some new diamond blocks

It's just a photo-dump of completed blocks from last month

It's hot out and I am not motivated to be chatty

I am a delicate flower, stay frosty

Enjoy the eye-candy

 

Fixing the original tumbling block, plus 3 finished blocks

This poor wobbly block was my first draft

I was testing out my color choices and wether I could take a step out 

by sewing the 3 diamonds together as a piece.

I decided I didn't like the look of it this way as it was too easy, for me,

to "scribble over the lines" and loose the definition of the three separate blocks which was the look I liked in the first place

                                        bUt

why waste a perfectly good block?  I tried to fix it.  AAAnd I still didn't like it, so I set it aside. 

For about a year (2 actually) and went ahead on other projects and Since I already had the studio to build, I did that instead.

When I had the mojo back for this project, I started again

It's much better now.

Here are 2 other blocks put together, in what I think is, the proper way

They don't look any different you say?

Well good! I did a good job of it then.

Stay tuned for more blocks of diamonds you've already seen.

They are working well together though, I had this fear they would look weird, but I always have that fear. Just because I can name it, doesn't mean it goes away.

I want to finish with the embroidery / embellishment on the rest

 of the diamonds before I put more of the blocks together

Because as you can see by these three I already have a little problem

That is 2 are dark on one side whilst the top one is dark on the other

Sounds like an old Star Treak episode doesn't it......

It was then that our heroine discovered all her dark and medium blocks were not all going the same way

Well Foo!

This means some rows will be dark/light and some rows will be light/dark

Why does this matter? Well I'm not sure just yet

And this is why I need to finish the embroidery first.

I'm fairly certain no one will notice any of this but me.

Years end

 

Konar's Quilt

What have we done this year?

A few things here and there managed to get done......

In spite of the summer tree shearing

Door swag

Name tag

Cinch belt

A bit of embroidery was done

Tarot Embroidery

Crazy Quilt basket

Mother Goose hat

Spirit doll bead pins

Baltimore album

A silly hat and a few pins

Chatelaine purse

                                                                                                            

I pieced together this 27 year old Baltimore Album Project                                                                                                                               I still think it needs more borders and blocks

The purse got its chain and now hangs from its  chatelaine

An Idea for later

And I have this Idea for the coming year >

And I need to finish my youngest's Ellie, 

preferably before next chrismas!

Big Ellie

I thought

 for sure     I could finish it this year!

Looking forward into the new year. may it be better than last.

Paris bead tutorial CQ Block

So you all may remember, 

or not, 

way back at the end of the first millennium of plague, 

in february of 2021 I was asked to do a tutorial, (to review go here)  

for Lisa Plooster Bonie's Crazy quilt magazine  

I know that's a lot of links. But I like to attribute things where I can.

Any way here's what I finally did with it.

I found the perfect silk ribbon for those confetti colored flowers,  

from Mary Jo Hiney's "Flower Therapy" just to give you one more link, 

which were so much fun to make, I put them everywhere.

But it was mostly to cover up that yellow swoosh, which looked so off I put the block aside.

For a year. or more?

Ever done that before? Made a design choice, stuck with it, because it wasn't bad......just off.

Then revised it, then did it again but got so discouraged with all the holes you were putting in your fabric, it you stopped loving on a project?

Here's one of mine. (yes, there are more!)

I started this as part of my 2017 crazy quilt journal project and totally lost steam after six blocks

All that said, I encourage you to take one of those out of your stash and look at it again.

Stare at it for a few days, let it stare back.

It is probably not as bad as you thought it was, and actually, you cAn do something with it.

It may just take a while, a few stops and starts. 

What I am trying to say is, don't be afraid to take those old languishing blocks out of the closet/drawer/blackhole

you banished them to for "not rightness" go look at them again. you might be pleasantly surprised 

But eventually some designer bug wakes up at the back of your brain and woosh! It's done!

  

And it's pretty

Speaking of bugs, maybe it needs a dragonfly or two, and a few more bugs..........hmmm

Candy Tuft Fairie

Isn't she fun!?!

OK I know a big shiny spider is not what most people call fun

 bUt

Shes so pretty!

I'm still working out this corner of the block

so It's not entirely done, done yet

Though in the whole scheme of the block it may not need more

Like I said I don't know yet

Maybe that bit should stay relatively unadorned

to give the eye somewhere to rest

The more I look at it the more I like that Idea

I just know I need to think about it for a bit

The yellow SRE flower spray came out nice 

And this bush of Orange flower beads

I added a few Bees

and one who went visiting our girl

Ellie the phant

I'm working on a crazy quilted stuffie

I have seen several of the teddy bears in person and 

they are just the loveliest things!

So you know I want one.

But a teddy bear? 

I don't know.........

I got a pattern, but there are SO many parts!

Then I saw the perfect one in a quilt store in Hilo

YES!

but they had no patterns left.

PooH!

Then I found this!

                                          yAy!

and here we are so far.

A CQ finish!

 I have finally come up with a CQ finish!

It's been a while.

This was a partially started nekkid block that was in the the gifties box I got from Cathy Kizarian over at Crazy by design bolg.

There were many more nekkid, lightly started and finished RR blocks to play with in the box, This one called to me loudest. 

It is a lovely nekkid block I love its curves! I don't usually do curves cause they are difficult on a machine, but dang if these aren't sweet! I'm going have to try them.

When I found it, it had just the tree with a few leaves and it's egg nest.

First thing I did was to finish giving the tree her leaves, trying to match the original colors is tricky and I found a dark green but not the khaki. still looks ok though. 

Next came the mamma bird, she still needs an eye.

I was, this many( hold up many fingers), when I figured out how to make those sweet pyramid things. 

It turns out they are best formed with feather stitch. o knew?

you just pick your length and fill it in from there. Easy Peasy. Duh! It just goes to show you you can do this for 25 years, teach others and still learn things!

The button cluster was needed, to break up the long line of the red ribbon treatment and mute the white lace I used. The bird and butterfly were used similarly as motifs to keep the eye moving around the block, and not off the edges where the corners meet.

I love chevron stitch, or is that creatan? Nope it's Herringbone. pHa! I get them all mixed up sometimes. Anyway I like them all. 

Is 55 to early to go senile? asking for a friend.........

The lace and beads went to fill in the lonely space by the tree, that side of the block needed a little balance with so much going on the other side of the tree. 

The aqua ceramic buttons were added to give it some pop and fill

the empty spots between the pyramids, the tiny silver dragonflies ditto.

I also thought this bottom corner was a good spot to practice cast on stitch with a double thickness of needles for a more loopy look, It might need some beads though.

The lizard and frog got sick of hiding in my stash and hopped/slithered on for the fun of it.

and there she is!

 How'd I do Cathy?

Class Hexies

 I have just realized I have never shared my class hexies.

 As many of you may or may not know, I ran a crazy quilting and embroidery class at Gathering Fabrics Quilt shop in Woodinville  Washington, at least I did in the before times.

And if you didn't know already I like color.

The back

 

                                   Lots of it!

    I try to teach the intimidated to love their colors! 

     This is the little bit of CQ I use to demonstrate.

  Every Hexie is self contained and different

 

 

So here is a simple one of mostly pinks, 

which I tried to balance through out the block

Especially tamping down the impact of that bright saturated pink on the right, by making a lot of light blue strait stitch stars

And making a spray of pink vines in the lower quadrant and a big pink flower opposite

Here is another big balancing act

I used a lot of dark blue accents and spread them around to balance the dark blue patch on the right.

The flowers on the yellow patch are beaded

And the spray of leaves are silk ribbon on fly stitch

Here again, I balance the the patch 

By sewing a motif or seam opposite or tangential to the color of the main patches in the block 

Going in a clockwise direction around the block, to keep the eye moving around the block

 

So keeping the first few patches in mind 

 

I repeat this concept through out all the blocks on this quilt

 

 

 

I Teach out of Jennifer Clouston's Foolproof Crazy Quilting book

And I try to follow the patterns she shows in her book

So I can demonstrate them to my students in class 

 

I also tried to use as many readily available items on the quilts as possible to take the 

"It's too expensive" quotient out of it.

All the threads are DMC size 8 twist and the sequins are a plastic set I got at joannes

Many of the buttons are those from off coats or the extras you get with a new blouse

 

or plain ones I have in my stash

Which I glamour up with beads

Like the bug I made here in the upper green patch,

with layered buttons and beads to hold them together.

Notice also the plastic flower beads in the bottom patch, where no two are alike.

 

I have found you can do this when the pieces are of a like enough color, 

They don't have to be matchie-matchie to work together

It's also a good place to use a bunch of "Leftover" or extra beads.

 

As long as the beads are of like color or hue they all play nice together on the block

I have used a lot of my leftover bits and pieces on this quilt, 

To show you can make something beautiful no matter what you have to hand.

 

More button stacking and saturated color balancing here

 

The three big white buttons are of the same color and size but are different patterns to one another

 

The beads anchoring the big pearls at the bottom 

and the beaded butterflies at the top 

are from my "It fell on the floor" box and are all different

 

I have also used about 180 different fabrics 

230 beads, buttons, sequins, lace, 

                                  ribbon bits and doo-dahs

 And 30 different stitches in DMC and Silk ribbon embroidery

On this little quilt so far, I had been keeping a record

 but I lost track somewhere around the penguins.

I have a few more blocks, leftover from classes, that I haven't quite finished yet.

I was hoping to get back to them but got sidetracked by the plague.