CQ Bedspread: Blocks #9,#10,#11,#12,#13

Well I got another 5 done yesterday and just finished hand basting them this morning, it would probably be easier to machine baste but I just like how the fabric lays better with hand basting. So now I have 13 of 120 pieced!
#9 of 120

#10 of 120

#11 of 120

#12 of 120

#13 of 120

CQ Bedspread: Blocks #6,#7,#8

It's been a long time since I worked on my cream CQ Bedspread! Over a year! I'm not sure why exactly but I got discouraged by several things and then busy and it just got put on hold. A few things have changed for example it no longer will be a washable quilt since I didn't pre-wash any of the fabrics including the foundation muslin...yeah. And our little mini schnauzer sleeps at our feet and I'm not sure if I want her claws on my work of art! HAHA

Wendy is almost finished with her princess quilt for her daugher and wow seeing it all put together is so inspiring that I thought I may as well keep working on this one even if it ends up a special quilt not used very often or hung on the wall or something like that. I think just the fact that it would be awesome done just to look at to take out and show people would be fun. So even though I stopped at #5 of 120 over a year ago here I go again! A nice surprise for me is they are so much easier to piece now, I think the additional year of experience helps! I think I was over thinking them before too, making it too hard on myself all perfectionistic. It's a crazy quilt...therefore no need to be perfect! It will turn out just right just because it's crazy...the whole point! LOL Anyway that's the lesson I've learned from watching Wendy put together the princess quilt.
My goal right now is to get the blocks pieced, I may take embellishment breaks if I get bored in the future but I'd like to have them at least pieced right now.

#6 of 120

#7 of 120

#8 of 120

Tea in the Garden

This morning I felt like having tea in the garden! A cup of Assam tea with sugar and milk! Yum! So I took some photos here are a few I thought were pretty! I cut a stem of pink sweetheart roses and a sweet pea! It was wonderful!

Princess Block: #5 The Strawberry Block

Here is the last of the Princess Block's that I've worked on! Wendy also worked on this block and I took it and finished it up to help her out. She is working on putting the whole quilt together now for Bekah's birthday party in about 2 weeks!

Here are some of the lovely flowers that Wendy embroidered on the block before I started any work. She also did all the embroidery you see on the seams.

For this princess block since it had a strong strawberry feel to it I went with that theme. I added the orange butterfly sequins floating about the block.

Then the princess in the center needed some pink, red and white additions to make her blend better so where there was aqua bits I covered the hem with white and red lace and appliqued it down then I added a cut out of some vintage pink and red lace that looks like a bow with a red sequin and bead. At the top of her bodice I added a bit of silk ribbon trim that is red and pink. I gave her red bead earrings, and in her hand is a tatted red rose that a tatting friend gave to me!
At the very bottom I attached a silk ribbon flower motif.

At the top I added in some little pink flower bits and a tatted rabbit the same tatting friend gave to me! The pink and green seam treatment you see is all Wendy's work!

To this patch I put Rebekah's nickname "Bekah" in red floss and sprinkled it with pearly white flower buttons attached with pink floss and accented with lazy daisy leaves.

This side patch has Wendy's seam treawtments but I added the strawberry motif!
The strawberries were reclaimed from a toddler's shirt I found at the thrift store for 25 cents. I added stem stitch stems in green perle cotton. I also added a felt flower I had in my stash.

For the strawberry leaflet I filled in the leaf shapes with fly stitches and then went back around the edges with blanket stitching to create the texturedness of stawberry leaves!

A Piece of Heritage: Finished

I've finally finished it! If you are curious about the journey you can look back in my blog. Here is a link: A Piece of Heritage

Here is a nice close up for you. Click on any of the photos to see them larger.

I added a gold/pearl button to the top button cluster because I felt I need to add that gold color up there too.

Then I finished off the floral motif by adding seed beads the the center of the spiderweb roses and added sweetheart roses in a sepia type color. I think that finishes it of nicely!

I put it in the frame but not with the glass because it is not a shadow-boxed type of frame.
Now it's all ready to give to my Mother-In-Law!

Purple Tatted Heart Necklace

Here is yet another Tatted Heart Necklace for a birthday girl in my small group! Done in size 80 variegated purple DMC thread.

The Love Out Loud Sleepover

In our Youth Group I'm a Co-Leader of a Girls Small Group ('Love Out Loud' is our groups name) with Terri and we had a sleepover at my house!!! It was so much fun too!
First thing in the morning we had Crepes! I pre-made everything the day before so all I had to do was warm everything up in the morning! They were a lot of work beforehand but it was worth it. I had a request for them by one of the girls and as I was making 2 batches taking me 2 hours I thought...why did I agree to do this? LOL But then the happiness when I told her about them was exactly why. She was thrilled AND everyone loved them too thus making all the work and effort worthwhile in every way. LOL

Then we started to decorate flannel pillowcases for our group. I pre-sewed the cases from colorful flannel fabrics so that we could embellish them together (the fun part!). I also pre-made some heart appliques out of flannel prints.

Here is Terri ready to learn! She's never embroidered before.

I went around showing everyone how to do the blanket stitch around their applique hearts.

I also showed them how to create their own designs using stencils and a fade away pen or a pencil (we used both). Above is Amanda and she did the star in backstitch and found that it was very soothing and wants to do embroidery on her own now! I was plesantly surprised! I wasn't sure this would get a good reception from the girls but sure enough they all seemed to love it! Also I promised them a CQ day in the future because they saw Stephanie and Amanda's CQ pillows and wanted to make some too!

Here is Elizabeth, she already knew how to embroider so she was off and running. She's very creative and made bows to applique on the designs too. Right here she's shoving her needle through a bow! LOL

Here's Terri's work!

And here is what I was working on!
I had taken more photos but my new camera seems to "eat" photos and I don't know what happens to them they just mysteriously disappear. I know I had more than these yet where are they? Hubby is going to try to recover them off the SD card so if I find them I'll update this post.

Princess Block: #4 Complete

Here is another Princess Block that I've completed!

I started by adding a piece of pink tulle to the princesses hat and a teddy bear button in her hand Then I started adding jewel butterflies and sequin butterflies are fluttering around the block.

I added a rainbow braid to the right corner and above it added Rebekah's name using running stitch in pink and whipped it in purple, then added yellow and green buttons.
There is also some pre-made silk ribbon flowers that I attached above the princess.

The bouquet is made of of different ways to make flowers like using lace gathered together and a blue tulle gathered, an organza yo yo flower and some leaves made from lace. I added some feathers and buttons beads and some reclaimed wedding lace leaves and tatting that had been reclaimed from a mistake a friend was working on instead of getting trashed.

I added little buttons and running stitch "seams" to the patchwork print along with a fairy button.

Pretty Stash in Jars

Recently I was inspired to put stash in those pretty jars you find for the kitchen and have it out in the open so when I was browsing target I got 3 in different sizes. One for lace, DMC floss, and silk ribbon spools. I love it!
Here's a link to the glass jars online.

I put them on top of my little curio cabinet for now. I can reach them and they are out of the way yet I can see them. It's a fun way to have some of my stash, I enjoy it.

A Piece of Heritage: Almost Finished

I'm almost done with this piece! I finished sewing down what I'd planned so far, and I still have some more to do. You'll get to see that later but for now let me show you what I added since the last update.

You can click on the photos to see them larger. I added some vintage bugle beads with some tiny size 15 gold seed beads on the seam at the top of the photo then I stopped at the next seam and added tiny vintage buttons down the length of it.
I also added a pearl and pearl colored seed beads to the butterfly and a vintage button above the butterfly with a tiny stone star bead in the center!
I love how the seams around the photo are embellished and frame it nicely.
I adore this project so much! The colors and the feel of it, I think it's one of my faves I've ever done. LOL But then I think every project is my fave ever at the time! LOL Maybe it's that it feels special to me and it's in a style I've wanted to do for a long time.

Baby Shower Gift

I made these for a soon to be born baby girl named Eden! They are iron on transfers from a Monogram book that I put onto pre-made receiving blankets I bought.

This one I filled in the 'E' with yellow stem stitching and also stem stitched the vines in. The flowers are pink french knots.

On this 'E' I chain stitched the outline in pink and then chain stitched the flowers too I love how it gives them a dimensional look! The center of the flowers are french knots with 3 strands of thread to make them large. The leaves and the outline of the 'E' are done in stem stitch.

A Piece of Heritage: inspired

With Mother's Day coming up I thought I would dig out this "Heritage" block and start working on it! I don't know why I didn't get it out sooner but sometimes that's just how it is. Anyway at least it's out now and I'm finally making progress it will be finished soon! I started out putting in 3 spiderweb roses and then ideas started forming and I held tryouts for hours! LOL

I added this button cluster of vintage mother of pearl buttons and a silk ribbon bow on the large one. To the left you see the flower in the antique lace has a sequin and a cream pearl pinned, if you look at the large photo you'll see two vintage leaves pinned too with some small light cream lace on the seam underneath.
I also added a butterfly applique Lillian had given me!

I'm still adding to this motif, the 3 spiderweb roses started it all then the vintage wedding lace, the vintage rhinestone and cream pearls, and finally the bronze leaves. I'm planning on adding cream sweetheart roses mixed in.

I coffee dyed the butterflies, one is an applique and the other is a little tatted butterfly that Gerard made and I had saved for just the right spot! I figured it was perfect for his Mom's special block.
I also added a simple feather stitch to the seam in cream bamboo thread!
I have a few other special ideas to finish off this block but I'm saving them for later, plus I need to finish sewing these things down! LOL
It's such a special block I just love it!

New Couch Pillow Covers!

Click on the photo to see it larger
I found this fabric at Fabric.com designed by Anna Griffin (my favorite) and bought a little and fell in LOVE with the print! I ordered some more not really knowing what I was going to do with it just that I wanted it badly! LOL I just love the way the flowers are gathered together, so free flowing and the selection of flowers and colors just speak to me! So elegant yet relaxed and comfortable at the same time! So when we started house hunting and found one we love and have made an offer on I started thinking about what my new living room would look like if we got the house. I thought hey my red curtains will go in the living room now with the couch and I thought my fave fabric is the perfect tie it all together thing! So I decided to make some new pillowcovers for our couch and loveseat. I found this great tutorial for envelope pillowcovers, and made 4 for the smaller pillows which are 22x22. I'm going to do the larger 24x24 pillows later when I find a good complimentary fabric.

Mr &Mrs Pillowcase Set for Us

I loved the Mr & Mrs set I made for a wedding gift so much I made a set for us too using my favorite colors!

Mr &Mrs Pillowcase Set

Here is a Mr & Mrs pillowcase set that I just embroidered for a wedding gift! I love how simple the design is it's an Aunt Martha's Iron on pattern. Dark blue stem stitch for the words and center of the flowers in french knots. Light blue lazy daisy stitches for the flowers and green lazy daisy stitches for the leaves.