Cy - Finished Block 12

December 2012 Block finished.

This block is dedicated to my dearest mother who passed away on 1 December 2012.

This small lace bookmark was made by my mother.

 This lace trim was also made by my mum (I added the beads)

Mum also made this crochet piece. It was an experimental test for the wings of an angel.

 The following piece of lace was made by mum too. It was unfinished.

These three stars represent my sister, my brother, and myself.

My brother is the silver star as he is already in heaven and shining as bright as a star. 

The centre sparkly piece was in my mums jewellery box.

I surrounded it with pearls as mum loved her pearl necklaces. She had rather a lot of pearl necklaces.

The four hearts are for her four children.

And this is mums butterfly brooch. It is taking the place of my usually stitched butterfly as the centre piece for this block.

Happy Stitching

Cy - And another block bites the dust

Work on the crazy quilt is ongoing.

Trying hard to catch-up and get the last couple of blocks completed during the first half of January, so that I can then stitch them together into my wall hanging before the end of January.

Progress has been made on the October block over the last two days.

Here is where I am at the moment - almost complete. 

Freestyle Rhodes Stitch

Dice - inspiration for this came from the silver dice that was in my Christmas cracker.

The Crochet piece for this block. With a row of Chain Stitch at the base.

An Invented Stitch - probably been invented before I created it, but it is not in any book of instructions that I know of. Starts as a 'sort of' ladder stitch but with a knot on each side that 'pulls the stitch into a 'blocky' looking zig-zag.

Cast-On Stitch in a variegated mercerized cotton.

Royal blue ribbon couched down with thinner black ribbon. (beads have been added since this photo).

The central butterfly needs finishing. Then on to the next block. 

I'm hoping to get one block a week done now until I catch up, so you should expect to see a block reveal for each of the next two weeks.

Got to give myself this goal so that I can bite away at it and finish along with the rest of you here.

Here are the (almost) complete block pics.

I might add a little more bling after I've done the next two blocks.

Wahoo! the end is in sight now.

Happy Stitching

Cy - Reveal of My July Block

Crazy Quilt Journal Project - My July Block

A Mandala Motif .

Detached Chains with a French Knot to anchor it. Pistil Stitch (purple).

Tubular petals for this half flower.

Love this simple seam.

The blue is Buttonhole bars and then added the white beads.

A very small amount of Algerian Eye stitch for TAST this week, and I shall have to play some more with it on my August block as I haven't really done it justice this week, but I still like this little 'starburst' shown here.

Well, that was quite a lot of work for the month.

Seven blocks down.....five to go.

Slowly getting there.

There are lots more photos of this block over on my blog 

Happy Stitching

Cy - Reveal - TAST & June CQJP block

TAST Week 26

The green and blue spirals that follow the blue bead line in the middle of this mandala are Palestrina Stitch with a very short "arm" so that the knot is the prominent part.

The pale turquoise outer ring is Whipped Spider Wheel, with straight stitching and V's in dark blue.

And as a seam treatment on my crazy quilt.

The top wavy line is with alternating "arms", and the other three lines are evenly stitched and overlapping each other.

And this Palestrina Stitch experiment could be 'mistaken' for a tree 

(one for you Connie, lol).

CQJP June

I just about managed to get the June block finished in June.

I added Fly Stitch to the seam that I started last week.

Lots of lovely texture

And the butterfly of course.

There are some close-up photos on my blog

So that is block number six finished. Half way there. Wahoo!!

Also.............

I have an announcement to make about the completion of a major, and somewhat secret, project that I have been undertaking over the last couple of months.

But you will have to wait until I blog about it tomorrow because I am too tired to think straight right now (aren't I a tease, lol).

Your comments and feedback are most welcome.

Happy Stitching

Cy - TAST 22 & May CQJP block

Can I squeeze my reveal in here....had a busy 3-day weekend, so I wasn't around to post earlier.


TAST Week 22 Knotted Cretan Stitch

I didn't have much time to spend on this stitch this week as I've been in 'Digital Designing' mode and working in the orchard.

But that is a story for another blog post. I'll keep you in suspenders (haha) for now.

So here are two test samples for Knotted Cretan Stitch.

With the pink floss I was just playing with different stitch lengths, widths and stretches.

And with the green, well, it was meant to be a circle but I got distracted when one of the dogs decided it was time to throw an old shoe at me "oh come on mum, it must be playtime now".

CQJP May Block

I have got this block to a reasonable stopping point for now, and I'm calling it temporarily finished.

I need (at some point in the near future) to add something more to the left side because I can see that all the "weight" of embellishing is on the right, and the block is not balanced and not to my liking.....yet.

Detail pics......

Silver ribbon stitched to create a ruffle, and turquoise seed beads scattered around the folds.

Blanket Stitch half wheels in two strands of blue variegated DMC floss.

I've no idea what this is called, lol. How about "noughts and crosses".

A bit more added to my "V" exploratory seam. I like the effect of the turquoise/teal raised threads going from one 'knot' to the next. This stitch was one I made up. I think it may be something similar to the Scroll stitch, but this one is stitched differently.

Black cotton crochet scalloped edging lace, and a very short seam with detached chains, silver beads and blue French Knots.

Freeform Mandala with a shiny gold Shisha in the middle.

And my usual centre patch with a butterfly. Not one of my better butterflies I think. It looks more like a hawk-moth to me, probably because of the chunky bead body. 

I may 'frog' the green thread lines on the top as it just doesn't look 'right' to me.

So that's all for now sweet friends.

Back to work on the digital stuff for a day or two before I will allow myself time off to relax with needle and thread.

Cy - Reveal - April CQJP - TAST - Shisha

----April CQJP block----

I am so pleased that I have now finished my April CQJP block.
Clicking the photos will lead to a larger view.

And because I know you all love close up pics of the seam stitching here follows the seam treatment close-up photos each with a note about the stitching.

TAST week 19 - The Half Chevron stitched in two rows with a 'lozenge' shape back stitch in darker blue and a metallic thread Star cross stitch in the middle of each lozenge.

The Basque stitch is a chain stitch variation and was done last week. This week I added the Ribbon Embroidery blue flowers (possibly tulips?), the Fly Stitch 'stalks' and the beaded tops.

Three different techniques combined on this seam.

Bottom black line is back stitch. Lilac middle bit is Raised Buttonhole. Then silver and turquoise beaded semi-circles added to the top.

Mexican Wave stitch and a beaded edge.

The beaded zig-zag added to last weeks couched ribbon seam.

White beads added to last weeks Crossed Buttonhole (Crossed Blanket stitch)

Not sure whether to call these beads or buttons, but whatever they are it is lovely.

They are acrylic and see-thru with a 'glass millefiori' (sp?) look to the flower in the middle.

I added a row of silver metal chain to either side of my wrapped chevron for something a little different and unique.

The sage green braided chain from last week also got some more stitching added to it.

The purple thread is a wrapped back stitch with a pale lilac single back stitch outside of that.

The irregular chunks of turquoise beads are held down with lengths of crystal seed beads.

I love how this Mandala just grew itself here.

The variegated green middle is raised buttonhole on a spider wheel.

Lime green is French Knots.

Pale blue variegated is two rounds offset Half Chevrons (TAST week 19)

Aqua bugle beads and silver seed beads surround the Mandala

I was rather surprised that the outside round of beads fitted the mandala perfectly without having to 'jiggle' the spacing at all. Sometimes things are just meant to be.

And here is my butterfly for this block.

I hope I can carry on inventing "new species" of butterflies to complete my 12 blocks by the end of this year.

I give you an angled shot of the block here so that you can see the textures of the beads and stitches, and also see the crocheted ruffle better.

---Shisha & Half Chevron FUN---

It has been quite a while since I have done any Shisha work (years in fact) so I thought I would join in on this stitching adventure too.

I have a bag or two of the small round real Shisha mirrors that are the usual item to stitch onto fabric, but I know my supply of mirrors is in the shipping container that I call my "Craft Box" which is outside by the 'man-cave'. I was too impatient to go and search for it so I used what I could find on hand in the house.

So this is the Half Chevron TAST stitch addition to a fun 'experimental' Shisha piece.

The 'mirror' is actually a metal, screw bottle top (no, really!!) from a bottle of Martini Bianco that I just happened to polish off the night before. (Again - some things are just meant to be).

I had to get the hammer out and smash the poor bottle top flat so that it could be stitched in place, but hey, "all is fair in love and stitching".

And a slight angle photo to see the texture of the shisha stitches and the height of the hammered bottle top.

Oh yes, all for the sake of my craft.
I had fun.

A great excuse to finish that next bottle off too.