Silk Ribbon Embroidered Jacket

I had been embroidering on my Jacket, but it became a UFO (Un-Finished Object) when it got too warm out to wear it anymore! So now that it's starting to get into cooler weather I got it out and started working on it. I added sweetheart roses in 7mm variegated silk ribbon.
I use a fade away quilters pen to draw on my ideas for placement, if I like it I stitch it in.
Both sides are similar but not exactly mirror, it took me a few days of looking at it to decide that I wanted to lapel that crosses over to have a longer motif.

Now I'm adding in beads, as soon as I get done beading the Jacket will be finished!

Odd Facts Meme

I've been tagged by Judy and by Jon to share 7 facts about myself!

Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged.
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 3 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

1. What got me into gardening for the very first time was that as newlyweds we bought a couple of mini-roses at a supermarket, and when they started having trouble living indoors I went to the library to look up how to take care of houseplants and roses! I soon learned that mini-roses are only indoor plants temporarily and I needed to plant them outside! As soon as we got into our first housing we planted them and that began our gardening journey!
2. When we first moved to the desert we didn't like it, as is fairly normal for most, but as we lived here, gardened here, and discovered the special beauty of the desert we now love it and wish to retire here.
3. My favorite time of year in the desert is spring, because if rain during the winter has been just right, beautiful desert wildflowers bloom and we love to go wildflower hunting! The desert wildflowers are like finding jewels! Some have amazing beauty and others a wonderful scent!
4. I love watching older TV shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show, Get Smart, and I Dream of Jeannie
5. I also love Star Trek! Voyager being my #1 favorite and Deep Space Nine being #2
6. We have 2 dogs but have never gotten to name either of them! Both China and Madie came with names and we decided to keep them. Although Madie also used to be called Madison and we dropped that.
7. I can't wear high heel shoes, the highest I can go is 11/2 inch maybe 2 but that's pushing it. My feet scream at me in high heels. But I do wear kitten heel shoes, which is like tiny 1 inch heels. In any case I can still only wear them for a short amount of time.

I tag:
Sherry
Catherine
Wendy
If anyone else wants to be tagged just let me know and I'll add you to the list!

Tatted Edging for a Sweater

Motif #15 of the 25 Motif Challenge

I've been wanting to add more tatting to my clothing and thought the edge of the sleeves of this sweater would be perfect! So I tried the tatted edging that Marie Smith sent me. She calls it "My Favorite Edging" and she so graciously typed up a pattern for me to follow! She did a wonderful job since as you can see I tatted up 12 repeats for this edging and I'm working on the second cuff now. I also made myself a diagram to make it easier to follow but by now I have the pattern memorized! LOL I used the same thread I used for the last shirt edging I made. It's size 70 ecru DMC Cordonnet Special.

Summer Breeze DYB RR Complete

Here is a recap of the Summer Breeze DYB RR and photos of all the wonderful work the ladies did for me and links to what I did for them!
Here is a link to my blank blocks.
Here is a wall hanging I made from the blocks.

Bonnie's work for me. Here is my work for Bonnie

Jakkie's work for me. Here is my work for Jakkie.

Jo's work for me. Here is my work for Jo.

Leslie's work for me. Here is my work for Leslie.

Maire's work for me. Here is my work for Maire

Spiderweb Rose Tutorial

What you'll need:

1. Embroidery Hoop
2. Circular shape to trace like a dime or a button depending on what size you want your rose. (A dime makes a large rose)
   
3. A fine point to mark the circle, you could use a pencil, disappearing ink pen or water erasable pen you can get either in the quilter's supplies area.
4. Needles, for silk ribbon a size 22 chenille needle is commonly used.
5. 1 strand embroidery floss in a shade that matches your silk ribbon.
6. 4mm silk ribbon in a shade matching your floss.
7. Embroidery Scissors
   

Here is the finished rose! You can add a bead to the center for sparkle or you could add a knot with silk ribbon in the same shade or a shade darker or lighter.
You can also watch the video on YouTube

My Windsong Jewels Purse

I couldn't decide which photos looked the best so I decided to put both sets of with and without flash in.
Leslie's Embellishment for the Windsong Jewels DYB RRMaire's Embellishment for the Windsong Jewels DYB RR

I saw some instructions for a purse in a book that seemed really easy to me so I decided to go for it! I've been meaning to create something with my 6 inch Windsong Jewels DYB RR blocks that I received back and I love purses so I took 2 of the blocks and using the zipper foot(because of the beads, buttons and stitching near the seam line) sewed them together at the bottom with some bead trim. Then I sewed a piece of muslin(for lining) with some cotton lace(for handles) to each side. Then folded it in half right sides together sewed the edges, turned it right side out sewed the lining together and stuffed it in! Yeay!!! Now I have a CQ purse!!! It's the perfect size to hold my wallet and cell phone! I'm not much for technical sewing so this was perfect, very easy with basic simple straight line sewing! LOL Oh and I also added green organza ribbon for a closure.

Leslie's Embellishment for the Windsong Jewels DYB RR

Maire's Embellishment for the Windsong Jewels DYB RR

Thank You!!!

This Thank You goes to Pat Winter who is such a sweet and generous lady! What a wonderful gift of Crazy Quilt stash! There is beautiful fabrics, hand dyed lace, silkies, beads, sequins, ribbon, silk floss, hand dyed silk ribbon, and hand dyed cheese cloth!
I have been so blessed lately! I think that Crazy Quilters are some of the most sweetest, most sharing, and most generous ladies there are and I'm so happy to know so many!
Thank You Pat!

CQ Bedspread Block 5

I've pieced block #5! I've used several of the fabrics Jill gave to me and a piece of the lace that Tracy gave to me!

Then I'm going to sew on these pieces of lace as a motif. The three leaves are Venice lace for dying, and the crocheted rose was made and given to me by a very sweet lady in the Hand Embroidery Yahoo Group.
OH and I've finally caught on to a good way of piecing my blocks! I'm always getting twisted around and I'm not so good at direction that's not obvious! LOL Well I finally figured out that if I start piecing in the larger area right next to a smaller area when I get around the block it's easier to overlap the larger area...otherwise I'm left at an odd spot and still need to go around to put more pieces on the larger area. I feel like it's a little bit of a "duh" moment but I had been starting at the smaller area and having trouble!

White on White CQ Block

I've FINALLY finished my White on White CQ Block that I had started almost a year ago for the Encrusted CQ online class. I added some beads to the large SRE motif and to the vines on the left as well as added a small SRE motif to left of those. I added some glass pearls to the little motif as well as a tiny clear Swarovski crystal butterfly. Then I finished up the tail of the bow!

As I was looking back on my old posts I realized I totally forgot about my tatted fern I was going to use on the little SRE motif!!! Oops! I guess I should have looked before I went ahead and finished the block today! The tatted fern would have looked so nice! I guess that's what I get for putting it off and picking it back up a couple of months later.

I'm going to make a few more blocks and create a wall hanging to coordinate with my bedspread I am making, but for now I decided to tack it up to the wall in my bedroom. Not as elegant as it will be when it's a finished wall hanging, but hey it's better than being tucked away in a drawer. Plus maybe it'll give me inspiration to work harder on my bedspread?

Block #4 Update

Well here it is! I think I did pretty good! Now I know I can do curves if I want to! I usually don't like to do curves in my piecing. I enjoy the straight lines radiating look, and then I usually add curved embellishments and SRE motifs. Since I won't be doing as much SRE because this is a bedspread I think this is a nice alternative. Jill shared with me where she bought the fabric and I couldn't resist but to buy a yard to add to the bedspread and maybe make a throw pillow or two. The price per yard seemed a little high at first but when I saw that it's for extra wide 118" I figured it would be worth it after all. It's like buying 2 yards in normal sizes.

Update on blocks 1, 2, and 3

The last few weeks I've been sewing down the lace on my blocks, and figured an updated photo would be nice! I've found that I enjoy the hand stitching of sewing down the lace. It's really soothing and it's nice to do it when chatting with a friend too. I also feel like putting the lace on the block gives me a better feel for the block and how I'm going to embellish it.
Even though I'm numbering the blocks I probably won't sew them together in this order, mostly the numbers are so I know how many I've done! LOL

CQ Bedspread Block 4

Yesterday I started piecing block 4 and as you can see I just need to baste the edges and finish appliqueing the fabric that has the raised ribbon motif down. I've never done that before so it should be interesting...LOL! I hope it turns out good, the good thing is if it doesn't hand sewing is pretty easy to take out! So today I'm going to get that tackled.

I used 2 pieces of the fabric Jill sent me, one is on the lower right and the other is the upper right which is the raised ribbon motif fabric. The reason I'm going to applique it on is so that I get the full motif, I didn't want to cut it. So I'm placing it so it's just right on the block.

Summer Breeze DYB RR: Bonnie's block finished

Here is Bonnie's block all finished! I love it so much! There were moments when I wasn't sure if my SRE motifs were going to turn out nice, and then they just came together! I made them more of an open airy feeling, rather than really tightly done. I felt that made them more on the dainty side since Bonnie loves dainty! The last section to be filled in was the lower right and I felt a seam treatment would have just led the eye right off the block and in a direction that was the opposite from where it should go. SO my solution was to make a light airy motif using the same thread from the left and made feather stitch sprays pointing back towards the block with seed beads to echo the pearls from the left as well. The single sweetheart rose and 3 colonial knots I felt acted as a stopping point so the eye didn't go off the edge but stop there and go back along the feather stitching.
I have a cute story to tell about my friend Wendy's daughter Bekah. I took the block with me to church (I had it in a plastic baggie for protection) to show Wendy before I send it off and she was holding Bekah who is 3 years old. Bekah is a gardening princess and loves to play outside in the garden in a dress up princess dress. Well as I was showing Wendy the block, Bekah was ooo-ing over the block too and suddenly pointed to the center and said "diamond"! I was so surprised! WOW 3yrs and knows a diamond! Then she saw the flowers and said "ooo flowers" then saw the dragonflies and said "BUGS!" after that she noticed the pearls too. It was so sweet! And from Bekah's reaction I knew I had succeeded with the design plan I had! #1 was the diamond as focal, #2 was SRE motifs, #3 points of interest with bugs, pearls and beads.

Click Here to see all the Summer Breeze Blocks

Wonderful gifts! Thank You!

My first Thank You goes to Tracy who generously offered to send me some extra goodies she had so that I can embellish my CQ Bedspread, and other CQ projects! There is ribbons, trims, threads, bits of beaded trim, venice lace, and vintage lace too! Thank you Tracy!

The second Thank You goes to Jill who offered to send me a squishie of fabrics and lace for my CQ Bedspread! And wow what a squishie! Jill shared with me some of the most exquisite fabrics and lace! So many textures! This really broadens my fabric selection on the quilt! I was just floored when I saw what she sent!

She even included a few other colors just because.

This large piece of lace is from an antique handmade tablecloth that was given to her mother and passed to her! That is so special, I think I will use it to make a decorative throw pillow.

More lace, vintage lace and another piece of the tablecloth!

And check out that vintage cluny lace, it's so delicate and tiny! I will be using that on the matching non-washable wall hanging.

Thank you SO much to each of you! I really appreciate you both taking the time to send me some treasures!

CQ Bedspread Block 3

Here is block 3 I pieced yesterday! I kind of don't like it as much because I feel the piecing is uneven with the small pieces to the lower left and larger pieces to the upper right, but at the same time I had been wanting to use that piece of gold lace like that for some time and felt this block was the one.

Here's my lace tryout, I felt this circular piece helps the balance of the block more as well as makes a nice frame for something special to be embroidered. It is also a piece that Marie tatted and sent to me!

CQ Bedspread Block 2

Yesterday I worked on piecing block #2 so here it is! Now for some lace tryouts for this block too. I've already sewn down the lace on block 1, it's now ready for some embroidery.Here is my lace tryouts for block 2! I'm using some of the tatted edging that Marie sent to me! So pretty, I just love the pattern! And a lace applique that Lillian sent to me!

Summer Breeze DYB RR: Bonnie's blocks

I started working on Bonnie's blocks today and the colors are very spicy to me even with the pinks. Since she pieced her block with a 4 sided bit at the center it made a more diamond shape in the block. At first I was going to do all seam treatments but when looking at the block I felt it would end up too square so instead I focused on the diamond in the center and really bringing it out. To me the block is looking like the trendy elegance style, like you see around at Target and such. Bonnie loves dragonflies so I made sure to add those in as a seam treatment. I'm considering adding a running stitch flight path weaving in between them in a fine metallic thread. I'm also planning 2 SRE motifs on both sides of the diamond, one a larger trailing and the other a smaller complimentary design. I'm also considering adding half buttonhole wheels to the right pink and tan seam.

CQ Bedspread Block 1

Here is block #1! I'm on my way! This is a perfect example of the color scheme I've chosen.

Here is a little preview from my lace tryouts. I'm really loving how this is turning out! I'm excited and a little overwhelmed with the idea of 120 blocks, LOL, but I just need to take it 1 block at a time and I'll have fun!
The challenge with this bedspread will be embellishing in washable ways, it will be gentle cycle of coarse but I usually rely on a lot of Silk Ribbon Embroidery but I'll need to rely more on regular embroidery and lace with touches of beads and buttons. I'm looking forward to this adventure!

Precious Tatted Treasures

A while back I had posted about some tatting that I saved from becoming trash to be used as a treasure in my crazy quilting instead. Well Marie Smith and her granddaughter Violet saw that blog post and wanted to send me bits of tatting to use in my crazy quilting! Today I was thrilled to receive the package and it's precious contents! Look at this treasure of tatting! It's amazing! The white, cream, and ecru bits and edgings I'll will definitely be adding to my CQ bedspread! And the other bits will also find special spots too!
If anyone else wants to send me bits I will gladly accept them and treasure them! Just email me at honeybeesbliss at gmail dot com!

Just look at these elegant motifs and edgings! I just love that edging pattern and I'm going to look into that pattern to make myself!

And check out the wonderful tatted flower with the pearl center!

There is a cute little bunny, a bouquet of violets, a giraffe, a string of fans (that I can see as baskets for silk ribbon embroidered flowers), square motifs that I can see as frames, and a lovely 3D rose!

Cute little "heart" dimpled rings, a tat-person and bird tatted by Violet. (Thank you Violet) Marie tatted up (and improved) my very own heart/leaf pattern and added a stem! I love how she did the stem but I'm not sure how she did it! (Marie says it's a lock stitch chain)
I am just so excited to use these treasures in my crazy quilting!

Off to Women of Faith Conference

I'm off to the annual Women of Faith Conference the women in my church go to every year! I'm so excited to go! I love going so much we always have so much fun! I'm so happy that I returned to the area just in time to go this year. Hopefully I'll have a few photos to share when I get back!

New Long Term Project

I've been considering for sometime to start a long term project of a crazy quilt bedspread but never thought I could realisticly tackle it. Since I just moved and am putting together my home again I thought now would be the time to start it. It will be queen sized and consist of 120 eight inch blocks. I'm planning on embelishing the blocks very simply so that the finished bedspread can be washable if needed. Here are the colors of fabrics I'm planning on using. I love the white on whites, creams and light golds so that's what this will be. I've already pre-ripped 120 twelve inch muslin squares, now they just need to be marked at the 8 inch and 9 inch and I can start piecing. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about doing this, I'd like to try to get it done in a year which would mean 10 blocks a month. If I need to take longer I will though I don't want to wear myself out but it will be a nice WISP (work in slow progress) to work on.

New Housing and Beautiful View

WOO HOO we are in housing which is built brand new! I'm currently unpacking and finding a place for everything and getting rid of excess that has accumulated...LOL! It's a great house and has 3 bedrooms! The dining room is extra large and has enough room for the dining table and a nice sitting area which I'm really looking forward to having finished up. The dining room is also where I'll be doing my crazy quilting and so I've stashed my stash in the drawers of the china cabinet and I got a cool trunk at Big Lots that works as storage for the sewing machine etc as well as a cool coffee table for the sitting area when the CQ stuff is tucked away.

Here is another lovely view from the high desert! I just love it when the sun rays shine through the clouds! The desert views are always changing and just stunning...never boring to look at. Sometimes you see lovely shading of blue mountains and other times a lovely ridge line against an amazing colorful sunset, and then there are the gorgeous views with clouds.

Psalm 108:5 -- "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth."

8 Year Wedding Anniversary

Our 8 Year Wedding Anniversary!

What is Marriage?
by Helen Steiner Rice

It is sharing and caring,
giving and forgiving,
loving and being loved,
walking hand in hand,
talking heart to heart,
seeing through each other's eyes,
laughing together,
weeping together,
praying together,
and always trusting and believing
and thanking God for each other...
For love that is shared is a beautiful thing-
It enriches the soul and makes the heart sing.