May block finished

I finally finished my May block for CQJP 2012 last night. Here are closeups of the seams:

I added two sizes of Swarovski pearls onto the lace; smaller near the seam and larger near the outer edges. On the gold feather stitching, I added flower-shaped seqins and seed beads.

I sewed large transparent beads onto every third herringbone stitch.

Small mother-of-pearl buttons are attached with seed beads.

If you recall, this block for my 25th Anniversary CQ is a reminder of the trip Mike and I took to Italy and Greece in 2010. The cameo button represents our time in Italy on this trip. After we visited Pompeii, we toured a cameo factory. The cameos there were absolutely gorgeous, but rather pricey, so I didn't buy any. Besides the cameo, I also added transparent heart-shaped beads to this seam.

Here's my beaded version of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece.

Happy stitching!

May block continued

I have been working on my May block, with hopes of finishing it soon so I can get working on my June and July blocks! Good thing I have more time in the summer to play catch-up!

I added the piece of lace to the lower left side. I think it adds so much to the block. I also added a piece of off-white ribbon to the upper right patch. I added the year we took this trip to Italy and Greece using acrylic paint and rubber stamps.

I'm done with my embroidery. Next I'll be adding beads and buttons.

Here's a close-up of the stitching in the upper left side. I was only planning on doing the two darker wavy lines, but I spaced them too far apart. I added the middle line with variegated silk ribbon to tie the darker lines together. It was a happy accident, and I like the look of it.

This is the ribbon I added to the upper right side. I couched it with a straight stitch, using "Wisper" thread (it's 70% kid mohair and 30% nylon). The thread is a bit fuzzy, but you can't see that in the photo. The French knots are silk ribbon. The straight stitches will have beads added to them.

 This is the lower right seam next to the center white patch. I used gold metallic thread to couch some "Very Velvet" thread. I love that velvet thread, but there's not enough color contrast with the satin fabric. Live and learn, right?

 Embroidery thread to couch the right side of the lace down.

More embroidery thread to make herringbone stitch for this seam. You can also see a close-up of part of the year.

Happy stitching!

Quilt Shop-Hop finds

There's a large quilt shop-hop going around my area of the state...32 shops are participating. If you go to every shop, you can be entered to win a new Bernina! Not that I expect to go to all of them ~ there are other things I need to do this summer!

Thursday my husband and kids were all gone, so I decided to go check out two shops I've never been to (although they're both within 40 minutes of my house). What a mistake that was! I ended up buying more fabric for projects!

I need more projects as much as I need a hole in the back of my head. I'm just hoping to get these done before they are added to the UFO pile cabinet.

When I was with my DH, 3 kids, and another family in Montana and Wyoming last month, I fell in LOVE with the Rocky Mountains. I came home wanting to redecorate my entire house in a mountain-cabin theme. Hubby wasn't gonna go for that expense, though. So when I saw these two different projects, I couldn't resist.

This first is a Santa with woodland creatures panel. I just wish it had a moose. I fell in love with moose after we saw one of these majestic animals up close and personal while hiking in Grand Teton National Park.

Besides the fabric panel, I bought two of its coordinating fabrics, the blue/gray mottled piece and the plaid. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it at the store, besides make a wall hanging. The saleslady was very helpful and gave me some suggestions, so I bought what I thought was a good amount of each fabric.

The funny thing is, last night I sat down to work on this blog post, when our power went out. It turns out the transformer box in front of my neighbor's house caught on fire!!! Not from a storm, but just from so much use these past few days (we've had temps in the low 100's and no rain). Since the power was out for three hours, I had the chance to draft what I think I'll do with this fabric. My goal: to be done by THIS Christmas. If it's not done before I go back to school August 17, it's probably not gonna get done in time, though.





Then at the second store, they were having a sale of 30% off all McKenna Ryan kits. 30%! I love the look of her quilts but have never tried one. This store had two kits from her "Out and About" series that I liked. With this series, you can make a few of the 12 X 12 inch blocks, or you can make the whole series of nine blocks and make them into a larger quilt.

The quilt shop I was at only had a few of the blocks in this series, so I bought two. The one on the left, with the bears, is called "Dinner for Two" and the moose on the right is called "Knee Deep." I already know where I want to hang these when I'm done, and if I can find one or two more from the series, I might buy those as well. (We'll see if any of the other stores in the shop-hop have them.)

I'll keep you posted on how it's going.

And no, I haven't given up on crazy quilting. I'll post more of my progress on that another day.

Since it's so hot outside, stay in and do some quilting. Happy stitching!

"Love" art quilt

I started making this journal-sized (8.5 X 11 inches) art quilt awhile ago. I wanted to make something totally out of my normal comfort zone of traditional quilts and crazy quilts. Last week, my husband cut a dowel for me so I could hang it up in the kitchen.

I loosely based the design on a page of "The Book of Kells", an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels which was made sometime between the 7th and 10th centuries. I saw a few pages from this awesome book when we were in Ireland in 2008. I was so enamored with the Book of Kells, I bought a souvenir book with lots of photos.

For the background of this little quilt, I used some gold paint on muslin fabric. At this point I layered on batting and quilted straight horizontal lines. Then I layered on a few different red and gold fabrics. The two gold crosses are made from Angelina, with a button in the center of each. The red circle is actually a Bounce dryer sheet that I washed several times then painted with red acrylic paint. I beaded two lines from the red velveteen piece down to the red circle.

The verse is printed on Extravorganza. For the letter "G" I used foil paper in a method described by Deborah Boschert in the February/March 2009 issue of Quilting Arts magazine. To attach the Extravorganza, I simply sewed six beads on, one in each corner and one in the middle of each of the longer sides. I used rubber stamps to write the word "agape" (which means love in Greek).

Here's a close-up of the verse with the foil G:

Happy stitching!

May block beginnings

Just wanted to show my May block as it looks when first pieced. In looking at some of my finished blocks for this CQ, I realized that I love the look of some lace on the blocks, so I'm planning on adding a bit of lace, perhaps on the seam of the gold fabric in the lower left corner.

This block is going to represent the trip Mike and I chaperoned in 2010, with high-schoolers from his school. We went to Italy and Greece. You can see the little black dots in the white center patch. Those are little guides for my beading; I'm going to use gold beads to make a little Parthenon.

Happy stitching!

April block...a bit late

So life is always crazy at the end of the school year. This year the "end" of the school year was a longer time than usual, partly because of our trip to Europe over Spring Break. Now that I'm in my 40's, it seems to take me longer to recover from those trips.

So here, at last, is my April block for CQJP! This is the before photo. In the center portion, I printed out the words to a song that was sung at our wedding onto Extravorganza, which I layered over a piece of white satin. Maybe I'm being hyper-cautious, but I've blurred out the words, just in case there's a copyright issue! The song is called "I will be Here" by Steven Curtis Chapman. If you want to read the lyrics, they are over here at the K-Love site.

When I stitched the block, I modeled it after a block in one of my favorite antique crazy quilts. You guessed it: Maria Wilson Beardsley's CQ on pages 92 - 93 of Penny McMorris' book, Crazy Quilts. In Maria's quilt, the block is located in the lower right corner.

Here is the finished 6-inch block. Since the song lyrics take up so much of the space, there wasn't room for a whole lot of embellishing. I did a bit of embroidery, beading, and sequins at the two seams, then I made a button and bead cluster in the lower right.

From a CQ standpoint, it's not my favorite block for this quilt, but I love the song so much that it makes up for that :)

Now I need to go work on my May block!

Happy stitching!!!

Block 2 update

The end of the school year is always a busy time around here, since Mike and I are both teachers. Then two days after school got out, we left for a road trip out west to visit Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, and Grand Tetons. It was a fun but busy trip! When we returned home, I added some beads to block 2 of my anniversary CQ, to show the new states Mike and I visited together: South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. I'm still working on other blocks for CQJP 2012, slowly but surely :)