I FINISHED THE QUILT

I have been working on a quilt for a friend's wedding for almost 2 years.  I'm not really late - I've been told that a wedding quilt is not really late until their fifth anniversary.  Anyway, this quilt was a bit beyond my skill level and a did a ton of frogging on it.  It feels great to be finished.

I keep a journal of all the quilts I make and the most important section in that journal is "Lessons Learned".  That section is longer for this quilt than any other I've made.  But I really enjoyed doing it.

The colors were hard to capture.  I've posted 2 pictures of the front - one in sun and one in shade.

The top one was taken more in the shade, and the bottom one in the sun.  I played with them in a picture editor, which helped.  Interesting what a difference it makes.

The back has a picture of the bride and groom in the middle.  The squares around the picture are pieces of cloth that I brought to the wedding for guests to sign.

All in all, I'm happy with the project.

GREAT VACATION

Just got back from a wonderful vacation.  We spent a week camping at Luna-White Deer lake in northern Wisconsin.  What a fantastic place.  We were virtually alone there - no phones, no people, no one else but the loons.  I really didn't want to come back.

Sunset from our campsite.

Mad Dog the Magnificent surveying her new domain.

It was cold, she is old, we thought we should keep her warm.  This lasted about 30 seconds before she burst out of her little cocoon to bark at the squirrels.

From inside the tent.

Is it time for dinner.

A GREAT CLASS

I had the opportunity to take a class with Betty Pillsbury a couple of weeks ago at Designer's Desk in Geneva, IL.  She is a wonderful teacher.  I just brought muslin with me instead of a block.  I always agonize over what to put in any seam treatment.  After 2 days with Betty I have much more confidence.  She was also very generous in sharing her stash.  I didn't have all the right supplies with me and she was quick to share.  These pictures are just what I was able to get done during class, but I'm going to expand on them greatly.  My only regret was that I was unable to make the first day as well.

This was wired ribbon scrunched up and tacked down.  And the feather stitches were actually done with no marking.  That is definitely a new one for me.

 This is the SRE.  I had some trouble with the iris, but I loved the delphiniums on the right.  I'll definitely use those in the future.

 This was a piece of velvet ribbon covered with herringbone stitches and bugle beads - a few french knots to finish it off.

Feather stitch with BEADS!!!  How cool is that?

All this is just some of what we did.  Bottom line, don't miss a chance to take a course with Betty.

FINALLY FINISHED LESSON 6

I've been taking a basic CQ class on STITCHMAP.  I've fallen behind, but over the holiday weekend I caught up.  The class has us making a thread holder, a pin cushion and a needle holder.  The thread holder was focused on seam treatments and embroidered motifs.  The pin cushion will focus on beading, and the needle holder on SRE.

This is the thread holder.  I made the spider web with DMC metalic floss- that stuff is hard to work with.  The button cluster again showcases my love for the bright and shiney .  I will probably add some beading when I complete the beading lesson.

3 LOVELY GIVEAWAYS

First of all Ruby is giving away a lovely assortment of fluffy yarn.  I'm hoping to be one of the winners.  I think it will be lovely couched on a CQ piece.
http://neitherbrilliantnorbeautiful.blogspot.com/2010/06/cool-giveaways-hot-summer-days.html

Second, Kerry has started a weekly giveaway that she wants to continue until she runs out of stash.  I believe this will be going on for a very long time.
http://kerrykatiecakes2.blogspot.com/2010/06/giveaway-days.html

And third, Pat Winters is celebrating the first day of summer with a wonderful giveaway.
http://gatherings100.blogspot.com/2010/06/first-day-of-summer-giveaway.html

Go check these 3 giveaways out and have a chance to add some wonderful items to your own stash.

Great New Web Store

One of my friends has opened up a new web store with the most beautiful CQ stuff.  She has beaded motifs - her dragon flies are amazing.  Also a really nice selection of laces - and dyes if you want to try coloring them.  Her hand-dyed silk threads and ribbons are from Judith Baker Montano and beautifully done.

Check it out!

http://shawkldesigns.com//INDEX.html

It's great eye candy and she is offering free shipping during May.

Remember that fantastic giveaway?

I WON!!!!  Cathy's Crazy By Design celebrated her 200th blog by having a wonderful giveaway - fabric, threads, and buttons.  I won the buttons!!!  What a great haul.

Thank you again Cathy.

Fantastic Giveaway

I came accross this wonderful giveaway. 

http://cathyscrazybydesign.blogspot.com/2010/04/200th-post-giveaway-finally.html

This is one of the best I've seen.  Check it out.

Yippee, I got a prize

I was one of the winners of the STITCHMAP teaser last month. I won two lovely quilting patterns.  Shari was kind enough to add some beautiful fancy fabrics and threads to the package.

Corda was taking a nap when I spread out all my glory, but she deigned to take interest - especially in the bright and shiney fabrics.  That's mamma's girl all right.

The next lesson in my CQ class was to practice using our stitching templates.  The templates are stitch guides for several stitches.  I printed mine on overlay plastic.  Then came the tedious part of punching out where the dots would be to guide my stitches.  I found that with the limited vision I have in my left eye I couldn't focus well enough to use the small hold punch I bought.  So out came the large pins and I punched them all out.  It was a tedious job, but well worth it.  I had a little trouble figuring out how to translate the dots on my cloth to a feather stitch or a herringbone stitch, but once it got it started it was great.  I'm definitely sold.

The big herringbone is a little wonkey - until I figured out the template is for a double herringbone.  But I liked the weird slant so I left it there.

The uneven blanket stitch is really uneven . but all in all, the templates were great.

CQ Class

I have been taking a CQ class with STITCHMAP.  We are making a threadholder, a needlebook, and a pin cushion.  I got them pieced and am going to start stitching.

I tend to be color challenged, so it took awhile to figure out how to combine fabrics.  Shari, my mentor, helped me narrow down my choices.

Can you tell I LOVE PURPLE!!!

SNOW DYEING

Our list mom at STITCHMAP, Shari, came up with a suggestion on how to use the snow so many of us were innundated with - Snow Dyeing.  This was so much fun.  I took some fabric, scrunched it up, covered it with snow, and drizzled food coloring over the top.

This was a lot of fun, and the fabric looked great after the snow melted.  Then, I put them in the microwave to heat set the color.  3 minutes was WAY too long.  I ended up with a charred mess and an unholy stink in the house. 

Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Wonderful Giveaway

Debbie is having a "Launch My Blog" giveaway to celebrate her new blog. 

Please pay her a visit.

http://debbie-mylife-myloves-mystuff.blogspot.com/

CQ Magazine

The newest issue of CQ Magazine Online is out.  Go to http://cqmagonline.com/ and see a great (and free) online resource for CQ.  I found this ezine when I first got interested in CQ and got totally hooked.  You can search through their past issues as well.  Check it out.

Stitchmap CQ Class

I got good news this weekend.  A space became available in the beginning crazy quilt class on the STITCHMAP group.  I will get my first lessons this week.  I'm really excited about this because it was the main reason I joined the group.  I thought I would have to wait until the next round of lessons came up.

I finally finished my advent quilt

Well, it wasn't in time for Christmas, but I finally finished it.  It's rather fun - and I do love using all those bright and shiny fabrics.  The flames are removeable, so next year I start 4 weeks before Christmas and put up one flame each week.  Then the final flame on Christmas day.  I've got a little pocket on the back to hold the flames.  I'm still not very good at taking pictures of quilts - this looks a little skewed- but I keep working at it.  They are better when I can take the pictures outdoors - but that kind of hard right now with all this snow.

New Giveaway

Lady Shuttle Maker has a new giveaway on her blog.  Click on the button on the bottom right of this blog to get there.

Finally - my first CQ block

Members of the Stitchmap group are making a CQ wedding quilt to replace a quilt lost in a fire.  I kicked myself when I first volunteered - I didn't think I could even begin to produce a block that would live up to the other members of the group.  However, as usual, they encouraged me to try. 

It didn't start well as I wrecked the first block they sent me by using an iron that was too hot (I'm not used to working with those fancy fabrics).  Lyn kindly made me another block and sent it to me.  By then I was afraid to touch it.  However I finally got myself to do it - and found it was a lot of fun.

Now that I've gotten past the first one, I'm going to try to do more.

Another picture

When I was in Maryland visiting my mother, I brought some of my WIPs to show her what I was working on.  She used to be a wonderful quilter until she lost most of her vision to macular degeneration, and she is very pleased that I have followed in her footsteps. 

She loved the applique project I was working on, so I doubled my efforts to finish it and sent it to her for Mother's Day.  She displays it proudly in her living room

I had always wanted to make a quilt for her, but it was like taking coals to Newcastle.  Now I could finally give her something she liked.

Finding some pictures

Since I haven't done much "fancy needlework" yet, I thought I'd post some pictures of quilts I finishd this year.

This is the first (and probably only) full sized bed quilt I've made.  It is a trip around the world.  There was an interesting history to this.  I had wanted to make my mother-in-law a quilt but couldn't decide on a pattern.  She visited Amelia Airhardt's home on a vacation and saw the type of quilt she wanted.  She tried to describe it to me, but I just didn't understand.  I called the museum to ask about their quilts and they were kind enough to take pictures of the 2 quilts they had and send them to me.  Of course, as soon as I saw the picture I knew Mom wanted a trip around the world.  I was a little disappointed because I wanted to do something fancier (like a lone star), but I also want to do what she would like.  I took her to all the fabric stores in our area and let her pick out the fabrics she liked.  My husband, Ken is the color artist in the family so he helped me lay everything out.  Then came many hours (days, months) of sewing and ripping and sewing and ripping until I got the top done.  Then we had to decide on a backing.  We were on a vacation in Maryland and stopped at a quilt stor in Annapolis.  Our dog, Corda, came in with us.  After we wandered the store looking for the right fabric, Corda pulled us into a side room and that's where we found exactly what we wanted. 

My First Blog

The wonderful members of stitchmap have encouraged me to start my own blog. They have encouraged me to try so many things that I had only read about in the past and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. So I'm going to enter the world of blogging as well.