Appleblossom RR -- Cobi's Block -- This n That

I don't know if you all remember my telling you about Cobi's block being lost in the mail some where between here and the Nederlands...and that I made her a replacement block....well after 2 months out there somewhere it arrived. The replacement block is here. Below is the lost block with my work added.














Here is the whole block.















Another note, all the quilts for the quilt show are finished and delivered to the quilt show staff. Sometimes it is necessary to give oneself a deadline, now I have 4 quilts done that have been sitting there waiting, the WIPs pile is going down.

I have been working on some American Hero quilts today, and plan to put the quilt piecing on hold for a while....I need to do some scrapbooking. It has been a long time since I have done that and I am way behind. I will continue to do CQ in the evenings as it is a good activity while watching TV. I will share some scrapbooking pages with you all. I want to get my quilt and CQ albums caught up and then on to family pictures.

I will also be sharing pictures from the quilt show with you.

The weather here has been hopping about, we have been having rain, wind, snow and some sunshine.....yes, I said snow....LOL.

Until later, God Bless

Quilt Show Entry #3

Here is the 3rd piece that I am entering in our local quilt show. On my online list CQI, one of our members gave a class to teach us how to make a pouch. I made mine into a small evening purse. The purse measure 6" wide by 8" high (not counting the handle). For the handle I used glass beads.



















Here is a close up of the main part of the purse. The pretty pink fringe was a gift from my friend Jill....thank you Jill.















I will post entry #4 for you viewing pleasure shortly.

Until then, enjoy

Show Quilt #2

After 2 years of work (off and on) the crazy quilt "Crazy for Michele" for my DDIL, Michele is done. There are 6 blocks all in pinks, starting from light going to dark, it is framed with black velvet.














There is alot I could tell about the time spent working on this lovely work, but instead I will share a few details with you.















This first block holds a 2 crochet motifs made by my MIL, Letha (Michele's grandma in-law). The pin at the top belonged to Michele's Mom, the heart pin was something I had. This quilt is the beginning of my CQ experience and this is the block I began with. Remember you can click on the picture for a larger view.















Block 2 has an "M" for Michele, it also has a cross to show her faith in the Lord. The rose pin in the upper corner was Michele's, Grandma's.















Block 3 has a "D" for Destiny, with a stick pin that is Michele's. The cream fabric and lace with the pink beads is from my wedding dress (the pink beads were not part of my dress). The big flower is a fabric print that I filled with single french knots. The lace below that is a vintage tatting. The little fan in the lower right corner is a hand dyed motif.















Block 4 revolves around the fan that I had alot of fun encrusting. The crochet motif is another piece by Letha and the pin in the middle belonged to Michele's Mom. Hand dyed butterfly motifs fly thru, Michele's loves butterflies















Block 6 has several special features...a "B" for Brandyn and a "C" for Codey. The white flower with the red heart comes from a dress belonging to Michele's Mom, as does the bird pin. Another hand dyed motif and a floral arrangement along the top with more butterflies.
















Block 6, features a "J" for Josh (my son) with a butterfly (Michele) flitting about him. I found the little Princess cross stitch while at the store one day and had to get that for her (she a princess) and do it up for her quilt.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the quilt finished. I have added alot more beads, flowers, ribbons and bows over the last week or so to get it to the point of being done. Now off to the quilt show....oh I also added a label to the back bordered in lace.

Thank you for looking,
Until later

New Eye Candy

I just have to share with you all......Crazy Quilting International on line group has just started a blog. It is already full of beautiful works from our group, go take a look. There are so many talented ladies on this list, it is a blog to watch.

http://crazyquiltinginternational.blogspot.com/


Many thanks to the our list moderators who have put so much time into making this possible, now instead of all this beautiful work being just on the list........it is being shared with the world.

WAHOO

Pink and Cream RR- Debbies Block

Debbie's block is the second block in this RR that I have had the pleasure to work on.
My additions include the SR roses in 4mm hand dyed SR with DMC floss stems and leaves.
SR geranium of 2mm SR flower head with french knot centers and a pretty green butterfly motif looking for nectar. The seam treatment between the two is a hand dyed tread done in a buttonhole fan, to which I added the bugle beads and little pearls. The lace with pearls was already there.















The lower lace treatment was on the block, I added the red SR roses and rayon thread treatment with beads

The seam treatment to the left is done with lazy daisy leaves and a 3 sided bead.














This will be going in the mail shortly, I sure hope it gets to its destination ok, Cobi's block has not made it yet and it was only going to MO from WY and I mailed it on the 11th. I am really getting mail shy.

Eagle Block detail --- TAKE 3

Somemore details on the Eagle block. The stars are finished (I think) with some fly stitch in the field.















More work on the feathers, I choose brown rayon thread to finish them off.






























Click on the picture to enlarge it if you'd like more detail.

One done - 2 to go

One of the items created for all the fun items I shared with you. A hand crafted pincushion!

It starts with a candy tin. Hand painted roses on velum paper with a pink satin ribbon (details below). Vintage lace lays over the green satin fabric. A satin rose with glass leaves, plus 3 pins with glass beads (details below).














Here is a closer look at the beaded pins. All glass beads and crystals.














A closer look at the hand painting. It has been a long time since I have had the paint brush out and it was fun to do. I love doing roses and these look so spring in their pinks. The trim on the rim was given to me by my MIL, I don't think it is very old, but it sure is pretty.
















I enjoyed picking each element for this pincushion, it took much longer then I thought it would, but who doesn't enjoy playing in their stash.

If you like this pincushion, it is going up for sale on my Etsy Shop. All of the pincushions will be signed and numbered, just in case they ever become desirable....VBG. I will work very hard to make sure none are alike.

I am working on the other two models (completely different) I have in mind and will share pictures later this week and will also add them to Etsy.

An Idea

Have you ever woke up with an idea? That is what happen to me 3 nights ago. About 11:00 I woke up with this idea and it kept me awake for 1 1/2 hours, once I had it formulated in my mind I went back to sleep. An hour later, I woke up again with another idea along the same lines, then again aournd 4 am, another idea....again along the same line, just a different form.

So for the last few days I have been working out some of the details, I am sharing a picture of my work area with some of the elements. The projects will include items in the picture in some way. Well, not the box in the upper left, that holds my seedling for my veggie garden.

I am hoping one of the elements I need will come home with Kirk, he has made a trip to Billings for supplies today, he was not at all happy that I asked him to aquire this for me. LOL.

So stay tuned for the end result, or perhaps some more clues.

Eagle Block detail --- TAKE 2

I have to rant first off, I had this post all done, links etc. and blogger said something was left blank and of course it was not and it was lost in the process....needless to say I am not real happy right now. I could not post pictures on my other blog yesterday now this. Hugh SIGH!

TAKE 2:
Lets try this again.

As promised more details on the Eagle block I have been working on. First up the feathers, done with DMC floss, 3 strands. Fly stitch for the feather structure, detached chain for the texture, outline stitch around several of the feathers. Still more to come on this section.














The stars; first WKreinik metallic, from Evening Star Designs, couched down, this is a light blue, next (blue) 2 strands of J.P. Coats rayon in detached chain, third (red) single strand of rayon. I think I will mirror this with the remainder of the stars in this part.

Black DMC floss strenghtens the letters in the banner which reads Life..Liberty.















I also want to direct your attention to my Esty shop where I have posted 2 sets of hand crochet motifs for use in your artistic works.

Eagle Block detail

Here is the first detail of the eagle block. I have forgotten what this thread is called but got it from Evening Star. It is couched down. You can also see some DMC (black and red) worked over the squares (to the left), not so easy to see in the picture is some rayon thread (red) to define feathers. Black DMC defines his face. More details to come.














Click on the pictures to enlarge

Here is the whole block. I have begun work on his tail feathers.

Goodies in the mail

I wanted to share the beautiful baggie that Kerry sent to me.
Look at the lovely trims and motifs.



A bag of buttons, beads and pearls, so pretty.



More trims and silk ribbons. I don't have any of these trims or motifs, and these are new SR colors for me as well





She also included all of these lovely fabrics. I see another block being born.

Thank you Kerry for your kindness, every piece is so lovely.

This and That

Today I wanted to share a couple of pictures with you. The block above was given to me by Linda who pieced up a quilt top for American Hero. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to do some thread and bead work on it and make a wall hanging to celebrate the Freedom it represents. I am taking this with me on our trip, something to work on during down times.

We will be leaving in the morning on a trip to California, partly for business and for visiting with our family. I won't be posting while we are gone, so want to wish all my readers a wonderful week.

Below is the quilt for my newest grandson, Codey, who is due on March 7.......I am hoping he will decide to come a tad early, since Nana and Papa will be visiting this next week. I am sure he will wait thought until we return home, in fact I expect him to make his appearance the day after we leave......sigh. At least I can deliver his quilt in person.















I have not gotten far on my TAST stitches yet, having a bit of a time thinking outside the box. I am off now to tour the webring for more wonderful ideas.

Blessing to all.

Destiny's Heart Finished

Here it is.....Destiny's Heart pillow is all finished. You can see the beginnings of this project
on my Feb. 3rd post. I thought I would share the final details with you all.










Above is the "D" for Destiny. Done in DMC floss, with silk ribbon roses. With a close up of the lace seam treatment with beads. Also couched down a white cording with pink floss.










The butterfly and the waist band of the dress (already decorated), another look at the lace and couched cording.











I had a hard time with the finishing of the pretty lace and sequins fabric I overlayed on this side of the heart, I could not figure out what to do to finish it off. So, after scanning some of my books the idea of X's came to me, it worked out pretty good, french knot buds and lazy daisy leaves added to the lower edge help dress it up a bit more.
















Here is the finished work. Adding the lace dressed it up just right. Kirk says Destiny is a lucky girl to get something so special....I just hope she is old enough to appreciate it and take care of it....regardless, I enjoyed making it for her and it allowed me alot of time to think about her.

I have not started my stitch for TAST yet, will have to get on that now that all things I needed to get done before this next Wed are done.

Enjoy.

Crazy Quilting and Snow

Last year I got a beautiful dress for my granddaughter Destiny, 7 at the time. She grew out of it in a short period of time, of course. I had her give it back to me so I could make something for her out of it. It took me a long time to decide just what to do, it came to me last night as I lay awake.







I decided on a heart using part of the trim on the dress to divide the heart. Of course I forgot to take a picture of the dress before I cut it up. I did get one of the back. The top is velvet, the skirt a flocked velvet in a purple.
Then I added a piece of fabric given to me by Jill Phillips. Instead of just putting it on I stitch around the motif and fussy cut it, the sequins are part of the fabric. Also an addition of lace alone the seam. I will keep you abreast of the development.














The back of the dress.














Snow

After 24 hours of snow here is the scene in our yard. Taken from the front porch.
















Like my garden angels new cloths? We got 6 inches. The sun came out about noon and the temps are up in the 30's so the snow is melting already. Pretty while it lasts.

Isn't this Pansy pretty!

Pam over at Kitty and Me Designs
posted a contest on her sight, asking who could tell her what she was going to use a beautiful piece of jewelry for, I was first to guess right. She sent this lovely Pansy as my prize. Pam has a tutorial on how to make this on her blog.....Painted Dryer Sheets...in the December archives.

Thank you Pam I love the motif, and for the contest.

To the bag I have added a
butterfly motif, the crystals
are the hot melt kind.



The bag is complete except for the top binding and shoulder strap.
The pretty pink beads on the bottom are a gift from Jill, a friend on
my CQI online group. I just need to find the right material for
a shoulder strap. I wasn't sure how to attach the strap, but saw
the solution while blogging the other day..........at
she has a heart purse featured and her strap attachment is just what
I needed.

This is the last installment on Letha's block. With the shadowbox added (made by DH) I felt it need more lace around the edges. A cross to represent her faith. If you will go back to the original photo you will also see in the right corner a gold heart and two premade SR roses. The frame is a little deep so she can add small items along its edge if she wants to, a glass door covers it all from dust.

Next we will begin to look at the wall hanging that I have been working on for Michele, my daughter-in-law.

Fun with Threads and Scraps

This tag was created with scrap fabrics and threads. It was fun to do and freeing at the same time from the structured work normally seen in quilting.
I am saving threads and scraps to do another one, I enjoyed the process.

L........is for Letha. Created with DMC gold metallic thread, soft teal DMC - 3 strand, triple and double twist french knots. The silk rose is done with 4mm hand dyed ribbon. The lase trim below is also bedecked with the same ribbon, for the green flowers I made a loop and pulled it down in the center with a seed bead in dark blue/green, also added are more french knots with DMC floss. Here you can also get another look at the star fabric with added crystals.

Silk Ribbon is so much fun to work with, when I got my book of SRE Beginner's guide to Silk Ribbon Embroidery by Ann Cox. This book is full of flower designs. One that intrigued me was the Pussy Willow (page 24) so I had to add it to this block. The stem is DMC, the buds
4mm silk ribbon.

As a note, the foot is better and life is nearly back to normal, whatever that is.