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!

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!