We had joy

So I have started to dip my toe back into Applique again

I flirt with it every once in a while

 and my past efforts have turned out 

allright buuut, nunghh......

I'm not a big fan of some of it (see it here and there)

It strikes me as blocky and meah The turtle is nice though

There is a bit more but we won't go into it here

I found this kit as a BOM from an online shop 

Meaning to do it whilst I ferried my MIL to her appointments 

And that did happen

I finished the 32 orange peel 3.5' blocks 

in a variety of parking lots, between running shopping chores 

and waiting on Robin to finish seeing whatever doctor had her next

Those took the year waiting for all the blocks and their instructions to filter in

Then they sat around 

Waiting

for another year, or so.

I took the sun parts to Chicago with me in march so I'd have something to do 

I finished those pretty quickly

But I had the wind by then

You know, 

That undeniable "Something" that gives you 

the desire to keep going until it's finished 

April has been busy with all sorts of other things too

Like our Quilt guilds bi-annual Quilt show, which was a roaring success by my count of oohs! and aahhhs! whilst standing as a door monitor, stewardess and goer.

I have a bunch of projects that I am working on between,

A new BOM in felt from SueSpargo which you can't see, as per the instruction I am not allowed to show it on line! well pooh!

It's really cute though!

 

also the lampbox which is mostly done with has one panel to go

And a few little embroidered things that scratch that new itch.

I finished the piecing parts of the top

and even got the sun even more or less 

Some of the points got lost, but I thought it more important that, the round part fit properly.

That cross where the 4 fabrics of the sun come together would have been waaay more distracting! 

Had it been off by even a smige, as that is where your eye goes first, it would have taken away from even the most precise of applique work.

So that part is done, it's off to the outside panels, 

which are all applique. 

Lets see how long this one takes me. 

Making the parts for the box

The final steps here are to cover the inside panels with whatever you are using for that be it fabric, like I am or paper. 

I use a medium heavy card for the insides under the fabric of both the out side and inside of the panel

Specifically I use campaign/ad flyers. 

I get what seems like 100's of them in the mail every week and would rather use them than recycle  or worse just throw them out!

You can either glue the fabric to the card or sew it to the card as I have done here with a back and forth lattice.

do this to both sides

Remember it's the inside, it doesn't have to look pretty!

Then take all your inside panels and sew them together edge to edge

Sorry I have no pictures of this part

I will then Glue the out side panels to that making sure to pin or otherwise clip the panels together 

for 24 hours so the glue can dry fully

I will then trace the bottom on 2 pieces of heavy card one to fit inside and one a little bigger for the bottom outside

Cover them both separately because you are going to then glue the wrong sides together.

While it's open, decide here whether you want a lid because you need to trace out the shape on heavy board for this, the same way you did for the bottom.

Also; when you sew the top on, you will only be sewing it to one side 

so you also need to decide which side you want at the front.

Also before you glue the two sides together to give it a handle, a pull and / or a closure

Now for the rest of the bottom 

sew the inside to the inside, all the way around. this is to keep corners and creases, 

where little things like beads, that can get stuck in them, to a minimum.

This is the  frustrating and difficult part, 

as you have to sew the edges together after the whole thing is assembled You can do it, just go slow.

Though you will make it easier on yourself if you do this part before you put the outside panels on!

Now glue the bottom base to the bottom. leave for 24 hours and put a few hevyish weights on the inside so the glue adheres firmly.

The last detail is, what to use as piping? 

To cover the gaps on the outside panels. because there will be gaps! 

It can be anything from lace, ribbon, cording or gimp.

 

Side #4 Complete CQJP 2023

 That big center flower is made by folding at least 15 - 2" of a 13mm silk ribbon in 1/3's 

stringing them together daisy style and tacking them down.

I cut a small circle of felt and tacked it down with that blue stamen stitch and then covered it with beads.

 I added a few buttonhole stitch leaves to that vine and Voila! 

Bare spot taken care of

Here's the block all done and mounted

When I mounted this I ended up having to remove a few beads as they had wandered to the backside, when I wrapped the edges over my template

I generally start out with a basic size in mind but this time I had to make it a tech smaller than the original

and so over-shot the edges, whups

It fits perfectly on 2 sides
not so much on the others

This is what the backside looks like

Its the perfect use for all those political and advertising mailers you get a crapton of (actual scientific measurement, not to be confused with shiton) 

Eventually I will do this with whatever is going to be the inside and the bottom of the box and maybe a top cover 

I haven't decided yet 

I will then glue all that together, sew up the sides then overlay that with piping of some kind of gimp or ribbon 

Here are three sides done and mounted so far

Ace of Cups finish

Just a few more "in progress" pictures 

And a beauty shot

I looks good when I can get the glow of the silk and the thread in the same photo!

 here it is mounted and on the shelf 

CQJP 2023 Autumn side Lampbox

I just kept throwing things at this one

It also did not go as sketched                                                                                                                  but sometimes you get on a roll 

The bit of ribbon behind the butterflies made of cut lace bits

Sometimes things suggest themselves to you and you have to go with it!

This started out differently and morphed into a vine

with spiderweb roses and sequins?   Huh

Where'd those come from?

Still looks bare though.

I couldn't figure out what to do to mask this seam 

And the reason it needed to be masked in the first place was that 

the fun slubb silk stripe pulled out from under the blue silk

So I had to carefully unpick the blue, make the seam there smaller and pull the stripe as close as I could get to the blue and tack it down without being obvious about it

There is still a tiny little gap but you can't really see it now with the bit of fringe lace over the worst bits. A little bit of fray check doesn't go amiss here either!

CQJP 2023 Parrot Side Lamp box

 There I think this panel is done. 

I finally was able to wrap my head around it and finish.

I added a few beads and some folded flowers to it and splammoed it all together.

I also put together the inside of the box and attached all 4 sides that are done, 

so you all can see why I was, am, calling this a lamp box

It all has more to do with its shape when finished than anything else

As you can see the rounded sides when put together give it a hexagonal shape 

Which then gives it the bowed out look of old lampshades

This is similar to the Hexi box I made last year (?) 

but was so, so much easier to sew together with the rounded rectangular panels 

instead of the 6" hexagons I used on the other one.

Remember kiddies rounded edges is your friend when doing this sort of project.

Here she is on her side of the box

and below is it from the side with 2 panels showing

I have one more panel left to do  

then I need to figure out what kind of trim to use

between the panels 

Because that gaposis just looks terrible

I also need to make a bottom for it 

otherwise it's just a straw

I just got a load of new cigar boxes to play with so 

there will be projects in the works for those eventually

The first of which is this nice one on a white Cohiba box

That panel fit the lid perfectly!

Happy Ostara

Happy Ostara!

Blessed be!

I'm going to celebrate with smashed Pullet ovate in Wisconsin style savory salad

Also finish up this little side quest of a project

Tarot cards are a particular favorite of mine not just for the symbology of it 

but the imagery and art of the different decks is stimulating to my senses

I plan to do more of these "Side Quests" in future.

I am embroidering these with DMC 3 strand 

on a white silk background

I use clover blue water soluble pens for the drawing

I have been using these pens for decades and they have never let me down

The outlining of the hand, cup and cloud is chain stitch

With a majority of the piece done in satin stitch

As you can see demonstrated at the bottom of this picture when you outline in chain stitch and fill it in with satin stitch 

It makes a nice clear stitching line to follow

The bird is the only place I use any other Stitches

Here I also used a bullion for the tail 

cast over for the body of the wings

and raised buttonhole for the longer feathers 

Now for the pond water

I needed very short satin stitches here

I use a crossbreed of satin and stem stitch on the fountain water

to make it look more like there is movement in the stitching

There is just a little bit left to go!

I hope to have it done by the end of the day

But you never know

This Side quest

has already taken 2 weeks to complete 

And I have been neglecting a few other things in the interim

like the parrot

Gotta finish

CQJP 2023 Autumn Lampbox

Yes I know I haven't finished the Parrot side yet

Please bear with me, last month was......

                                                                    difficult

The concept