Victorian Ladies and Snowballs

In the Crazy Quilting International group, we are still trading Snowballs.  Snowballs are mini works that friends trade with each other (similar to ATCs, or Artist Trading Cards). My request was for 4” circles in bright colors. This is what my friend Rita in Kansas made for me:

And in turn, Rita requested a hexagon in pink, cream and green with a butterfly or dragonfly. This is what I made for her:

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I am also participating in a Victorian Ladies DYB (Do Your Own Block) round robin.   My first block was one of Gerry H’s.  She sent six blocks; each participant choses one block (6x6” square) to decorate, then passes them all to the next person in the rotation.  When the blocks return to their owner, five of six are complete.

Anyway, Gerry had some lovely images, and I selected the lady in purple. The embellishments include vintage tatting surrounding the central image, a stumpwork (3-D) parasol and purse, a fan, some stitching and silk ribbon work. I attempted to repeat her fabric colors (all her blocks use the same colors) in the embellishments. This was a really fun block to work on.

Until next time,

Finishing Things!

I am on a roll - two projects finished this week! Never mind how long it has taken me to do them, or when they were promised.  At least they are DONE.  I have too much fun doing this stuff - I love embroidery/crazy quilting, gardening, sewing, crocheting, etc. There is just never enough time!!  (maybe I try to do to much?!?  nah!!)  But I digress.

First, we have the Snowball Swap at Crazy Quilting International.  These are just compact disc-sized crazy quilted circles that we exchange with friends. We call it throwing snowballs. Anyway, Annamaria (Manya, my dear Hungarian ‘cousin’) and I agreed to throw snowballs in April. Manya got hers done on time, but I was a month late.

Here is Manya’s snowball for me, which I LOVE, love, love. I requested bright (Kaffe Fasset) colors.

I am going to put my snowballs in embroidery hoops and hang them on my white studio walls around my bright thread storage.    

And below is my snowball for Annamaria, done in her colors. The “snail” is a vintage bead, and there is an itsy bitsy spider handing from the climbing roses. I hope you like it, dear Manya!!

Here is the close-up of the spider. I didn’t notice until I took this picture and enlarged it that the spider’s head is not attached to his body (she really is very tiny and my eyes are not the best!).  Pretend you don’t notice.  :-)

My older son Ryan is engaged to the most wonderful woman, Kim. They have been together over 5 years, and her daughter Lauren (and son Easton) are like grandkids to us, and have been since the day we first met them. Anyway, Lauren is going to spend one day (or half day depending on her busy schedule) with me every week during the summer because she wants to learn to sew (and bake, and other home-y things). She is 8. Anyway, when they visited earlier in May, I had her pick out some fabric for a dress from my stash and together we picked out a pattern (also from my stash - I have literally hundreds). This is what I made for her:

It does look much cuter on her, of course.  It can be worn either as a sundress, or unbuttoned below the waist and worn with shorts. I made her shorts (not pictured) in the pink contrast fabric.  I had some really cute bright golden yellow buttons that I wanted her to pick for the front, but she was adamant about the pink buttons, so that’s what she got.  :-)

I have been purchasing fabric like mad to make quilts for all the grandkids for Christmas. Will show it to you with some of my ideas soon.

Swapping Tins

On the Crazy Quilting International group, we had another Tin Swap.  Participants were asked to decorate a tin approximately the size of an Altoids tin. We were all given swap partners.  In finished my tin yesterday (a day late, I might add, but that does not surprise you, does it?).   It is now on its way to Sandy R, so I can now show a few pictures.

Above: The top of the tin.  I pieced a small covering for the lid portion in Sandra’s colors of burgundy, green and pink (with cream and gold accents).  To keep the ends from fraying, I backed it with fusible interfacing (the knit tricot kind) before beginning the stitching.  It really helps when working in such small scale.

 This is a side view.  After the top was stitched and glued down, I covered the various edges.  It was a lot of fun auditioning potential trims for this job!

I always like to add “feet” (four wooden beads) to my tins so they stand up a little higher. It also allows you to select slightly longer trims for the sides. The bottom was first covered with a thin green fabric (you can still see the writing beneath it, but that is not a big deal; I just wanted the tin covered).  The purple flower was just a machine-embroidered motif on the fabric. I thought it would be cute to include it.

The inside is a quilted satin fabric - a vintage piece I have had for years and use sparingly here and there.  I actually did the inside FIRST by glueing down the two lining pieces and then glueing trims down to cover the raw edges.

And of course, once it was finished, I filled it with some lacey goodness for Sandra!

Until next time,

Snowball and Brussels Lace and London

Hello dear friends. This is a catch-up, catch-all post.

First, let me share with you the lovely Snowball that Connie made for me.  We traded, and you may remember my cream, gold and bronze Snowball for her from previous posts.  I had asked for a Snowball in bright colors. “Think Kaffe Fasset”,  I said. Well, Connie did an awesome job, don’t you think?  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!  Thank you so much, Connie! It is perfect.

I plan to mount it in a hoop and hang it on my white studio walls around my thread storage pictured here.

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We are in the process of constructing blocks at Crazy Quilting International in colors and themes that represent the flags and countries of our members. Those blocks, in turn, will be assembled into a traveling international wall hanging.  Pam in Seattle is working on the Belguim block, and it has been a gorgeous work-in-process that has just come together amazingly.  Go see it on her blog and read how she chose the various symbols. When she first added all the lace, it sparked quite a discussion on CQI. And that very same day I happened to see the following framed lace on Etsy, and bought it on the spot.

My picture-taking skills do not do it justice, but it is just gorgeous. It, too, will hang in my studio.  Thank you, Pam, for inspiring me and sparking me to go on a quest to learn more about the beautiful laces produced in Belguim.  By the way, here is a great resource that I have bookmarked and would like to share with you.  It is The Lace Fairy’s Lace Identification website.

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I got to play with London again on Wednesday afternoon, which was a warm and sunny day here in the Salt Lake Valley.  Once I resigned myself to the fact that a nap was NOT going to happen, we went outside and played.  First, she rode (and I taught her how to steer) a little motorized pink car.  It is a good thing she has 14 more year to practice driving before getting a license! And then we discovered all the joys of the Back Yard. The first thing she asked me, and I have no idea how she remembered this, is “where are the grapes?” referring to our barren grape arbor. I had to explain that as it gets warmer and the vines start growing, it will go from this (picture from last year)

to this:

2009 or so

So, we played with her shovel and pail out in the garden, explored the rock pile and wood pile, climbed the hill of garden mulch waiting to be added, and generally got very dirty.  It was a blast!

Grammy, you need to paint the rails this year!

Until next time!

TAST and Snowball. Again.

I got my new sewing machine last week (more about that in another post). So, the first thing I did was read the instructions, then I threaded the bobbin and machine with white thread to practice sewing.  A couple practice runs, and I was ready to tackle my first project; a Snowball (exchange of friendship fabric circles) for Kerry.  And what colors did she request?  A black pieced Snowball with bright stitching.

Well, I was too excited to wait to re-thread in black, so I pieced her snowball with white threads.  Aren`t those stitches (the machine stitches, not mine, LOL) cool?  Nice, even tension. Perfect zig zags.  What a dream it is to stitch on my new Brother Project Runway model!

So, the TAST stitch was Couching, and after stitching some half-wheel buttonholes, I couched a variegated thread with long slubs and thin spots and a thin thread running with it.  Anyway, I let the slubs dangle (Dangling Slubs. Almost sounds vulgar).   Ok, the slubs swagged (not much better) and then I couched the thin connecting portions into little triangles. Or whatever.  The couching thread isn’t as noticeable in person.

I’ve laid a base of herringbone on the left and will further embellish that seam this week, not only to finish the snowball, but also to catch up on TAST.  Let’s see, there’s running stitch and Whipped Wheel (reverse spider web weave). Should be fun!

My old machine is still at the quilt store/repair shop (a place I will never patronize again if I ever get my old machine back).  It has been almost 4 weeks and they have not even called me.  So, I will call them tomorrow (officially 4 weeks) and ask, words dripping with sarcasm, if they have had a chance yet to look at my machine. Yes, I could have called them, but the point is they are the ones being paid to do a service. I think non-communication is poor customer service.

And while I am on this customer service rant, I went to the Xpedx store to buy more poly bags for the shop.  I got my bags and went into the checkout line.  The cashier (only one working, even though two others were standing at registers doing who-knows-what) had two speeds: slow and stop. Which would be OK if she were friendly and interacting, but this woman was not. She let the customer in front of me run out to her car to get her credit card, while the rest of us just waited.  Getting checked out was quick, but on the way home I looked in the bag and there was no receipt.  Grrrrr!  I would think a receipt would be automatic (it usually is). And even more so if the transaction is paid for with a Business Debit Card.

But enough of that!

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Don`t forget to enter my Giveaway for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to my Etsy Shop.  Just visit my shop (link on sidebar) and tell me what your favorite item is.  Leave your comment on YESTERDAY`S post.  

Snowballs and Snowfalls

Clever title, eh?  Sheesh - I sure get amused by the little things, don’t I?  hehehe

The snowfall the title refers to is the storm we had on Thursday-Friday which dumped more snow than we have had the whole winter so far.  But that’s OK; we need it.  And it is half gone now anyway, and the next several days will be relatively warm and clear. Shirt sleeve weather by mid-week.  Yesssss!

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I finished my Snowball (a friendship circle; rather like an ATC, only we chose round shapes) for Connie.  She finished hers for me last week, and when it arrives, I will show it to you; it is gorgeous!  In the meantime, Connie requested gold, cream, bronze and copper.  That, to me, says metallic and sparkly.

At first I thought I would just do seams and one large flower, and sort of echo what Manya did for Colleen, which you can see here.  But then I found a piece of antique lace with a circle of little tiny flowers around a sort of…. well, it looked to me like a web. Ding! Spiders are traditional on CQ’s (they represent good luck), so Connie, I hope you don’t mind a friendly little arachnid.  :-)

I outlined the flowers in copper metallic thread, then found the tiniest copper beads in my stash. My eyesight is not the best, so I had never used them.  But they were perfect for the leaves, so it was now or never. I donned my reading glasses and a magnifier, and voila!  I had to work an hour at a time on it because that’s all my eyes could do, but I did it!  And the beads and stitching are in the correct general area, LOL!!!  :-)

The spider is made from two vintage brass beads and more of the bronze metallic. Parts of the legs don’t show well against the lace, but they are all there.   I also made some small bead flowers from bronze beads.  And then I added some feather stitching in gold, plus chains in a white gold, yellow gold and copper.  (Ta da!  I believe that checks off TAST Week #8 as well).

It was fun, and I feel as though I stretched myself on this a bit. Working small forced me to focus more and use aids that I had been putting off (like magnifiers). And it taught me that I can be patient and even when the going is slow, I can persevere and finish.  It was very gratifying!

So, off it goes in Monday’s mail to Connie.  

Playing with Snowballs

On the Crazy Quilting International group, many of us are exchanging “Snowballs”. They are round (in this case, about the size of a standard compact disc) pieces of friendship. Connie and I are throwing Snowballs at each other this month.

I haven’t stitched it yet, but it is pieced.  What’s the rush, eh? There are 29 days this month, LOL!!  :-)

Connie requested colors of cream, gold, bronze and copper, so I think these colors will work well.  My cousin Manya also stitched one for Connie earlier, and you can see that on her blog here.  And yes, you will see some similar fabrics (family secret?!?  LOL)   Of course, Manya is a tough (make that impossible!) act to follow in the stitching department. But dear Connie is certainly worth the effort!

Hugs,