Monday, December 31, 2012

CQJP blocks 15 and 16

Here are the last two blocks for my crazy quilt for the CQJP 2012. I have had a wonderful year with this group of fellow crazy quilt addicts and it has been a wonderful year getting to know all of you!!!. I sometime feel a little alone in my corner of the world because there are not alot of people who do CQ in northern WI. A few but none like me. So anyways...its been a great year for me. Here are the final two blocks.
Block 15:



 
Block 16:



 
I went to my local quilt store this morning looking for a border for this quilt and really didn't find any fabric I liked so I might have to put finishing this quilt off for a bit. There is another quilt store about an hours drive (Antigo, WI) but I don't get that way very often. I want my border to be a teal or brown Batik fabric so it might take some searching. I never just settle for any fabric. I will know when the right fabric hits me. One puts so much time and work into a quilt like this that the finishing is just as important as the blocks are. I also need to come up with a name for this quilt. I put that challenge out to my daughter this week...she's usually pretty good at helping me come up with names for my quilts.
Here is a photo of all the completed blocks....
 
Anyways...I wish all of you a very heart felt....Happy News Years. I wish you all the best for the up coming new year. May we all be blessed with beautiful ribbons and fabulous threads and an unlimited end of creativity. Oh and yes I have decided on a theme for next year CQJP...but you will have to just wait and see.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Crazy Quilted Christmas Wall Hanging

In the spirit of the season here is a crazy quilted Christmas wall hanging made many years ago. Again, it is a very early work (Sept, 1996). I bring it out every year to celebrate the season. Some day I would like to do another Christmas themed crazy quilt as my skills have improved slightly since the construction of this one. First photo, the whole wall hanging;
 
 
Here is a close up of the wreath block and a close up of the silk ribbon wreath.
 

 
Next, close up of the candle block and a close up of the candle itself.
 

 
Here is the stocking block with the close up of the stocking. The buttons on the top of the stocking are from Mill Hill beads. And the stocking itself is woven 4mm silk ribbon.
 

 
 
And finally the pointsetta block. The flowers were made using 13mm YLI silk ribbon.
 

 
All the silk ribbon work on this quilt I designed myself. The silk ribbon used is all YLI silk ribbon except for the flame on the candle. I believe that is Petals hand dyed silk ribbon. All the fabric in this wall hanging is 100% cotton fabric except one piece. Don't know why that happened but not really important. I actually like to work with cotton fabrics in my crazy quilting. Its just plain easier to work with.
 
Here is also a cute little tree I made.
 

 
It has a cone shaped styrofoam underneath and many yards of green ruffled lace wrapped around the cone pinned in place. I then beaded a long stand of different beads for the garland. This tree was fun and easy to make. However I was never real comfortable with how the top of the tree was finished off but recently I saw a tree very similar to this one on Pintrest and the maker had put a star on the top of their tree.....how clever...why didn't I think of that. Now looking for a star for the top of my tree...lol  
 
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
 
 

Monday, December 17, 2012

Crazy quilted tree skirt

Here are some photos of a tree skirt I made quite a few years ago.  It was one of the first crazy quilted items I ever made (maybe the 3rd or 4th project). I used a pattern that had the basic shape and adjusted the basic panels to be crazy quilted. First is the over all tree skirt
Here are some close up of the panels
 Detail of the spider....I love putting spiders in a crazy quilt. I read some where that they are suppose to bring good luck.


A few more...



A few more close ups.....





And here it is under the tree

Here is my doggie wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!!!!


Next I have a Christmas crazy quilted wall hanging which I also made quite a few years ago. I will be posting it in a day or two....in the mean time...have a wonderful day......   :)

Monday, December 10, 2012

December CQJP

Well here is the last crazy quilt block for the year. Where did the year go? I want to say how much I have enjoyed this group of wonderfully talented people. I have had so much fun and this group has kept me on task! I have also enjoyed seeing everyone's work. I am actually going to do a 16 block crazy quilt for this project but here is the last of the 12 submitted blocks from the CQJP 2012. I only have 2 more blocks to finish for my full project and they are very close to being done but not quite there yet. Stay tuned for those but for now here is December's block:

Here are some close ups of the blocks.




The tatted snowflake I found at a senior thrift store and hand dyed and just embelleshed with beads and small pearls. The ferns are done using 3 different color teals (YLI 4 mm). All beads are sewn through twice and I usually take a small stitch in the back of the quilt to secure the bead. I will also  do a couple of knots to secure the beads so IF, by chance, they were to come lose someday the whole bunch will not fall off. But on a side note. I have never (yet) had any beads come off the surface of any of my crazy quilts. I use Nymo thread to sew the beads on. I use mostly black and white Nymo thread. But sometime use different color beading thread. Be careful thou because some of these colored threads will bleed if you get them wet.



Not sure if I will be able to finish this quilt like I was hoping for by the end of the year but that's OK....sometimes you just have to let things go and just except it. I will finish it soon just not before the end of the year. 
 
I also have a Christmas crazy quilt and stocking that as soon as I dig them out for the holidays I will post some pictures of. In the mean time have a wonderful week :)

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Men's Silk Ties

Today I purchased some new silk ties from Goodwill. I just love men's silk ties. It's usually the first place I head for in a thrift store is the men's tie rack. I have collected quite a few of them over the years and often receive many of them as Christmas present from my family. Mainly cuz I always ask for them each year. I just want to share a few of the pictures of my stash.....



 
Here is a few more pictures of a little more of them...There is actually a small plastic container still full of ties under what you can see at the first picture.

Here is one of the quilts I have created with some of my ties. The quilt is a Dresden plate quilt. Each petal on the plates are made with ties and all of the leaves around the border are silk ties. I am still working on this quilt but only have a few more of the leaves yet left to applique. I hope to finish the top of this quilt very soon. I'm not sure if I want to hand quilt this quilt when the top is finished or machine quilt it. Hand quilting would require so much more time (even thou I would do something simple). Machine quilting I could just get the quilt finished. I have been working on it for a very, very long time, 5+ years and would really just like to see it finished.
 


 


 
The next quilt I plan to make with these ties will probably be a crazy quilt. But I am open for suggestion on how to use my remaining stash since I really have so many beautiful men's ties to still use up.....any thoughts?  Hope you enjoy the pictures....