Art Nouveau Block for Gerry

I’ve been madly stitching on this block for Gerry in our Art Nouveau round robin for Crazy Quilting International.   But I was sick with a bad cold (wah, wah) and spent most of the weekend in bed and asleep.   Why is it that I don’t get sick during the week when I can miss work?  LOL.  But I digress ...

As I mentioned in the last post, Gerry wanted us to do representations of Art Nouveau tiles for her blocks.  And since she loves daffodils, that was my choice.   There were no shortage of daffodil images to chose from, but this was my hands-down favorite.   So I downloaded it, printed it to scale and traced it onto the block with a water soluble pen.  The pen was from Clover, and it worked great and cleaned up easily.  Naturally, I tested it first.

I simplified the image and decided that the leaves in the back would be darker and satin stitched.  The front leaves were chain stitched.  YIKES.  In just looking at this, I see that I forgot to stitch the stem going up to the flower!  Hmmm...  Luckily, that’s a quick fix before I send the block home to Gerry tomorrow.

To the seams I added just some subtle herringbone stitching.  It is, after all, a crazy quilt block.  And in a further nod to CQ, I added a little spider web in the lower left.  As usual in my stitching, the spider has left the building!  ;-)

These are the six blocks (five finished) that will wing their way home to Gerry tomorrow.  She will get to finish the last one and decide how she wants to use them.   That completes this round robin for me, but I’ve got an Autumn DYB starting, a Teacups DYB,  as well as a Steampunk-themed round robin and finally a “For the Birds” DYB.  It was all I could do to resist the English Garden DYB, but I had to draw the line somewhere!  I’ve got my blue and pink Teatime wall hanging to finish up this week.

I’ve also added a few new things to my Etsy shop, and will continue that over the next several days.  And on Ebay (under the username “Crazybydesign”), I’ve been selling vintage fabrics, laces, ornaments.  I’ll be listing more there this week, too.   Have to earn my way to Connecticut in April for the CQ Adventure!  

Hugs,

Autumn Blocks and Other Project Progress

Just a quick post to show you the blocks I posted for the Autumn II Round Robin (it’s a DYB or “Do Your Own Block” where each participant completes a 6” block for the others).  These are my six naked blocks:

The Tea Time wall hanging is on hold until later in the week.  But here are a couple details that I finished over the weekend.   Below is some ribbon embroidery around the teapot image.  I  still need to do some sort of stitching along the basted edge.

This is a vintage crocheted piece, probably meant to be an insert on to a pillowcase.  I laced it with edge-dyed silk ribbon, and used it to cover an awkward area with too much busy-ness in the way of bright images and strange seamlines.

Finally, below are Gerry K’s blocks for the Art Nouveau RR, which is about finished.  In fact, I’ll be the last one to stitch, and the block I’ve chosen (one of only two left unstitched) is in the upper left.

Gerry loves Art Nouveau and requested that we do some sort of representation of the old vintage Art Nouveau tiles (if you Google “Art Nouveau Tiles”, you’ll see a plethora of beautiful images).  Since I know that Gerry loves daffodils, and there are lots of good daffodil tile images to adapt, AND the colorations would look good with her block colors, that is what I have set out to do.  Stay tuned to see how that works out.  The good news is that if I flub it up, I’ve got most of her fabrics in my stash! (we share alot!!).

Hugs,

Art Nouveau Blocks Return Home

I have been participating in an Art Nouveau-themed round robin at Crazy Quilting International.  The RR is beginning to wind down, and I have received back four of my blocks.  In this RR, we all pieced our own blocks and each other participant stitched one entire 6x6” block.  One is still out to be completed and will return sometime next month.  But take a look at this beautiful work that came home this weekend.

The top left was stitched by Hideko in Japan; the top right was stitched by Ritva in Finland.  Then, on the bottom, the left one with roses was done by Margreet in the Netherlands, and my dear friend Gerry K from Washington State stitched the Iris Lady in the lower right.   Click on the picture to see their amazing stitching and the details they added.  Thank you, ladies, for your lovely work!


Kerry from Canada, who kindly stepped in as an Angel (replacement stitcher for another person who had to withdraw) has another block and will squeeze it into her busy schedule this fall.  She is amazing and I don’t know how she runs our round robins and still manages to do Angel work.  


I have two more Art Nouveau blocks pieced that I will hopefully get to stitch on sometime this winter.  My intention is to make a fabric book of these blocks.  Won’t it be lovely?

Art Nouveau Block for HIdeko

I’m planning to get some pictures up on my blog from the CQI Retreat last week in Colorado.  Although I didn’t take any myself, I did get a disk full of pictures from Ingrid, who said I could use them.   Watch for those next week...

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I finished my Art Nouveau block for Hideko in the car on the way home from the retreat.  But I had to wait two days for the air soluble marker to dissolve.  Grrrr...  I knew it would, because I had tested it and already used it in other areas on the block.

Anyway, I loved the picture of the woman playing the samisen.  It was part of a series from a Japanese artist that Hideko had found in a book. For some reason, Maya Angelou’s book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" had been on my mind, and I felt as though a bird would be the perfect musical accompaniment.  So, I made a bird in a cage singing to the music.  He’s dreaming of his freedom.


At the Retreat, I had asked Hideko if those were raindrops or falling leaves in the picture, and she told me cherry blossoms.  Of course!  So I bought the button with the cherry blossoms in Niwot, Colorado when we went to this great shop called Berry Patch.  Tons of ribbons, laces, buttons, beads.... OMG.... an embellisher’s Heaven on Earth....  But I digress...  Hideko was actually in the shop with me (there were 8 of us, to be exact), so I had to be discreet, LOL.   

I had fits with the silver thread (blending filament) that I borrowed at the retreat and ended up having to re-stitch most of the cage with Kreinik cord on the way home..  I thought a birdcage would be as easy as a spider web, but for some reason, the lines would NOT stay straight!  I guess we will have to use our imaginations!



These are the four blocks in this round robin for Hideko (Art Nouveau I at Crazy Quilting International).  Aren’t they beautiful??

Now I’m off to update my Etsy shop and begin my fall listing frenzy on Ebay.  So if you’re in the market for some vintage lace, golden dyed (with potassium permanganate) lace, or some vintage fabrics, look me up.  I’ll be adding more over the next week - along with as many other vintage goodies as I can get photographed and written up.  So much to do, so little time!  :-)


Take care,

Art Nouveau CQ Block

As you may know,  I’m participating in an Art Nouveau round robin in Crazy Quilting International.  I just completed my third block (two more to go); this one is for Leslie.  It’s a 6” square block.

Leslie said she loves Alphonse Mucha, probably the most notable of the Art Nouveau era painters.  So on her lovely neutral block I added a silk print of a lady in gown out in the fall garden having a glass of wine.  I love this print and the colors.  As I was thinking about how to proceed, I looked out in my garden and saw our grape arbor.  The grapes are slower than usual this year (cool, rainy, spring and summer was late to arrive), but they are getting fat...  Voila!  The woman definitely needed a grape arbor.  After all, the wine had to come from somewhere!

So I “assembled” an arbor from hand-dyed lace.  This is the golden lace that I dye with potassium permanganate and sell in my Etsy shop.   To that I added grape vines with bead and silk ribbon leaves and seed bead grape clusters.

The chain-stitched tree that extends around the top of the block added much of the rounded element of Mucha paintings.  The rest was added by another piece of lace “grass at the bottom right.  The bottom left area was first painted with a light wash of fabric paint, then silk floss grass and silk ribbon foliage were added.   I toyed with adding wispy ribbons to M’Lady’s dress (stumpwork), but was afraid that would bring her too forward.  And she needs to stay back, beyond the arbor.....

This was a fun (really fun!) block to work on.  Next up is a block for Hideko and I look forward to that.  However, I have to sew myself a bathrobe first.  It’s getting cool here in the mornings and my favorite ol’ bathrobe bit the dust last year, but I lovingly saved some of the romantic pink floral-and-paisley flannel for some project someday..... LOL.    After the bathrobe are some fall-themed things for the Wheeler Farm Country Store, THEN the next Art Nouveau block.   I hope to have that all done in the next couple weeks so I can spend the last half of the month preparing for our CQI Retreat in Colorado at the end of the month.

And finally, yesterday was DGD London’s first birthday.  Wow, how fast can a year fly by???  When she was born, I was sick with the flu and didn’t get to see her for over 10 days.  THIS year I spent most of the day with her and her dad (my son).  She was a bit cranky (unusual for her) in the morning, but was mostly good natured as we hauled her around to the attorney’s office (a custody thing), then to lunch and errands.   One of the errands was intended to be getting her one year pictures taken, and we had her cute little dress and everything packed along.  But we were afraid she was too cranky, so she was still in her ok-to-get-messy playclothes.

In the afternoon at home, London was happy as could be, playing with her things and letting Grammy read to her.  I was too busy to get any good pictures, but did snap this one in the attorney’s office.   If she had been smiling, you could see her four new front teeth.

This weekend we are having a family gathering to officially celebrate her birthday.  We’ll get some cute pictures of her and her party then, I’m sure!

Hugs,

Another Art Nouveau Block

Art Nouveau seems to be a popular theme around Crazy Quilting International these days.  There are two round robins going, and we’re all stitching like mad.  And there are so many variations, it’s been really run to watch and participate.

This block was one of Margreet’s.  I love her colors; so rich and warm and elegant.  The previous stitcher, Ritva, had done an art nouveau tile pattern, so I thought I would continue along in that vein.   So, first I researched art nouveau tile patterns on the web, and printed out a few pages of them (will also use them for future reference as other blocks come my way.

After drooling over the pictures for awhile, I eliminated those that would not lend themselves readily to interpretation (per my brain; I’m sure others could close their eyes, pick one and replicate it!).  Then I sketched two of my favorites, simplifying them .   For some reason, the drawing on the right really spoke to me (and do you see the original tile in the bottom left of the top page, above?)

This is how it turned out.  Margreet asked that we incorporate some black into the design, and I believe that really helped set this off.  Also, you can’t really see it well, but the dark part of the flower is a vintage silk pleated ribbon.

I’ve had a lot of craziness going on in my life, most of which has no place on this blog.  But it has really drained me both physically and mentally.   There appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel (I love that expression, especially when amended to voice the hope that the light is not an oncoming train!).   So, I’m already looking forward to the weekend.... IS IT FRIDAY YET?!?

I’ll post more pictures tomorrow or Wednesday.  Wait.  Tomorrow is Wednesday.  Um.... (see?).... I’ll post more pictures SOON.    :-)

Hugs,

Art Nouveau Blocks for Round Robin

Today I mailed off my blocks for the next Round Robin I'm participating in with Crazy Quilting International.  The RR is Art Nouveau I (there is also an Art Nouveau II because there was so much interest).   Here are my "naked" blocks:

This is a "Do Your Own Block" (DYB) Round Robin.  So, I've pieced six individual blocks.  Each participant chooses a block (they're 6" square) and embellishes the entire thing.

I chose to piece my blocks around the colors of the images I liked best (most, but all are the art of Alphonse Mucha).  Often, a DYB participant will piece all six blocks with the same fabrics and color scheme, especially if they're intending to use them together in a single project.

You can see that in five of the six blocks I pieced, I have just pinned the silk print on the block.  In that way, the person who selects that block to embellish can place it where it best fits in with her intended design and stitching.

These blocks will travel around the world before they arrive back home.  The six participants are in Washington, Utah (me), Colorado, Finland, Japan and The Netherlands.

This is the only block where I actually pieced the silk print in to the design.  I love the piecing (that curve was fun), but really do not like how the colors look together (even though they look good - much better than on the computer screen - with the print).  Oh well - the stitchers in this round robin could make a rag look beautiful!  :-)

And this one is my favorite.  I LOVE that print, and tried to keep everything soft to complement it.  I can't wait to see what's done with this block.

I'm off to post the new pictures on the home pages of the Crazy Quilting International Yahoo group, draw a name for the May Challenge (dimensional embroidery) winner, and announce the CQI June Challenge, which is frames & framing.  It's about different ways to frame things like the silk prints (as in my blocks above), cabochons, and other things in our work with beads, ribbon, or ???      And when I'm done with that, I've got handouts to finish for the presentation I'm giving on Crazy Quilts this Thursday evening to the non-profit arm of the Utah Quilt Guild.    Too many "irons in the fire"?!?