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

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!

Diamonds forever Tumbling

Otherwise known as "Sharon Boggon's Tumbling block sew along, over on Pintangle

So this is how I started this challenge

With a 6"x 6" diamond block

Which just seemed (no pun intended) 

to be too big for me at least,

 so I unpicked it 

and made the whole 3 panel a 6"x6" block,

 which does work much better for me.

Don't let those wonky lines alarm you too much 

they will be "straightened out" in the sewing

Just add a bit of lace and much of the wonkiness disappears! Voila!

now for all the fun stuff

 

It's an ellephant! Meet Ellie

right side

Here she is sewn all together, before stuffing

One thing I will do differently next time I make one of these 

Make the trunk a bit bigger 

This was almost too thin to turn

Left side

I might also pay more attention to where the ears are placed

Because they will obscure some of your stitching

Pink silk bottom

I did add a lozenge shaped panel to the bottom once she was stuffed

Don't forget to clip the corners!

top back

Over all I am quite pleased at how she turned out

Front

no pun intended

You also may want to couch down any long stitches a bit more if tyour critter of choice will be handled a lot.

That spider web might get snagged at some point

Here she is all put together with ears and everything!

Oops, she still needs a tail!

Peek-A-Boo!

I see you!

 

A collaboration

Here is another ditty for you all to see

The block was one Helen Thorkleson gave me a while ago when we still met as a group in Bellview

She brought us a lovely big bag of goodies

as I remember

in it was a block I think she was planing on using as a picture frame

Then never got around to or lost interest in

So lucky Me got it to play with!

So I dug through my silkies and came up with these two

Since I couldn't decide between them I used both!

so with a little bit of lace                                 

                    and a few beads

                                            I went to town

I finally used some of the Shibbori ribbon

I have lying around (read; dug up from organizing)

I have only partially finished this block,

Enough to display it at least. I still don't know what to do with it though.

It is a lot bigger than I am used to 13"x16"

and an odd shape.

As you can see there is a little bit of everything here

even some wired flowers

I love using variegated thread with small french knots

Silk ribbon roses and flowers

For that romantic look

It ended up a little bigger

And a little blobbier than I intended

But that is also part of it's charm

For me at least.

The last faerie

 The last in a long line of faerie blocks,
20 in total, Is done!

Wheee!               Awwe!

Wee, because I love these fairies

 I grew up with a whole set of little flower farie books illustrated, beautifully, by Cicely Mary Barker

Abc faeries, summer faeries, tree faeries etc. 10 little books in all all lovingly kept a little dinged on the corners or lovingly rubbed but mostly still pristine.

Then I gave them to my children

and most of them went missing

Many of my, lovingly kept, childhood friends met their demise in this manner *sigh*

I had a whole collection of Asterix and Obilex and Tintin Illustrated novels ( don't you dare call them comix!) that died a horrible death at the loving hands of my children when the glue that kept them together gave way. my son still has them or whats left of them in a box to keep the pages from flying away and dispersing further.


As a former Librarian this both horrifies and warms the heart.

Thank goodness I saved my first edition set of OZ and Bookhouse books safe.

Though my "Friend Flika" got passed around every friend they ever had, until it was so bent, dogeared and missing pages you couldn't read it anymore.

You see they loved them enough to share them and that is friendship

Hexiepalooza #1 yellow and pink block

Jumping in on the Hexi craze

these first dozen blocks have been in use for a few years actually.

I Run a class out of Gathering fabrics Quilt Shop in Woodinville WA., once a month and I use Jennifer Cloustons book and several others, to teach crazy quilting and embroidery from.


I use these hexies to show color theory, stitch placement building, sre, use of materials, etc.

I try to teach my ladies how to bring out their creative side, the zen of hand sewing and how not to be afraid of color.

They are vEry colorful ;)

CQJP December

Its for December but she is the may queen in disguise

With lovely little white flowers coming up between the crunchy leaves


                     and another little bird

A dragonfly is out harassing a hedgie just up from her burrow


I don't know about you but I have snails.

 TMI?




The roses are out of season but who cares,

                   its a crazy quilt!





Also,
 trying my hand here at some art neuvo swirly things

I think it came out OK

Its all stem stitch and padded satin



Here she is in all her glory!


The may queen, Lily of the valley

CQJP November 2016

 Abandoning any pretence of catching up I'm skipping to December




If I do catch up(insert manic giggles here) its because I’ve a sudden fit of energy which would be a first for this year.


anywho....

here he is ,a very boyish fairy

the first thing I thought when I saw him was that old nursery rhyme


"Snips and snails and puppy dogs tails that's what little boys are made of"


so lots of bugs and critters for him

I sewed them on felt first , learning (finally) from my mistake last month with the Hedgie.

I also wanted it to have a more back-of-the-yard ravine feel to it

You know those wonderful places in the far rural suburbs between the houses where there is the feel of forest if not the actuality of it.



a place for finding bugs and critters or the occasional deer or raccoon
a child's thoughtful spot for dreaming and pretend

mucking about in the mud catching frogs and splashing in puddles








watching the critters go about their business for the day


humming a hum

playing catch up April CQJP

 I'll start with the spider to get her out of the way as I know sOme of you don't like them.

                                  I however love them

at a distance.



This one I've made with a flat glass bead a random crystal from the odds bin and some flat braid Krenik










The little Birdie was made on felt with 12" twist for the chest and belly, 3 strands of variegated floss for the rest and another random bead from the bin





I've been learning to fold ribbon so you all will be seeing it a lot more from now on.

Its a good skill to learn and helps frame a centerpiece or fill in odd corners


  I love how the flowers turned out here I used a reverse Japanese stitch, where as you would normally poke into the fabric from the front to make petals or leaves

This one pokes in from behind and then folds over a needle or stiletto and then goes into the fabric, sort of like bending over backwards.

It gives the petals a nice little pouf

Here is a happy fimo bee I saved from something Years ago, I so happy to finally have found him a home.
 The cats destroyed yet another toy now there are plum colored feathers all over the house

I wove one into the butterflies framing the center picture.
You'd be amazed what you can find on a CQ piece!



        and here she is all together

The white flowers are yet more refugees from the random bin.

All in all I expected to have more angst and trouble getting back on the horse but this block went together pretty fast