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!

AP&Q Mystery Quilt Progress

 Last weekend, I was at a scrapbooking retreat with some friends in a small resort town about an hour away from home. Saturday morning, I went out running and saw this quilt block on the side of a house. I love seeing the wooden quilt blocks on barns, houses, and other buildings! Sorry for the poor quality of the picture. I took it with my phone while I was out on my run, and I don’t have a “smart phone” ~ mine’s a dumb phone!

 

I’ve done a bit of work on my American Patchwork and Quilting magazine 2012 mystery quilt. Before I went on my scrapbooking retreat, I sewed the setting triangles onto the blocks. I decided to use the same four fabrics for each block, using each fabric on a different side of the block. I think this is how I will arrange the blocks.

 

More recently, I made all of the 3 ½ inch hourglass blocks for the middle border. Here’s the stack of 64 hourglass units.

Here are a few of the hourglass blocks. For some of the blocks, I used the fabrics from the main blocks. I also used a few fabrics from some fat eighths that were given to me by my “secret sister” when I was a member of a local quilt guild a few years ago.

Just this weekend, I was poking around on some blogs, and saw that every Monday, Judy over at Patchwork Times hosts a blog linky party for what’s on your design wall. I’m linking up with her today. I'm also linking up with Connie's Linky Party Tuesday. Thanks for stopping by!

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!

November First Friday UFO

Happy First Friday of November! This month, I made another block for my All Star (UFO) quilt. This one has a nine-patch in the center of it. I love nine-patch quilts. In fact, one of my other UFO projects is a red and white double-nine-patch quilt :)

 Here's a close-up of the white-background "USA" fabric.

In this picture, you can just barely see that the red fabric has "fireworks" in the background of the white stars.

For those hit by Hurricane Sandy, I am praying for you.

Happy stitching!

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!