CQJP

CQJP

Had the day off yesterday so I decided to stitch, listen to an audio book, and spend the day with my doggie and I'm glad I did. We had a lot of wind yesterday and it scared her. So I'm glad I was home for her. Now that the other dog is gone she is a little more frighten of those types of things. I have noticed that alot of us had the lost of a pet recently. It seems like everyone I follow has had to deal with the lost of a pet within the last month or so. They bring so much to our lives and when they are gone there is an empty, quite space. They will all be missed :(

Well on to happier things. This block took about 3 days from start to finish. I began with the flower cluster and it took off for there. As you look through the photos pardon the occasional dog hair. I try to make sure there aren't any on the block and then after the photo is posted I see one. Oh well, it a constant battle with a Golden Retriever. I even have a lint roller right next to me at all times while stitching to keep it to a minimum but there is always more. Plus it doesn't help when she wants to sit right behind me on the recliner as I work (yes, she's a rather large dog and there not much room but I let her sit with me anyways)

Hope you enjoy the photos....

CQJP

Ok, finished this block. I had some fun with this one. Learned a few new stitches and techniques on this block. First, the bead embroidery, then the cast-on stitch, next, the Fargo flower (Joyce flower), and lastly I tried a new techniques on the large flower towards the bottom of the block.

With the large flower I cut the petals out of silk ribbon and burned the edges of the petals. The petals didn't curve inwards like I was expecting so I squeezed one of the inside edges and took some small stitches to make a little curve in the petal. Then I placed all the petals on top of one another and sewed them into place with E-beads. Next I add the leaves. I really like the way they turned out. I like the ruffly look them have. The next time I make a flower like this however I will make the petals on the flower smaller and I will try a different material to construct the leaves out of maybe like organza . I have seen these types of flowers before and they seem to curve naturally from the edges being burned but the silk did not curve upwards.

I also added a branch for the spider web to attach to and placed the spider in the bottom corner of the web. I usually make a spider but on my last vacation I purchased these great little spiders in Omaha, NE. while visiting my daughter so I just had to use one here.

And then here is just one more close up of a little flower cluster....hope you enjoy :)

Bead Embroidery

This week I tried my hand at some bead embroidery. I have been wanting to give it a try for some time now. I wanted to start with a small piece and attach it to me crazy quilt. It turned out OK for a first attempt. I'm sure I will try one to two more pieces and incorporate them into this quilt.

I have several beautiful books on bead embroidery by Sherry Serafini, Heidi Kummli, Robin Atkins and Jamie Cloud Eakin. I enjoy Sherry's, and Heidi's books for inspiration of ideas. Jamie's and Robin's books have a lot of instruction on different types of techniques used for this craft

Here you can see the embroidered pieces placement on the block. This block is almost finished but not quite. I want to put a branch for the spider web to sit on. And there are a few seams to finish yet.


I also tried my hand at working with some felt yesterday. I have seen some really cool pieces of felt on Pintrest lately. So I wanted to give that a try. Again, I started with a trail piece. I think I'm going to make another refrigerator magnet out of it. It was fun and really didn't require a huge amount of time. I just need to find more felt in a wider range of colors. Yet another excuse to go to the craft store....ha ha ha....

May beaded rock

Here is my May beaded rock. I had made a rainbow beaded rock for my daughter for Christmas this last year. I really liked it so I decided to make another one for myself. This one reminds me of a clam.

I am also including a photo of the back of this rock because sometimes people just are wondering. The shape of where the beads are placed around the bottom are where the rock actually sits on a flat surface. I am thinking that maybe I should put felt on the bottom here.

And.....I decided that while I had all the beads laid out I might as well make a couple of them for gifts for next year. Or maybe I'll do a blog give away with one of them? So I've been busy this month. And yes, sometimes I'm a little bit of an over achiever, but only because I really liked the rainbow theme on these rocks.

I also made a couple of refrigerator magnets for myself. They turned out OK. Not overly exciting. They are just some wood pieces with a magnet on the back. Not sure I will make any more.

CQJP block

CQJP

Here is another block completed for my crazy quilt journal project. I have enlarged my project to 16 blocks so I will be posting more blocks here than what will be displayed on the CQJP web page. I think this is block 7 or 8, not sure. And two more are very near completion. Stay tuned for those.