to make a wall-hanging crazy quilt to hang up each Easter. My plan is to use black fabrics in the background (or maybe it should be called the border?) Anyway, the inside of the quilt will be a circle with a "landscape" of a hill with a cross and some flowers. I'm tentatively calling this "Celebrate the Resurrection."

The seam treatments for the black fabrics will start out with black threads on the outer edges, then progress to grays and white as they get closer to the circle. I know what I'm envisioning, but I'm not sure if I'm getting it across in writing. The big trick will be to see if the finished product looks anything like my vision ~ LOL!

Since I'm making more of a wholecloth quilt this year, rather than working on individual blocks, I'm aiming to embellish approx. 8 X 8 inch sections each month. The total size is 24 X 24 at this point; I might add a solid black border at the end.

This project will be a challenge to me for a few reasons:
1. I've never done a whole-cloth crazy quilt before, so the larger size will be a challenge.
2. I will need to stay consistent in how I progress from black to gray to white threads as I go around the quilt.
3. I've never done any type of landscape quilt, either in a crazy or a sane quilt, so this will be a new thing for me.

I started off piecing this basically like I would piece a crazy quilt block, putting a 4 or 5-sided piece near the center of each corner. I then machine-stitched pieces to each side. However, I got to a point where there were funny gaps.

At that point, I pieced chunks of fabrics together. (Yes, these are black, but the color is a bit off on this photo.)

 The 3-piece I sewed together will go in this spot above.

 I attached the 3-piece chunk by machine on one side.

Then I turned under a seam allowance and hand-stitched the left side of the chunk to the base. Since I will be doing fancy stitches over the seam, I didn't worry about making tiny applique stitches. Just enough stitches to hold it in place until I can do the fancy work.

When I wasn't working on this, I had it on the ping pong table, on top of some patriotic fabric and on top of my American Patchwork and Quilting Mystery Quilt top. Callie decided to rest right on top of this! I've never seen her on the ping pong table before ~ this must be her stamp of approval on my work!

After I hand-appliqued the chunks that connected the corner areas, I turned the piece upside down and stitched on the blue lines I had marked before I started the piecing. This white stitching will help me know how far to do my fancy stitching on the seams.

My plan is to piece the inner circle on a separate piece of muslin, do all the embellishing, then applique it onto the black. But that may change as I get further into this project.

No, I haven't forgotten about my CQ Anniversary Quilt. If you remember, my goal is to make 25 blocks for our 25th wedding anniversary (December 2015). So far, I have 15 blocks made and 2 years to finish. I'm taking a break from that to work on this project. I don't expect this new project to take all of 2013, so I will probably make a few more anniversary blocks at the end of this year. Click the "Anniversary quilt" label in the sidebar to see the blocks I've already made.

Happy stitching!

CQJP November and December

 

This afternoon, I went to see the new movie, Les Miserables. It was very good, but you’ll want to bring a few Kleenex when you go see it. Although it is a sad movie, it has wonderful themes of forgiveness and redemption. Anne Hathaway did a fabulous job singing Fantine’s songs.

 
In all the fun of the Easy Street Mystery, I have not forgotten about my Crazy Quilt Journal Project. While we were at the Farm over Christmas, I finished both my November and December blocks. For my November fan block, I got the idea for all of the seam treatments from Carole Samples’ book, Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches, although I altered some of them for my purposes and added beads and buttons.
 

In the center arc, I stitched the city and state where we live, but I’ve blurred that out in photo shop. We have lived in this city the entire 22 years we’ve been married. It’s where Mike was offered a teaching job after he graduated from college.

 

The left seam has silk ribbon flowers with pearl centers. The next seam has two different zig-zag seams, using a thicker velvet thread and a thin embroidery floss, topped with two different sized beads. The lace towards the bottom has gold triangle beads in the bottom holes. Small transparent seed beads attach the top of the lace to the block.

The next seam has a wavy fishbone “vine” with silk ribbon buds made of French knots. The final seam is a zig zag made of chain stitches, topped with mother of pearl buttons and seed beads.

The larger lace around the outside of the fan has cream-colored beads in the little holes near the bottom and transparent beads in the center of the swirl.

My December block is Mike’s and my monogram. I know this doesn’t really look like a crazy block, but it’s going to be the center block out of 25 for my anniversary quilt. In Penny McMorris’ book, Crazy Quilts, there’s a photo of an antique crazy quilt that has a monogram in the center. I like the look. It gives the eye a bit of a rest among all the beautiful busy-ness of the rest of the quilt.

I enlarged the letters from an alphabet that’s in the back of Carole Samples’ book, Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches, making the S in the middle larger than the M and the J. I traced the letters onto dupioni silk using a thin Pigma Micron pen.

Confession time: I started stitching this block back in about January. I find doing this much satin stitch by hand to be rather monotonous, so I’ve been slowly working on it all year. It was a relief to finish it this week!

Head on over to the CQJP 2012 blog to see other eye candy. Lots of people have finished up their year-long projects.

Happy stitching!

November CQJP block pieced

I started piecing my November block for CQJP a few weeks ago and finished it this weekend. I will embroider the name of my city and state in the arc of the fan. I traced the words using a fine black marker, like I did for my kids' names and birthdays on their blocks. Then the embroidery will be in black floss. I've blurred out that part for privacy, which is why it has that black marbled-look. The fabric is actually a cream dupioni silk. You can see what it looks like over on the left side of the block.

I've been taking advantage of having extra time off work (or am I just procrastinating doing Christmas stuff? LOL). I'm off to go work some more on my AP&Q Mystery Quilt...

Happy stitching!

Christmas has come Early!

Look at the beautiful Christmas ornament I just got in the mail from Lisa's Crazy Quilt Ornament Swap! Peg S. made it, and she calls it "Victorian Christmas." The actual crazy quilted part is 5" long and 4" wide at the widest. Then that gorgeous fringe is another 4". You can't see real well, but the fringe has silver sequins all over it.

Here's the silver beading that goes on the upper right side of the orny, along with the stitched and beaded seam treatment.

The silver lame piece has more beading. Although it looks black in the photo, the fabric in the lower left of this picture is actually a navy velvet with more meandering stitching and beading. In the upper right, you can see where Peg stitched her initials and the year.

Here's the center patch. The fabric on the upper left is another shiny silver color, filled with beads and sequins.

This fabric is on the left side of the ornament. The fabric itself is sparkly, and Peg added stitching and beads.

 

As much as I love looking at all the eye candy online, I love even more getting to see someone else's crazy quilting in person. It's so inspiring! So thank you, Peg, for making this beautiful ornament and thank you, Lisa, for hosting the orny swap!

 

If you want to see the ornament I made for the swap, click here.

 

Now all I want to do is go work on my crazy quilt block, but unfortunately, there's housework calling my name. Maybe tonight?

 

Happy stitching!





October CQJP block

I hope all my fellow Americans had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday! We had a relaxing day at home. Although it was just the five of us, we still had a full, traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I had my husband and the kids help out with two dishes each, so it was pretty manageable for me. After we ate, we played Monopoly. Not my favorite board game, but if that's what it takes to have some family time with my teenagers, then bring it on!

Then in the evening, I had some time to work on my CQJP block from October. I finished it. It's not quite how I had envisioned it, but I still like it. What I first tried as a frame around the photo just wasn't working, so I opted for this lace instead.

Here's a closeup of the MOP buttons and clear beads that surround the photo.

I added gold seed beads, translucent sequins, and pearly-white seed beads to the seam on the left side of the photo.

I embellished the strip of white lace with pearl-white drop beads and larger "bubble" beads.

I bought these silver number charms at Hobby Lobby. 1990 is the year we got married.

Since I have today off work, I'm hoping to finish piecing my November block for CQJP. Hopefully I'll have it posted by the end of the weekend.

Happy stitching!

Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2013

If you’ve been to the CQJP 2012 blog recently, you’ll know that Kathy has put up the information to register for CQJP 2013. Even if you didn’t participate in CQJP 2012, you are invited to try the challenge in 2013. Basically, you just have to make a crazy quilt block each month that is equal to a 6 X 6 inch block (36 square inches) or larger. See the blog for all the rules and guidelines. You can participate whether or not you have your own blog. It’s a fun way to see crazy quilting from stitchers all over the world!

I’ve started thinking about what I want to do for 2013. If I stay on track and finish 12 blocks of my anniversary quilt this year, I will still have 10 blocks to make. My goal is to have 25 blocks done for my 25^th wedding anniversary in 2015. I made three blocks before CQJP started, then the 12 from this year equals 15 completed, so I will need 10 more.

I don’t really want to make all 10 of those blocks next year. We are already signed up to help chaperone another trip to Europe with students from my husband’s school in 2014, so I will want to make a block from that trip. I also want to include a block with a photo of the two of us from 2015. Not to mention that I am kind of tired of working on basically mono-chromatic blocks of white, cream, and gold all the time!

So, the idea that’s brewing in my mind is to make a wall-hanging crazy quilt of nine squares, probably 8 X 8 or 9 X 9 inches. I’m still thinking out the details, but I think this will be something I can hang up in the spring to celebrate Easter.

That will take me nine months and then I’ll have three months in 2013 to work on three more blocks for my Anniversary quilt.

That’s my plan for now, at least. I’ll keep you posted.

Happy stitching!

October CQJP block work

Here's the work I've done recently on my October block for CQJP 2012.

On this seam, I did a zig-zag stitch with a thicker "velvet" thread. Then I made straight stitches and lazy daisy stitches.

 I used feather stitch to couch down this thick, metallic gold "Radiance" thread.

Two rows of chevron stitch in different threads, topped off with silk ribbon French knots on the outer edges of the stitching.

I added a piece of lace to this seam to bring another element of texture to the block. I think I'm ready to applique the photo onto the center of this block.

 

Happy stitching! And if you live in the USA, please go exercise your right to vote today!

September and October CQJP blocks

This weekend, I finished the beading and other embellishing on my September block. As you may recall, this block commemorates the trip Mike and I took to Europe over Spring Break this year. I added three charms for three of the places we visited. I bought the "Paris" and "London" charms at one of the big craft stores, I think Hobby Lobby.

Here's a closeup of the souvenir tie tack I bought in the gift shop at Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany. I purposely bought it for this block, the way I bought the doily that the "London" charm is on while we were in London.

Here's a photo I took of the real Neuschwanstein Castle. This castle may look familiar to you. It's one of the most photographed castles in Germany, and it was the model for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle.

I added this gold ric rac on the long patch of fabric. First I couched it down with chain stitch and French knots.

Here's a closeup of the bead cluster that I sewed onto the ric rac. The two oval-shaped pearlescent beads are from a pair of fancy earrings I bought on clearance after the holidays a few years ago. I deconstructed the earrings to get a fun assortment of beads.

 I put sequins, seed beads, and larger pearls on the lace edges of the doily.

The date was an after-thought! I had already photographed the block and was putting it away when I saw one of my other Europe blocks and realized I had forgotten to put the year that we took this trip. I used some small rubber stamps and gold ink. It's a bit faint, but I like that the 2012 is not real obvious.

Besides finishing up the September block, I pieced my October block. The blue oval is where I am going to applique a photo from our wedding. I'm planning on sewing my seam treatments before I applique the photo; I think that way will be a bit easier than appliqueing first.

Happy stitching!