Fitzy - Another Finish

Whew!

I've completed the 4th of 6 blocks in this CQRR.

This block is for a lady who lives in Istambul, Turkey. Her country is in such turmoil these days, all I wanted to do is to give her a little peaceful scene. Once you look through the pine boughs, you see lightly falling snow and snow covered pines. I added a peace dove with branch, and the word Peace.

After creating the scene, I went back and minimally decorated the seam using a simple blanket stitch, snailtrail stitch, etc. I didn't want them to detract from the message.

Working solid overtime, before work, shortened lunch, and after work. One tired chick here, but glad I could at least meet this deadline! Race last weekend and a getaway next...boy do I need it!

Hope you're off to a stellar start to the week!

Posting this on the weekend, so not to leave you hangin'!

Carolynn--Oyster stitch and catching up

Hello All-- I've been traveling again, this time cruising in the Inside Passage on the east side of Vancouver Island with friends who have a lovely 57' wooden Chris Craft. I stitched while we were gone, but internet was spotty, so I'm a little behind. Wonderful this morning looking at all the lovely work that's been posted!

I have a new project: a baby gift for my niece.  Her mom made a baby quilt and then sent me the left-over fabric, so I'm doing a small wall-hanging. Not quite finished, but close!

The baby is Matilda Lucy; her name will go in the large pink strip below her picture.

Oyster stitch with some beading (and a little Basque):

Bonnet stitch:

Wheatear  (I like this one!)

My plan is to add some green rick-rack around the outside edges to cover the stitching of the heart to the ruffle.  The name will go in alphabet beads.

This has to be done by Friday morning, so I need to get busy today!!!

Carolynn--Finished!

My Family Wall Hanging is finished!!

The whole project is 29"x29".  Each block is about 11x11.  I say "about," because one of the lessons I learned on this project is to be much more precise about where my seam basting lines are placed!

To quilt, I stitched in the ditch of each square.  Then I added beads and buttons as an additional way to secure the large squares to the backing.

The little white buttons in around the watch are attached with French knots.

I'm glad this is finished!  I learned some good lessons as I proceeded, but now I'm ready to start something new that will allow me to use the weekly TAST stitches.

Carolynn update

Still working along on my Family piece! I'm making progress toward the due date: June 12!

Here is the whole project so far:

Some new details:  the center motif is started, and in the lower right, you can see a piece of crochet work I've added, held down by ribbon and with a ribbon and French knot flower in the middle:

I've used the wheatear stitch as a motif:

And added another button motif:

When I finish the border motifs, I'll attach batting and a back, and then sew on beads and buttons in various places as a way to do the "quilting."  I'll stitch in the ditch with clear thread around each block at the border, and hope that will be enough to keep the piece from sagging.  So I'm seeing the end in sight!

Barbara's April CQJP block

I finished my April block, only a few days into May.

The green seam is zig-zag chain stitch, and the flowers are straight stitch and French knots.  The yellow seam is plain old cross stitch.

In this photo the blue seam is wheatear stitch, the TAST stitch from two week ago, with orange French knots.  The orange seam is fly stitch with some tiny silver beads.  The pink seam is the TAST crossed buttonhole stitch for this week, accented with some tiny heart buttons and detatched chain stitches.

I used outline stitch, satin stitch, and stem stitch to embellish the center image of the hummingbird.  Tahlia sent me some retro-reflective thread from Textura Trading Co., which I combined with two strands of cotton for the bird wings.  The retro-reflective thread has a sparkle which is hard to see in the photo, but which gives the wings a bit of sheen.

In the right upper corner I put a little black bird like the ones that stand in the grass next to my house.  It guards some silk ribbon fuchsias.

I'm going to put this project on hold for the rest of the month.  I'm wrapping up the school year and then Michael and I will go on vacation.  I may post some other projects on my blog in the meantime, but I'll pick up the next block in June, when I hope to catch up with the rest of the Tuesday Stitchers group.

Susan: TAST 17 & 18 and May CQJP

Not too much, but a start and a catch up. I also have two more blocks pieced - only one to go. There will be beads, maybe a button in the wheatear circle (which I did correctly this time, but I still prefer the other way of doing it), and probably some more embellishing on that crossed buttonhole thing.

So what else was I doing when I should have been CQing? Admiring the results of my gardening! First tomato blossoms:

Deborah: TAST Weeks 16 & 17 - Catching Up

Deep breaths, deep breaths...

Okay, here are Weeks 17 (french knot) and 18 (Wheat Ear Stitch).

Although I have French knots everywhere, these are the ones I did the week of the TAST stitch. Not that it matters, I guess. Just random french knots nestled in the fly stitch. It adds some interesting texture.

Wheatear stitch.  A little difficult for me to get the hang of at first (note the first stitch on the left) but it didn't take too long to grasp. Really an interesting stitch with lots of possibilities.

There's a little more over at my blog. I've posted a picture of the block but there's still more to be done. I can't decide which photos to include...  

Carolynn--wheatear, motifs

A very short post--we leave to golf in a bit!
My internet will be turned off tonight; we leave for Seattle on Thursday morning, so I'll be cleaning and packing the next couple of days.  But I hope to get lots of stitching done in the car on the way home.
I did two lines of wheatear--I like this stitch!

Then I added a couple of motifs to my "Family" blocks--

And that's all I have to show! The work you all have displayed this week is beautiful!! I hope to look at it more closely when I get back to Seattle!! Until then--happy stitching!

Suz-TAST-Wheatear

Sorry this is late, but I have a house guest, so, there's very little time on the computer.
I had fun with this stitch.

Here's my TAST Sampler:


You can read more about it here:
http://suztats.blogspot.ca/2012/04/tast-wheatear.html


I've almost caught up on my Chikan Embroidery, and will post a pic next week of my progress.

My CQJP is not yet finished........but maybe I'll have pics in a few days.

Have a good weekend.

Hugs from Suz

Cy - Reveal - Almost Caught Up

TAST Wheatear 

TAST for this week is Wheatear Stitch.

I used this for one long seam on my CQJP and added 3 seed beads at each point of the stitch.

Progress on CQJP March Block

Had lots of fun with different seam treatments this week. Experimenting with various techniques and inventions. 

This is the 'finished' block that I have submitted to the CQJP blog. I shall probably still add more to it at a later date as I really want something more in that largish white triangle on the bottom right.

And here are some detail pics of the various seam treatments.

(click on these for a larger view)

Metallic threads feature a lot in this block, and I especially enjoyed stitching the tiny stars on this white area. I'll see if I can get better photos outside when the weather brightens up a bit. I had to take these inside with artificial light so I'm sorry if they are not clear enough.

I've had a fairly good stitching week, until Friday that is. I have 'acquired' a rather bad hand infection that has left me with a hand the size of a balloon, which, as you can imagine, is not good for sewing when you can't hold a needle.

But I still managed to stitch one-handed with the help of my Posilock frame stand. Don't you just love gadgets.

Happy Stitching

Angela ~ Wheat Ear Stitch ~ Mystery Novel

My choice of subject was the birthday of one of my favorite mystery writers: Sue Grafton.  She writes the alphabet mysteries about female private investigator Kinsey Millhone.  A is for Alibi was the first in the series and I believe she is up to V now, this design has been used on each successive book. 

The aida cloth is really a very sunny yellow, not muted at all.  I used a bright green, pale olive and black DMC cotton thread and white pearl cotton for Sue's name.  Most of this is stem stitched with the outline of the cover in wheat ear.

I didn't plan the stitch count and ended up 2 squares too far on the top border.  I left it as is because nothing is perfect except the Creator and even the Native American weavers leave a 'mistake' in on purpose for that reason.  The bottom border I skipped one square on each side and it looks a lot neater.  I did a running stitch in between the wheat ears on top & bottom as it looked unfinished without it.

Debra: April Reveal of CQJP and TAST-Wheatear

Here's the full view of my April yellow-orange sewing themed block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project.

Now for some details for you to enjoy!

The floral arrangement was a happy coincidence!  I've had both in different drawers but they wanted to be together.  They fit so well!  The outer flower is crocheted (by an etsy seller).  I used my original outlined curve as an opportunity to make the scalloped edging around the block. Something had to be done with that poorly stitched outline!

Wheatear to the left (jokers to the right--that earworm courtesy of Carol) and a woven ribbon through some dressmaker's trim couched down with straight stitches.  I had added the barred chain earlier in the month but it faded away so I added a single chain later. Overall it's a nice effect.

Pretty little tatted motif that Suz sent me--the colors are perfect for this block!

'60s vintage buttons from Sears Roebuck (I know because these are from my mom's sewing stuff and I remember those buttons!) & thimble charm.  I like this little dangling idea!

Little flat crochetted circle turned into a flower.  The butterfly was tatted by Suz and flew in to land on that funky flower.  Carol mentioned oyster stitch in an email so I gave it a shot--unfortunately, the perle cotton didn't translate well and they look like blobs. (But, my motto here is--this is a learning project.  It does not have to be perfect.)

Wheatear done with 6 plies of DMC.  I like the wheatear.  It's a good "go to" stitch for the Stitch Stash.  I also stitched a buttonhole to look like a satin stitch using one of Carole Samples' templates.  I am a little dismayed that the thread soaked up the water soluble ink.  I've wet it 2x and I can still see it.  Hmmm.  Again, moving on.

I wanted to practice my outline stitch a little more so came up with this figure 8ish motif.  Those star/flowers are little felt cutouts from Michaels $1 bins.  I find lots of good CQ stuff in those!  I attached them with detached chain stitches.  The whole attach/detach scheme!
You can also see a close-up view of the yellow circles.  Again, detached chain with french knots.

Next month's color scheme is Yellow and then I am moving out of the red/yellow section of the color wheel into the Green/Blues.  I'm really tickled with this project.  I'm expanding my stitch combinations by trying to think of different arrangements and I am working with new colors.  Because of this project, I was able to look at another CQ project and realize that, Yes, Virginia, it needs some other colors added.  I never know what my projects are going to tell me!

Judy ~ Wheatear Stitch and Sue

This was an interesting stitch to use on my almost finished block. First, I tried it out on my sampler, mostly to see whether I could make the same kind of square shown on Sharon's blog. I wanted to try to use the stitch to fill in the sleeve but then decided that would take forever, so I went a different direction.

Sue's hat and sleeves are where the wheatear finally landed. I also had fun fiddling around with the gate. The pattern calls for bluebirds, but I decided to add a robin. Can you see what it's carrying? Four blocks finished, yay! Check my blog to see what else I've been doing......