Paris Round Robin Block for Wilma

In the Crazy Quilting International Yahoo group, I am participating in the “I Love Paris” round robin.  Today I finished a block for my friend Wilma from The Netherlands (whom we are hoping will be joining us in September for our 6th annual retreat!).

I stitched a perfume - er, Parfum - bottle, and embellished some lace that a prior stitcher had added.

The colors on this block are brown and black, with accents of gold, mustard through light yellow and tidbits of burgundy. It is very elegant, and the prints used in the block (pieced for her several years ago by a friend) suggest a Paris Fashion theme.  Hence, I did not do a bicycle with flowers filling the basket, LOL.

 Lower in the block I ruffled some ribbon and stitched on the letters for PARIS from sew-on “typewriter keys”. I think the colors are perfect, and they blend well with the Roaring Twenties theme in the fabrics.  I also added the lace fleur de lis and did the seam stitching of the burgundy chain with gold flowers.
 

This is Wilma’s block to date, and it will be mailed on to the next stitcher tomorrow. Dear Wilma, I hope you are liking it as much as I am!

Hugs,

I Love Paris Round Robin

I’m participating in a Paris-themed round robin with some ladies of Crazy Quilting International.  I’ve wanted to do this theme in a round robin ever since I created my “I Love Paris” purse.

Darlene’s sent her block to me, and as I was first in the rotation, I got to pick and choose where I wanted to work on her block, keeping in mind that I was responsible for approximately 25% of the embellishment.

I had an idea that I have been wanting to try for a long time, and so I first began by roughing it out in my sketchbook.

Then on the block itself, I basted some basic lines to sort of block out the design in situ and get a feel for the scale and the materials (threads) I would need to use.

From there, it was pretty much just straight stitching.  I did the lightpole first, in two strands of DMC cotton (black) and also two strands of Eterna silk (gray).  Stitches used were primarily the stem stitch and then satin stitch and/or wrapped chain for filling.

Then I stitched the Eiffel Tower in one strand of silk, and the rest of the web around it (not even trying to make it a realistic web!) with DMC Fil or chine’ Noir (made in France, naturally, hehe).  The spider body was a bullion and her legs were one strand of cotton. A stem-stitched vine winds up the pole and some variegated pink (size 8 silk perle) cast-on blooms make it a bit festive.

Along the bottom area of the block I added a “corset” of cotton, tulle, lace and trims, a fleur de lis of lace from my Etsy shop, some embellished black venice lace, and a small grouping of flowers, leaves and a pink rhinestone heart. 

So this travels on to the next person.  I left the area to the right of the light pole open, thinking that maybe one of the next ladies would like to add a bistro table and chairs, a bicycle with a flower basket, or some such thing to expand the vignette.

I also finished another Christmas quilt for one of my grandsons a couple weeks ago and will get those pictures posted in a day or two!

Hugs,

Beginning a Round Robin, Ending the Harvest

Without putting too fine a point on it, Autumn always seems to be a time of endings (nice weather, long sunny days, fresh veggies and fruits) and beginnings (school, new projects, new clothes).

Our little personal garden went out with a bang this year. A colorful ending to a educational (for the grandkids) and delicious year.

These were the pumpkins we picked last week - the last of them. That was after sharing with the grandkids and the neighbors. We thought we only had a “few” left. HA!  I’ve been giving them to passers-by and used a few to decorate my house inside and on the front porch area (see below).

I’ve also tied some of the dried cornstalks to the front pillars (not pictured).  The red and green grapes have made great snacks for the last month or more, and these were the last of the large bunches. The rest I left on the vines for the bees (gone now since the frost) and the birds. The purple Concord grapes in the yellow colander is another batch that I picked on that morning. Later they were juiced into about 4 quarts of grape juice and bottled.  Yum!!  We got almost 12 quarts off the one bush this year.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My latest “beginning” is a round robin for Crazy Quilting International.  This one is called “I Love Paris”.  Sound familiar?  It was my idea because I wanted MORE after doing my Paris purse a couple years ago.  (see posts here).

Among those posts is one that explains how I do my piecing. This one was more complicated than my purse, and I had to add that central lavender piece (vertical, curvy, to the right of the toile) because I didn’t leave large enough selvages on my pieces.  But it finally came together with some hand stitching and adding trim to cover some raw edges. Luckily, the many imperfections will be covered up by the embellishments!

This is in the mail to Theresa, and I look forward to stitching on their blocks! 

Until next time,