Critter Bom

 I got a Block of the month last year from Sue Spargo

It was a fun one!

Now if you have ever taken a class or gotten a BOM from her 

you know she doesn't like it if you share anything anywhere 

until the BOM is over,   

And since it's a year later, 

I'm going to start sharing!

< First up is Monsieur le Trash panda!

Now if you ask me, he looks NOTHing like the Raccoon pattern I was given, 

The raccoon pattern I was given looks nothing like a raccoon!

so I honestly fee like this one is all mine.

Go ahead fight me. I dare you.

I also decided that a bunch of the patterns look not like I think they should, 

So I will be "Fixing" them too.

CQJP 2024 Le Colibri

So here's where I start                                                                                                                                                                                             Make or find a sketch in a sketchbook, online,or other reference

Make little blue sketch on my target piece

And fill it in with stitches

I did underlay the dark teal wing part with a chain stitch 

initially to give it some definition and lift

To differentiate it from the rest of the wing

The dark color alone would do that but I wanted a little more

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Then I use 3-4 different colors of a graduated buttery yellow DMC                                                                                                                                                                                                     for the the wings, tail and body                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                And then magic!

The rest just follows                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Hello, my pretty, pretty!

CQJP 2024 Ellie Project

OK, SO.

I have sewn together the sides and top of my Ellie so when I get to the vines along the big seams I can just go do it and not worry where I'm going to connect them later.

I whent ahead and added my spiderweb roses

To the monogram

in a couple of places

all the way down

That blue stuff is the Water Soluble pen I use for marking 

It will come off with a quick spritz or two of water and maybe a bit of a rub

I have used these pens for close to 30 years now and 

have come to rely upon them, with out really ever worrying weather or not they have changed the formula or something, 

For me they just work.

I am sharing a bunch of my sketchbook pages today

I use my sketch books to keep track of my ideas and keep a record of my projects as I do them 

I want to show you all how I use them If blogger will cooperate with me today I might even manage to make it coherent!

CQJP Paris

I have colored somethings in when the mood moves me 

and darkened other bits with pen so I can trace them if I need to

These pages are from a prior CQJP For which I used Paris for my jumping off point and 

CQJP Paris

the colors pulled from the focus fabric I used that year were a magenta, pink, green, bright blue, yellow and purple

CQJP Fairy

I have many more ideas and inspiration pages scattered around the house and interwebs for perusing to catch an idea

I have a lot of books for reference and also for learning a new technique or just for the pictures

These pages are some of my oldest and 

I use the basic shapes from them all over the place

Rainbow Scrap challenge 2024-Red

 A slow start to the year but it is a start

CQJP 2024 AKA Mara's Ellie project

Miss Mouse has gotten her tail and a fine tail it is!

Next up is what to do with all the space around her?

The Darling Daughter who requested this Ellie, 

wants lots of flowers so lets do the foundations of that,

as a chain stitch vine meandering all over the side 

and part of the top.

And to do that I needed to sew the top and other side together.

This makes it a little harder to maneuver around and sew 

through but makes for  a more cohesive design.

And on the other foot, I have stitched a bird shape to make

A cardinal as requested

Most of the thread I will be using throughout will be DMC

so in this project expect that from here on 

unless otherwise noted

I will be using several shades of red for the body of the cardinal 

I'm going for a fade to dark

using a staggered satin stitch the whole way through

And here she is!

And since there has been some discussion on the CQI Divas 

page about working from sketches 

Here's the page of my sketchbook where this one came from

I have used her in the past many times 

for anyone who notices that's the sketch for the gardens 

round robin from 2014

Here'show I transfer some of my ideas

The paper is from the tail ends of clothing patterns

In some commercial clothing patterns you can get quite a 

large swath of blank paper that is ideal for embroidery transfer

I like using this as transfer because I can see through it

it doesn't distort my stitches, when I go to pull it out from 

under my stitching, if it hasn't already shredded from handling

And if you sew it into the piece you will never see it again

because it is such a light paper it will disappear or disintegrate