September CQJP work

Here's how my September CQJP block looks after I stitched the seam treatments. I will be adding some beads to each seam later.

For each of these seams, I was inspired by photos in Carole Samples' book, Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches. Have I ever mentioned how happy I am that American Quilter's Society republished that book a few years ago, so I was able to buy my own copy?

 

You can't see the chain stitches real well, as they are close in color to the fabric. Little cross-stitches and straight stitches finish up this seam.

This seam has two zig zag lines made of different threads, formed by straight stitches, with three detached chain stitches in between.

The third seam is feather stitch in embroidery floss with French knot flowers made of silk ribbon.

I love these cooler fall days...they put me in the mood for some stitching.

Happy stitching!

September CQ block started

Yes, I am getting further behind with my CQJP 2012 blocks. But even if I don't get all 12 blocks done this year, I know I will have done more than if I wasn't particpating in this challenge!

My September block is going to commemorate the trip to Europe that my husband and I helped chaperone this year over spring break. We went to London, Paris, Lucerne (Switzerland),  and Munich. Yep, these trips are whirlwind trips. But they're lots of fun and we get to go to all sorts of places that we couldn't normally visit. As chaperones, our trips are free!

While we were in London, we were browsing in  a little market and I saw this cute little doily. I bought it, knowing it would be perfect for this block!

Here is the pieced block. Now I'm off to start stitching on it.

Happy stitching!

Mystery Quilt Block 8

This weekend I made my final block for the 2012 American Patchwork and Quilting "Mystery Quilt." The directions are in the December 2012 issue of the magazine. This issue also has the directions for setting the blocks and making the borders. It looks like I'll be making lots of hourglass blocks for the middle border!

Happy stitching!

First Friday UFO: another All Star block

Happy 1^st Friday of October!

This month I made another block for my All Star UFO quilt. I got the directions for this pinwheel variable star from the April 1997 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. It’s part of a quilt called “Rainbow Swirl,” designed by Marti Michell.

If you want to see all my blocks in the All Star quilt, click on the “All Star Quilt” label at the bottom of this post.

Happy stitching!

August CQJP finished

I have finally finished my August block for CQJP 2012! In August, I seriously thought I would get caught up at last, but that was not to be. Going back to work always throws me for a loop, and this year we've got a lot of new technology to deal with at school. Add to that the fact that both boys are running cross country, but at different schools, and I've been going to meets left and right. Today I had a chance to just sit and stitch for awhile. It was wonderful:)

For each of my children's blocks, I'm adding a butterfly. For this one, I cut a butterfly out of gold Angelina that I had previously fused together. I beaded all around the perimeter of the butterfly, then added bugle beads for the body and two larger pearl beads on the wings.

Here's a small button and bead cluster I added to the left side of the photo. You can see that I used cream velvet ribbon to frame the photo. I couched the ribbon down with tiny crystallized beads.

On the right side of the photo, I made a line of chevron stitches and added gold sequins with pearlized beads. There's also a seam treatment of silk ribbon chain stitches with larger beads in between. I'm sorry the photos are a bit blurry. Sometimes my camera has trouble focusing when there's lots of shiny bits on the block.

Happy stitching!

First Friday UFO: progress on All Star Quilt

Happy 1^st Friday of September!

If you recall, last month when I started my series, “First Friday UFOs,” I was considering joining an “almost free” block of the month program from a local quilt shop, until I remembered all the UFOs (UnFinished Objects) that are sitting in my armoire. Instead of joining that program, I’m challenging myself to make at least one block of a UFO quilt per month.

In August, I worked on another block for my All Star Quilt. This block has the “Amish bars” pattern inside the star. Since the middle square is 6” square, I simply made each of the six stripes 1” X 6” (finished).

You can see the two different blue fabrics, each has small stars on it.

Have you been working on any UFOs lately? I’d love to see them.

Happy stitching!

August block beginning

I'm back, after taking a few weeks off blogging. I wasn't planning on being gone so long, but I started back to work two weeks ago, and it's been crazy-busy at school. Twelve of our classrooms were part of an addition in 1977 and they weren't up to the current fire code. They were gutted and totally rebuilt over the summer. The contractors did all the work, but there was some trouble-shooting I had to do to get things up and running. Then there was all the normal beginning of the school year technology work. Although I was running all over the place (including up and down stairs a lot), I much prefer that to sitting at my desk with nothing to do!

Add to that I did a sprint-distance triathlon last Sunday, and I haven't had the energy to blog recently.

But here we are at the weekend. All three of my kids are gone this weekend at a church retreat. So I don't have to drive anyone anywhere. The house is wonderfully quiet.

Here's my pieced block for August, with his birthday blurred out. I actually pieced it a few weeks ago, but didn't get a chance to show it here on my blog.

This is my younger son, my baby. I love that little bit of hair sticking up in the photo! His hair was darker back then, but nowadays it's more of a dishwater blonde.

With the kiddos all gone and my hubby taking a nap, I think I'm going to go in the studio and be creative.

Happy stitching!