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

SRE Embellished Cabachon Tutorial

 So now that it has been published, I get to share this with you all! 

It's in the latest CQ Magazine on sale now at magic cloud!

My thanks to Lisa Plooster Boni for inviting me to be a part of her lovely magazine,

 So exciting! I love being able to say "I've been published!" Tee-Hee!

 

 

I Have reprinted most of it here with a few extra pictures

Materials

A large cabochon, button, or piece of jewelry for a centerpiece   

Silk ribbon
Glass seed beads
Beading needle
Nymo beading thread 

Felt or the piece you are currently working on 

E6000 glue 

Sandpaper
Clover water soluble blue marking pen

First gather your treasures. I like to “audition” several different items before I sew it all down.

Choose your focal piece (cabochon/ button/etc.) first.

For a focal piece that has no hole or place to sew it down, sand the bottom first with some heavy grit sandpaper. Then use a small amount of E-6000 to glue it down to the felt. You may then sew the item to the project or the felt backing by running your needle and thread through the felt.

Note: It is better to glue the item to the felt and then sew it to the project rather than gluing directly to the project.

Then decide how the design should progress. Do I want it round, offset, or shaped?

Mark this line using the blue pen.

There are two ways to do this type of embellishment. This tutorial shows how to do it on a piece of felt for later application. You may also do it directly on the piece in progress. 

 

 

 

 

 Stitch the smaller focus beads down around the marked line. For this project, I choose flat polished horn beads and #11 seed beads.

 

Now add the lines of beading between the main focal item and the smaller focal items. Fill your needle with enough beads to fill the space between. Don’t worry if it is not a symmetrical number of beads, this will vary, depending on that space and the size of your beads.

Secure the line of beads by coming back up and tacking the thread down between every 3 beads to secure the line. If your line is wobbly after this,

pull the thread through your line of beads again once or twice more, this should straighten everything out.

Now for the silk ribbon crown. Choose your colors for top and bottom row and start on the top (outer) row first.

Secure the ribbon on the back by pulling through the ribbon.

The outer crown complete.

To stitch the loop, come up through the felt/fabric and loop the ribbon around a paper blending stick aka smudge stick, keeping ribbon flat with no twists. Stitch down through the felt/fabric as for a simple Japanese ribbon stitch.

Do the same stitch in front of your first  circle to complete your crown.

 

 

 

You can add as many rows as you like.

I leave the stick in the loop, until I have taken the next starting stitch, so I don’t pull the preceding loop out. You may leave the stick in for several loops if desired.

 [Note: You can find paper blending sticks with the sketching materials, they come in several diameters.]

 

 

Lastly I trim the excess felt being careful not to snip any of the ribbon on the front or the back. It is now ready to place on anything you like.

.

 just so you don't think I'm perfect or anything

  I put the Brass filigree circle under this glass button so I didn't have to cut a hole in the CQ piece so it lays flat. 

 
If you do cut a hole to accommodate the shank of the button make sure you take a few buttonhole stitches around the hole so the fabric doesn't fray over time

This is the original Cabochon From another piece that will be featured in  a future CQ Magazine so I will leave that till later.

 

Go get your copy of Crazy Quilt Magazine if you love CQ like I do, 

it has so much more eyecandy in it to enjoy!

 

 

 

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 bird book

 A long, long time ago, I joined two separate round robbins with Crazy Quilting International

one round robbin was to CQ your favorite poem

one of mine is "When Women were birds" by
Terry Tempest Williams

“Once upon a time,
when women were birds, t
here was the simple understanding
that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk
was to heal the world through joy.
The birds still remember
what we have forgotten,
that the world is meant to be celebrated.”
 
 When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice


I was quite pleased when these blocks came back, though only two had the phrases sewn in that went with their pieces.

I always meant to sew the rest but never got around to that part as so many other things were pressing then.

what were they? I cant remember. I just remember something else needed to be done and I put the blocks aside.


 The other round robbin  theme was Women in gardens(?) I think.

And that one came back to me exquisitely sewn too!

and then life so it got put with the others and sat sad and neglected at the bottom of the ufo box

I took them out earlier this year
thinking to make them into a wall hanging

but that wasn't good enough either
so they sat on the desk in the "waiting" pile.

then I got them out to show someone and they got all mixed up together and well,

 they looked good together
so I thought "Aha! a book!"

and here it is.

the bird book

Wichi-poo doll

 I don't know why I hadn't thought of this before

a bit thick I guess.


Isn't she sassy?

Her slippers are bats (of course)

her skirt and hat are both CQed

shes got an under skirt and her body is made from green dot cotton and barber pole stripes


So much fun this was!

I made up the pattern for her skirt and hat

as there really wasn't one in the Tilda pattern book I was using

and now I can't remember which one I used but I think it was the christmas one from last year.


 The one side I used a small lace motif and beaded it on and gave it a little fringe and some extra flowers




The other side has ribbon roses and a ghost bead though in the picture you can't quite see it

I had a hard time not getting blurry pics for this so excuse if they aren't up to snuff

there are skull beads all over the place and fringe and lace and ribbon and did I tell you how much fun I was having here?







I tried to keep it down to two colors besides the black silks and velvet's I used for the skirt









 Do you know how hard that is?

especially when the purples and browns were yelling at me from their boxes!






but I managed it, whew!

there is a lovely green spiderweb and a sparkly spider

a dangling skeleton

the ribbon roses all have a skull in their middles as a surprise guest!

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