CQJP 2023 side done- how it sometimes goes

Sometimes when working on a long term project somewhere near the end I loose it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         What do you loose Flora?  you may ask                                                                                                                                                                                Sometimes it's the desire to continue the project.                                                                                                                                                                     Sometimes it's the energy or the brain capacity to think about the project.                                                                                                                              Some times Life gets in the way and it's difficult to fine the thread of the project.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Sometimes it's the creative spark that sent me on the journey in the first place.           

But aren't those the same things?   Nope.  They are not, Each roadblock comes from a different spot.

Most of it is internal but every once in a while something outside your control takes you away.

All in all I find it difficult to re engage my head if I'm just not feeling it.                                                                                                                                                                                                 For me the only way to get back to a project is to set it aside for a time and let it marinate in your lizard brain for a while.                                                                                                                    And then all of a sudden, POOF!  It's done!

Cardinal corner applique finished.

so here are mr. and mrs. Cardinal Keeping look out on their holly tree.

Those leaves took a bit of doing!

But I must say I am much better at turning nice tight corners now.

I need to do a bit more and I may need to add some embroidery to it but over all i'm pleased with it.

This was a BOM from a few years ago, I got it from an online quilt store, i can't remember just which one right now.

Time to start the next corner

Will it be the bunny corner or the bluebird?


 

CQJP 2023 5th side

Here is the 5th side to the Lampbox so far                                                                                                                           I have chain stitched the vines and

 have started the trumpet flowers in pink floche   

These leaves are done in raised buttonhole stitch

I added 3 rows of stem stitch to this upper part of the vine in maroon                                                                                                                                       to start balancing the colors of the block                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

This little flower at the bottom is made up of all the colors in the block in straight pistil stitch, Pad stitch and cast on stitch

The dragonfly is just hanging on but I like it there                     so will leave it for now as a place holder

                        

 

Cardinal corner

 The cardinal corner already in progress,

those holly leaves really improve your point turning skills! 

I have done a little more than half of them here

And because I'm me it looks too plain 

so I may add some embroidery for more pizzazz

Easy in my vocabulary only applies to housework!

From Cathy's gift box

I found myself more Cigar boxes to get in good trouble with                                                                                                                                                                                                                      So I mounted a bunch of things from Cathy's giftie box from a few years ago

       

The white work piece I ended up cutting off the bottom third because it was too big to use whole                                                                                                                                                                              This is the top part                                                                                                                                           It's still to big to put on a cigar box,                       so I will have either to find a box to fit it               or make my own. I haven't decided which yet

The bottom third fit on this cohiba box

It was already painted white and fit perfectly!

I'm trying to figure out what to do with it from here

 

Isn't she pretty though!

                                                                                                                                            

I also mounted this Pink one and this pretty blue one with the swifts but have yet to put them on anything.

I am still fiddling with these other bird panels,

They go together buut they kind of don't

I like the way the right side looks but the left side needs help.

I don't know if I like it.

Maybe it's configured wrong?

I tried it this way first

 The problems I see with it ^ are,

 

 1) the tree unbalances the other three panels

    and the only way to fix that is by adding more to          the others.

  2) The harsh lines of the joins are bothering me too

  3) The upper left hand bird panel was too small, so         I had to add some "like" fabric, to make it wider

     now I'm having trouble trying to integrate it                                                                                                 into a whole contiguous piece. 

This happens every time I put panels together like this, the harsh lines of the individual panels takes my eye away from enjoying the piece as a whole and I can't figure out how to integrate them.

The way I have dealt with this in the past is to add sashing between the panels, but that breaks it up farther.  I'd like to try something different. It's just not working very well here right now.

Frustrating! I can sort of see what I want, but I can't make it work. 

I need to separate the blocks, find some more "Like" fabric to maybe add some joins to make the pieces flow better because right now it looks choppy to me. 

Maybe one more time with the seam ripper.

I know I can get this.

And so it begins

May the 4th be with you
 

Idea's I will try to get to this time!

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