Dainty Purse

Yesterday I decided to make a purse with a dainty heart motif. I got the idea for the heart motif from Julia who has the most beautiful heart motifs on her blog using a feather stitch with beads as a base and then adding flowers.

I used light blue satin fabric with a coordinating cotton print for the lining. Satin ribbon for handles, and organza ribbon for a tie closure. I used 7mm ecru silk ribbon for the flowers, 4mm green for the leaves, and 1 strand floss for the feather stitching with tiny size 15 seed beads. I also added a small Czech glass bead to the center of the large flower.

The purse is 6 1/4 inches tall by 5 3/4 inches wide.

I think this purse will make a great Christmas gift for someone on my list!

Meeting Lillian!

From left to right is Rebekah, Wendy, Lillian, Melissa

Yesterday I finally got to meet Lillian! Sunday Lillian drove up and came to church with us, and we did lunch and went to Wendy's house! We had so much fun! Lillian and I met at the Hand Embroidery Yahoo Group a year ago and quickly became friends. We talk all the time (practically everyday LOL), so it was wonderful to finally talk in person! I brought pretty much all my embroidery and crazy quilt stuff I have, and have done, and got to share it with her. And she brought her very first crazy quilt, which she says isn't all that great but I say it's wonderful and very beautiful! Me and Wendy were drooling all over it! LOL It was the very first crazy quilt quilt I have seen in person! It inspires me to keep going with my bedspread! I wish I could have seen more of her work, but since her visit stateside was last minute because of sad circumstances, that wasn't possible. I also wish we could have had a few more days to visit, that would have been awesome!

Silk Ribbon Embroidered Jacket Finished

I have finally finished my Jacket!!!
Doesn't the beading add that special touch! I love it! I added pink Swarovski crystals to the vines, and larger green fire polished Czech glass beads in the center. I can't wait to wear it now!

Tatted Edging for a Sweater Finished

Motif #16 of the 25 Motif Challenge

Well I finally finished the cuffs for my sweater! I can't wait to wear it now, but lately we've had a bit of a warmer weather but that can change in a day! I bought this sweater about 3 years ago at Old Navy and I've worn it since, and now it's got a touch of new on it and when the sweater does wear out I can reuse the tatting!!! I love the fact that the tatting will outlast the sweater. I'll probably do this to more of my sweaters.

What I've been working on lately

Lately I've been toggling a few different projects so I thought I'd give a little update on them.

Here is the last block for the Windsong Jewels DYB RR. When I made the blocks it was my first RR and I was so excited that I didn't think about what I was going to do with them when I got them back! LOL So I didn't realize that the colors in the blocks don't really match my decor to make a wall hanging with them. I did make a purse out of 2 of them and I'm thrilled with it, but I can't make purses out of all of them! Then as I was visiting my friend Wendy I noticed that the colors in the blocks could have been taken straight from her couches! So I decided to gift them to her to use as art in her living room. I know she will treasure them! She says she is going to frame them and put them around a painting over her couch, it's going to look perfect! So I'm embroidering the last block with her in mind.

I used a fade away pen to draw words on the block. I put Love (stem stitch 1 strand floss) in the center because without love it's all meaningless. I put Family in a dainty green cursive (whipped backstitch in 1 strand YLI silk floss) because family is aways growing. Then I added Friendship in 6 strands YLI silk floss that is couched with 1 strand gold floss, so it feels kind of like a princess dress, because finding true friendship is a treasure. I also added Joy (stem stitch 1 strand floss) because that is usually the result of these things!

Then I've also sewn the finished blocks from the Summer Breeze DYB RR together end to end and tacked it up on the wall temporarily to see what it will look like. As you can see the colors go perfect with my decor! I'm trying to decide if I want to finish the last block and add it too. Then I'm going to sew on a 2 inch boarder I'm thinking in red Dupioni silk to finish the wall hanging.

And here is my nearly finished edging for the 2nd sleeve of my sweater! I only have to finish up that last repeat and sew it onto the sleeve!

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!