Susan: CQJP2014, Seam 96

This was just pure fun. The idea came from staring at one of Sharon Boggon's templates for a few minutes. I was planning something entirely different, and may still do that under this.

Susan: CQJP2014: May Block

It's another fabulous Tuesday! Here I am again, with only one seam, but I like it. It was inspired by Kathy Shaw's TDITM #12.

Lower left corner.

I did look at all the posts from last week, yesterday, but last week I went on my personal retreat and didn't spend much time online, so I didn't comment, I'm sorry to say. I see beautiful things that you were all doing, though!

Susan: CQJP2014 - April Block

Still not quite finished, but I added some more stitching in a couple of places, and this heart:

This is the whole block, sneaking close to finish.

My photography skills are leaving a lot to be desired lately. I don't know if the camera needs a good cleaning and adjustment, or I do. It is what it is, for now. Camera stores are few and far between these days.

Susan: CQJP2014: April Block - All the Pretty Pictures!

The finish of July will likely not see the finish of my April block, but there was quite a bit of progress Saturda, which I'll show you, and here are pictures from the week before, when I couldn't put up any pictures.

I think Seam 74 was the last one I showed before the computer went away. Here it is with 75 next to it. Click to enlarge.


The other seam which was finished before last week was Seam 76 (although I did add the yellow bit Saturday - seemed to need something there):


In addition, I did this ribbon embellishment down on the lower corner of the block.


Saturday, most of my sewing was more seams. 77-79 are now finished and the fan only needs two more short ones. A lot of the fan seams came from Miss Annie Loopylace's blog, which you can find HERE. Most of the seams I've been using lately came from her 2008 posts. Unlike most seams I copy, I haven't changed much of anything on the ones from Annie!

Seams 74, 77, 78, and 79 are all from Annie, and the ribbon idea came from her blog somewhere, too - on a purse, if I remember correctly. So here are the additional seams, and a group shot of the fan, needing two more end seams.

Seam 77:

Seam 78:

Seam 79

Everybody playing nicely together:

That's it for this week! I'm traveling to Charlotte, NC, today, with a friend, to see the AQS show tomorrow. If there are any CQ projects, I'll be sure to take pictures to share, if allowed.

Susan: 3 Seams for the Week!

Maybe it was having the holiday, or maybe something else, but I did seem to get a lot of crazy quilting done this week - if you call three seams a lot, and I do right now!

This is the first one I did, seam 67 since I started Ati's grandmother's block. This was inspired by something I saw on a round robin Rose Anne posted a while back. It's the second set, the buttonhole set that has a seam that's been percolating in my head for more than a year. There's going to be more around the bottom and sides - maybe SRE. This is all Sassa Lynne perle variegated cotton thread.

Seam 68 was inspired by a seam from Linda Causee's book published by ASN, An Encyclopedia of Crazy Quilt Stitches and Motifs. It is Seam 81, based on the Maidenhair Stitch. There are some differences in what I did, but you can clearly see the likeness if you have that book. It's stitched in Eterna Silk twist 12, Turf, for the Maidenhair and leaves. The floral part is HDF Gandy Dancer 1103.

Seam 69 was copied almost exactly from a seam in Betty Pillsbury's Victorian Crazy Quilt Blocks. If you have that comb-bound booklet, it's in the fifth block. If you don't, and you want it, I linked to the craftsy page of her items for sale. It is stitched in Sassa Lynne except for the 5-armed things. That's 2 strands of a Needle Necessities variegated cotton floss.

A few more facts about Aunt Jo:

• Jo was the first woman to wear trousers on a cross country train trip.
• She and her husband owned two restaurants which did very well, and they helped others, including a restaurant at the Bakersfield airport.
• Pearl, Jo's sister, took some of her hair ribbons and they argued about that until they died.

Block so far ... because I know it's about time for Judy to ask me! Sorry it isn't that great a picture, Judy, but you can get the idea.

Suz: April Ends

I'm a month behind, and I think I could probably stitch on this skirt quarter for a few more weeks, but, in the hopes of finishing my CQJP on time, I'm calling it done!

Tatted, beaded, ribbon, and thread snowflakes were added

and this section of the skirt will be put away while I work on section #2


I may add to or subtract some of the snowflakes once more skirt sections are completed

what I have learned from this first quarter:

1) while providing contrast, the green fabrics take away from the red and white theme, so any new quarters I make may be void of green

2) small snowflake motifs get  lost in the skirt, so I shall go Big

3) too many different styles of snowflakes may be taking away from the overall look

4) I may decide to simplify the number of fabric patterns in new quarter pieces in order to get closer to the picture in my mind

5)  conclusion: I need to Simplify, simplify, simplify!
And that's all the stitching I accomplished this week. There was a large maple tree taken down, wood piled, kindling gathered for a friend, and yard clean-up going on. There was pulling of weeds and raking. And I indulged in a bit more gelli arts printing, and discovered it is very easy to make ugly monoprints! LOL!
I was down for a couple days under-the-weather recuperating from doing too much, but I'm feeling much better now.
Wishing you Happy Stitching and Creating for the upcoming week.
Hugs from Suz

 

Suz: April Stitching

Hi everyone. Hope you all had a nice Easter. Even with the holiday I managed to get some stitching done.

 I'm really pleased with my results.



The Embroidery Guild made $912.00 from their sale table to donate to charity. WooHoo!

On my wrapping cloth piece #11, I secured this corner of an old napkin with french knots and cast-on rings.

The bullions along the gathered lace morphed into cast-on circles, and french knots were added at intervals to create little pockets along the billowing lace.

piece #11 has lots more french knots added, too

ooops, there's a hole!

I wonder what's going to happen there?

 bullioned and french knot snowflakes are appearing on the Christmas tree skirt

wee red snowflakes

 french knots to secure the trims

and the skirt is still not filled with snowflakes......yet

I have decided to add red snowflakes as well as the white, so more wee and large snowflakes will be tumbling down the skirt

I hope to have this 1st quarter finished by the end of April.


Hope you've had a good stitching week.

Hugs from Suz

 

Susan: Much Better Progress This Week!

This past Friday and Saturday were my group's UFO weekend. When I was discouraged on Saturday by one quilt project, I switched to cq and worked on my February 2014 CQJP block - definitely a UFO!

This seam was inspired by both Needle'nThread video and photos and a desire to do something curvy, plus the fact that I love buttonhole wheels. They turned into fans when I put a detached chain as the start of something going the other way on the seam and realized it looked fine just like that.



I was in the mood to us floss today, which hardly ever happens, so all these seams are stitched in either Needle Necessities floss (out of business about 5 years ago - similar colors from Threadworx) or the hand-dyed floss I used to sell in my etsy store. I didn't dye it. If I live to be 1000, life will still be too short for me to ever dye anything myself. I had a wonderful dyer in Canada dye to my specifications. I had a line I called triads. Instead of variegated, the colors changed along the length of the floss - three colors for each skein. It was fun to use both of those older favorites.

Here are some things that were also inspired by Mary Corbet's site, and stitched in the flosses. Next time, I think I'll either use 4 strands instead of 2, or else I'll use perle 8 or 12. I did try the Aurifil 12 wt on the yellow French Knots in the center of the one daisy. I wouldn't trade my Sassa Lynne for it, nor probably my Valdani, but it is a nice thread just the same. The variegated length is quite long so all 7 FK are the same color, but it darkens in a few more inches. The other one has orange, brown and yellow beads at the center.



Before that, I had one other opportunity to stitch and here are pictures of what I did there:

Still about 1/3 of the block to stitch, maybe only 1/4.

Susan: Seam 59, Slow Moving

I keep thinking I'm going to actually have some time to do something. How silly is that? I made ONE seam this week.

Here's where it is in the scheme of things.

Again, there may be something I do underneath the seam, too.

Susan: 1 Embellishment, 1 Seam

Not catching up very fast. The tree now has tons of French knots, 5 different pinks, 5 different flosses and 1 Sassa Lynne used. The floss was used 2 strand, and all the knots are double wraps.


Seam 58, small and possibly getting more small beads later, Kathy Shaw's TDiTM, #110:

Suz--- March Middlings or is that Muddlings?

Here's my completed Wattle HEX from StitchMAP. I chose to stitch an Acacia Purpureapetala which has purple flowers, instead of the usual cream- yellow flowers of the wattle.
This was fun!

Then, a Fun Friday Tute was announced at StitchMAP with a challenge to create a wrist band bracelet following some of Blogland's tutorials. Here's my first one completed with beads, lace, french knots, a pretty button, and a button wrap I stitched with blanket stitches across two threads of #5 perle cotton.

I have three more in the line-up. I think this design could be altered to be a pretty, functional, credit or debit card carrier, perfect for shopping trips when you don't want the bulk of a purse on your arm or shoulder. Just slip the card in and out of the bracelet.

And then, I got a little carried away........

I made another, and pinned  3 more for stitching......

and I thought I had better wrap it all up and get back to my CQJP tree skirt and my wrapping cloth............



but this distraction continued........

with another 3, the first one with a beaded dangle just begun,





the second with ribbon and lace flowers,






the third with a bit of lace....hmmmnn, I wonder what else?

then this one

and a smaller one for a young person........

and then I told myself I had to stop!

I needed to get back to my tree skirt and my wrapping cloth piece #11. I was quite stern with myself, and when I sat down to create that Sunday evening, I slapped my wrist and put away the bracelets.
"You have to tat snowflakes," I told myself. And so I did.

1 lonely little snowflake about the size of a nickel.........

well, that's not going to cover much of the tree skirt, is it?

Now, March is almost over, and I haven't made much progress on my CQJP. I've been distracted.
But, now I have to get back to it.......that is if I can keep away from those fabric bracelets!

I hope you've had some fun stitching time this week.
Hugs from Suz

 

Susan: January Reveal

Ha, ha, ha, yes. January. You will be happy, Judy. The whole block is here! But first, a word from our sponsors, Seam 57 and Embellishment 22. I'm sorry the pictures are so poor. I evidentally didn't set something right, so I'll try again tomorrow - when it's supposed to be sunny and 73, before plunging back into rain and the high 40s.

Seam 57: SRE scrunched lavender flowers; chain stitch flowers in yellow; various leaves and two purple blues for French knots

Embellishment 22: Small feather-stitched circle, embellished. Mostly Sassa Lynne threads, some Cosmo 1 strand embroidery thread. Yes, there should be another green leaf on the right, but if I stitched it, it would be in block seam.

I still have not come upon what I want either on the linen corner or the beige lace corner. When I do, I'll go back and add it, but for now, the block is finished. If I get a better picture in the sunshine Tuesday afternoon, I will come edit and substitute.

Suz- CQJP and TIAS Update

I've not managed much stitching on the CQJP this past week, but I did add a little:

silver snowflakes cascading across the fabrics

a pretty, clear snowflake on a thread dangle and silver beads on the white, lacy trim

a medium-sized tatted snowflake with a crystal center and silver sparkles

and this is how the 1st piece of quadrant 1 looks so far.........

As Debra suggested, I did a couple of mock-ups: white and red on red, and white on white in this photo.....a bit crowded and busy-looking

on this photo I added white on red and red on white.....there are fewer elements, but it's difficult for me to tell how busy this might look overall. I do like the way this one 'reads'......


So, I've decided to do the white-on-red snowflakes and embellishments for now. When completed, I'll decide then if I want to add red on the white fabrics.

The TIAS has reached day 11 of the pattern, and we've now completed two pieces, and will begin a third or begin joining these together--I'm not sure which........
I'm still stumped!






I hope today to begin my HEX LABS stitching.
That's all for this week.
Have you had a stitchy week?  I hope so.
Hugs from Suz