Susan: CQJP2015 Update on Last Block

I sat with a friend while her husband was in surgery and got two small parts done, both of which still need beads. The corner was just doodling with straight stitches and feather stitching:

Corner 27:

This seam was just pure doodling. I was there with not much of a booklet for ideas, and the first set of Pintangle templates, and this is what happened. Sorry for the shadows, but the sun was shining so I thought I'd get better pictures outside. Ha, ha! I do better with the flash inside.

Seam 64:

Susan: CQJP2015, October

I was hoping to get the corner done, and I might still, but just to be sure I remember to post, here are the seams from this week:

Seam 58 was inspired by about 4 seams from Valerie Bothell on Pinterest. It's a good classic design, and I didn't embellish it with anything extra because I wanted to do a seam above it. I wasn't sure how much space that would take. Besides, I like it with just the lazy daisy stitches. Thread is Sassa Lynne, two different variegated ones.

Seam 59 wasn't what I started to make, at all! But I like it anyway. It developed step-by-step from this seam, #186, of Valerie's:

But here's what I did instead.

Just sort of fun. Also two different variegated Sassa Lynne fine perle (about #8) threads.

Susan: CQJP Yet Again

Only one seam and one corner left to finish on the June block. I'm not catching up, but I'm not falling further behind, either.

Here was seam 43 - just a bit of doodling on a short seam.

Then I did this longer seam and the corner. I may yet add beads to the long orange seam, but I'm happy with the corner. I had the camera on the wrong setting, I guess, 'cause it's pretty fuzzy. Better luck next time.

The whole block so far:

Susan: More June Seams

A bit more done - winding down block and month, trying to get no further behind!

Here's how Seam 41 played out, and the Corner 18 part with it.

And that's all that happened this week!

Susan: CQJP2015 March Update

Seam 20, hard to see at this size. Needs beads.

Seam 21, not really seams, but not motifs. I just thought it would be fun to put a blue French knot in each yellow dot.

You can see the next part, a corner that isn't finished.

Slow and unsteady, but eventually a finish will happen. =)

CQJP2015: March Block Update

Finally, almost halfway through May, I found some time to do a couple of seams on my March block.

Seam 16: Big Backstitch


This is not finished. It needs embellishment still, but I'm not sure what that will be yet.

Seam 17:


This one needs beads - triangle beads, I think, but I am so totally in love with it! I love the shape and the curve and the colors.

Cy - Heart Crazy

Straight From the Heart Crazy Quilt

Week 27

This week I have a Kantha embroidery heart to show you.

Free Form style, drawing free-hand straight onto the fabric, gives this piece a traditional look.

The pale pink heart in the middle is rows of chain stitch.

Other stitches used are: running stitch, back stitch, satin stitch and emphasized couching (where the couching stitches comprise a design).

And a couple of blue 'bricks' on the Building Blocks quilt can be seen on my blog HERE

Now I must get a couple more days of packing done. Just got to get the house on the market, and then once sold, we can enjoy our travelling retirement.

Cy ~ Week 9 Heart Quilt and more

This week I have been flitting between projects again, and even started a new one 

(oh no, another ufo started)

Update on the Straight From The Heart Quilt

Week 9

I auditioned some crocheted lace edging for around the Dresden plate.

Here it is, temporarily pinned in place, to see if I like it there ..... I do. So I shall carry on and crochet the rest to fit around the scalloped perimeter.

And these three free-form stitched "plus size inchies" (1.5ins) are surplus from a previous project, and have now made it onto this quilt.

There is a pink heart on the orange square.

I created the following crochet square for my Winter-Warmer project. 

We, here in New Zealand, have just gone in to Autumn, so I am expecting some cooler weather shortly.

Then, my most favourite denim skirt "bit-the-dust" through old age and wear and tear. I am too heartbroken to throw it out, so I lovingly started to upcycle it into a Boho style skirt.

The idea is to cover all the threadbare worn areas and holes with cutesy stitcheries.

The skirt originally had four tiers. I have cut off the bottom scraggy tier (it was too long anyway), and started covering the 2nd tier as the photos show here - rustic stitching, raw edges, uneven shapes, basic (or zero) embellishing.

Then I shall add lace to the 3rd tier, and attach a shorter gathered fabric strip in place of the bottom tier if it looks ok.

And while I was stitching the purple one on, I was thinking about turning my denim jacket into a Boho one to match the skirt, lol.

Susan: One Seam Wonder

This is it for the week:

Click to enlarge. Not that you really need to. Here it is in situ:

The problem I'm having getting started is two-fold. One, let down from pushing so hard on Flower Fairies. Two, seams like feather stitches with little beads on them don't seem suited for this project. This block is actually the February block, and it's starting to talk to me, so I'll be working all after on it today. The one seam that's finished is one I planned from the moment I spied the seam that inspired it. =) I'm trying to decide if every block will need bunting, or only some of them.

Goal for this block: use stem/outline stitching and herringbone, plus embellishers.

Susan: CQJP and TAST

Here's what I did for the straight stitch:

I had plans for a lot of other things. I spent the week getting a new roof, instead. Picture on my blog if you want to see my house. Someday, I'll show my stitching mess on the sofa where I sit.

And here's another seam started - it will get beads on the very light green short straight stitch (it's in the middle of the V-shape, and hard to see) and possibly an embellisher on the longer straight stitch, not sure it will be a lazy daisy, though. From Carole Samples' book, p. 103, bottom left.

Click to enlarge.

Carolynn's January Red block

Hello!
Here's my first post, and it's late, but for a very good reason: an attack of vertigo has laid me up for the last couple of days!

This is a block I started for the Stitch Twelve group, with the plan of doing a block a month, each using a color from the color wheel until we had done twelve colors. Well, January's block took me two months, and now I'm re-evaluating whether or not I want to continue with that plan.

The Stitch Twelve group was working on straight stitches in January, so you will see seed stitch, straight stitch, back stitch, cross stitch, laced running stitches, as well as French knots, detached lazy-daisies, and couching.

The little gold straight stitches on the heart and the black background are printed on the fabric. But I did use little gold straight stitches on the gold arrows, which were meant to mimic the arrows in the fabric. Debra advised me half way through that my arrows need to be pointing to something, so I appliqued a heart down and couched gold braid around it.  This had the added benefit of breaking up that long line of hour glass figures!

The flowers in the upper right resulted from a motif we were learning in another group.  I thought they would fit in well with this block, but when finished. . . hmm. Not so much.

I added the cross stitching, the heart beads, and the ribbon as a way to integrate them into the composition a little better, and I echoed them along the bottom of the block.

This is the first time I have used a stack of buttons, so that was a learning experience as well. These buttons had stems, which made them difficult to position correctly and to sew down securely.

All in all, this was a good learning experience. I learned and used new stitches that I ordinarily wouldn't use. (I'm not a fan of straight stitches much!) I tried some new techniques. The result is. . .the result.  A little fussy for me, a little off in some of the colors and the balance of the design elements, but...finished!!