I'm still stitching!

I decided before I embarked on a big new project, I should do some actual crazy quilting to get back in the swing of things.  So I got a block put together for Chloe, my second granddaughter.  I made a block for Sophia, my first granddaughter, some years ago (it's the background on my blog) so I figured I better get with it and do one for Miss Chloe.  Her room is purple and pink so I went with that as a color scheme.  Unusual for a girl I know, but...  ;0)  Anyway, when I was sorting buttons while organizing my sewing room I discovered I have a HUGE amount of white buttons so I'm going to use quite a few on this piece.  It's coming along well and I'm quite pleased.

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I've been doing quite a bit of research on Medieval embroidery, textiles, images, themes and culture to prep for the Medieval CQ.  During my search I came upon a few blogs dealing with Medieval textile and embroidery, if you would like to take a peek.

http://bethsbluebellwood.blogspot.com/  She is doing an exhaustive examination of various embroidery stiches used during the medieval and later periods.

http://elmsleyrose.blogspot.com/  An embroidery, calligraphy and illumination blog.  She is especially interested in 16th and 17th century embroidery but the illumination comes from earlier periods.

http://gina-b.blogspot.com/  This is a silkwork and passementerie blog out of the UK.

http://m-silkwork.blogspot.com/    A group blog about textiles and costumes of the late middle ages and early modern times.

http://baroqueembellishments.blogspot.com/  She is an embroiderer and pattern maker mostly interested in the Elizabethan and Renaissance eras. 

On a post in July on Baroque Embellishments Kimberly was all excited about discovering an online copy of a book, published in 1606, by ThomasTrevelyon (or Trevelian).It was pretty exciting to me, too!   It is on the Folger Shakespeare Library website and, beginning on page 7 (scroll down) there are quite a few pages of designs for blackwork embroidery.   A later edition (1616) is described  on Maggs Rare Books and contains a quite extensive history of Thomas and descriptions of his books.

It was in this book that I finally distilled the design I wanted on the focal piece.  On this design for a coif (cap) I found the perfect shape for the corners of the focal piece, with the added bonus that it incorporated a fleur-di-lis, an image I wanted to have on the final CQ banner.

I simplified the design for ease of transfer and then, primarily using the swirling vines from this image, I came up with this design for one quarter of the piece:

I traced the focal piece on to some graph paper and then transferred this design to all four corners of the outline on the graph paper.

It needed some adjusting but I played with it for awhile and this is where it stands now:

I like it!! 

Back in the Game

Hey, ladies... hope all is well with you, especially those in Irene's path. 

I've been working on finishing up my Midsummer quilt.

I've been going block by block around the edges, finishing up the beading on each seam where I stopped short to allow a seam allowance.  Lots of sparklies!  It took me a few tries to figure out the best way to start each beading thread, since I didn't take the quilt apart to do the final bits.  I finally settled on just slipping the unknotted thread under the top layers of fabric, taking a couple of stitches hidden in a seam and starting the beading.  It worked quite well once I got the hang of it.  

I've also worked some more on the foreground along the bottom... adding more leaves on a couple of the groupings, as well as lots more beads and buttons to fill in the ground areas.  It's now laid out on my dining room table, waiting for me to gather my courage and tackle the center.  There's alot more to do on it but everything is set up so I hope to get started on it this week.  I need to finish 'cause I've got another project in the wings!

My next quilt will be based around this painting, "Meeting on the Turret Stairs."

One of the better known works of  Frederic William Burton, this watercolor was painted in 1864.  I have always loved it and when I decided my next CQ would be a piece for our bedroom, this image came to mind.  We have always been rather fascinated by the medieval era so this was a natural fit.  First I tried to decide on a design for the overall piece.  Me being me, it couldn't be a normal CQ, y'know!  ;0)  Anyway, this is the first design I came up with:

It was nice but not the size or shape I wanted... this one was next:

Ah... here we go, this is the right shape for a medieval CQ!  A little big, but much better.  Then I went looking for some heavy lace or doilies to use as inspiration... and I found this...

At approximately 16" x 22", it worked to frame the focal painting and had the added advantage of having gothic type arched corners and a tudor style flower at each end.  Oh, yes!  Now I had to adjust the overall design to accomodate this piece, like so:

And then on to this one:

And finally to this one, the final design, for now anyway:

 
This one... this one, I like!  That's all for now, but I'll be back later this week... pinky swear!  :0)

Christmas in Colorado

So, let's try this again.  This ranch where we spent a few days was really fabulous... here's the kitchen, with a Wolf range no less... fun!!



And this is the living room...

Here we are all snuggled up in front of the fire... we even had Direct TV!

It pretty much snowed the whole time we were there, so the kids made snowmen... TA-DA!

We got stuck going in because the road hadn't been plowed (the neighbor got his dates mixed up) so he came later and cleared out the snow...

And here is the view looking back as we left... it had cleared up and we could see for miles and miles...

OK... now please let me know if you can see this images... if not, it's back to the drawing board!!  ;0)

Snow!

Snow!, originally uploaded by Marty52.

We spent Christmas 2010 in Colorado. For a few days we were high up in the Never Summer Range... it was breathtaking!

I'm trying to get a catch-up post going, ladies, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to upload images from Flickr... Blogger has changed enough that I'm lost!  I used Flickr's blogging tool to upload and add info to the above photo but so far, that's as far as I've gotten.  I'll keep trying!

Crawling out from under...

Hello sweet ladies! I've been missing in action the last few months but I think I may have returned to the land of the bloggers. I'm feeling reenergized and ready to try and get some creative juices flowing again.

On June 4th I had reconstructive surgery on my left foot and the aftermath was rather... ummm... painful to say the least. I took short-term disability so I could stay home and recuperate because I wasn't allowed to put any weight on the foot for the next 10 weeks. I had expected to spend the whole time I was off doing lots of handwork... my Bead Journal Project specifically and then maybe some work on my Midsummer CQ. However, me being me, the stress of the surgery had my IBS flaring constantly so pretty much all I did was curl up in my recliner and feel like crawling in a hole and pulling the hole in after me. When I'm sick I can't create, all I can do is watch TV and maybe do some reading. It's so annoying!! ;0) I've seen a couple bloggers work while laid up at home and I'm so envious! Gah!

Anyway... here are some before and after xrays for your viewing pleasure:




I have high hopes of actually getting out this fall and walking through the neighborhood. I haven't been able to walk very far for quite some time. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Nothing creative to show you in this post... just wanted to let you know I didn't disappear into the ether. I've been reading your blogs but only commenting occasionally. There is so much happening out there... it's good to be back!

Yikes!

I had no idea it had been so long since I had posted... my how time flies when you aren't having fun!

Long story short... slip in the shower resulting in a torn rotator cuff and a pinched sciatic nerve that took months to show up resulting in sleepless nights and pain (now slowly resolving); yearly physical resulting in biopsy (no cancer so no problem except the pulled off skin from the tape... ouch!); middle child going through divorce; and sudden, urgent, totally encompassing need to read anything and everything I could get my hands on have taken over my life and I'm just now coming out from under all this. I think the reading part was an escapist ploy on behalf of my mental health!

So, here I am, determined to find my creative self and nurture her back to life. I've visited your blogs and have commented sometimes but not all the time, trying to get to everyone to see what you are doing. Anyway, I hope I'm back. I'm determined to be back!

Anyway, I've managed to piece my February block... meet Blue!

This started out as a regular crazy quilt block but when I looked at the fabrics they went in such a nice gradation of values that I decided to do some different piecing and I appear to have made some kind of flower. I'll probably bead it as a flower, too, so that should be fun! I also had a center piece that was decidely off center so I did a little bit of "fake" piecing. Here is the area of the added piece:


Up close and personal:

I sewed it down on the upper left side, then folded it over and, with the help of a tiny bit of WonderUnder, I fused that little puppy down. Then I carefully trimmed it to match the seams. Once I have it beaded, I don't think it will even be noticed.

If I was doing this on a regular crazy quilt block, I would lay rick-rack and/or lace along these two seam lines and it would be completely covered up, since it really is a very small piece of fabric.


And, since I was actually getting some piecing done, I moved on to March and here she is... just a regular CQ block... meet Blue-Green:

I love this color!

So, I've started beading on February and hope to have a progress shot up this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!

Mornin', ladies!

Hope all of you are well and stitching like crazy!

I joined the Bead Journal Project (BJP) this year, just to see what I can do with it. I wanted to keep it in the Crazy Quilt realm, since that is my favorite thing to do. First I needed to do the piecing on something a bit sturdier than just muslin in order to hold the beads well. I found a dress of Ultrasuede at Goodwill and decided it would be perfect for my needs. After cutting out the seams I had enough to make 12 8" squares for backing. When finished, each block should end up right at 6", which will make a nice size wall hanging.

Now that I had the backing and size determined, I needed a theme. I spent nearly the entire month of January coming up with and discarding various ideas. I've been wanting to do a rainbow or color wheel quilt for awhile, so that's where I finally ended up. The 12 months of the BJP will work perfectly with the 12 colors of the traditional color wheel. So, these are the 12 colors I'll be working with:


Taking a lead from others working the BJP, I printed out the color wheel, cut it in wedges and taped them on cards. I put them all in a box and blindly chose one for each of the 12 months. Here are the first 4 months of 2010:

January = Violet
February = Blue
March = Blue-green
April = Red

Another challenge I set myself was to use only stash items for both the fabric and the beads. I have since modifed that to allow myself to buy from Goodwill as long as the items are already discounted since my fabric stash was a little thin in an area or two.

Anyhoo, on to January. Here is the first pieced square, in Violet on light blue ultrasuede.

I love the center fabric! I decided I wanted to make it a fairly traditional block, so I did the seam treatments all in beads, here are some progress shots for your perusal:


First seam treatments with sequins as a base for short stacks, a ruffled seam and a fan.


Next came some intertwining lines of beads, a not very successful bugle bead set, some beads treated as cabochons and the beginnings of a fringed seam in the top right corner.

And here is the finished block for January:

The finished fringe on the upper right, more intertwined bead lines on the left, another fan, a flower and the lower right beads increased to a "shield."

I'm not sure how successful this block is; however, I'm viewing these 12 blocks as a major learning experience so to me it doesn't need to be a full success in order for me to learn something from it. I want to learn Robin's techniques and adapt them to crazy quilting. I imagine that as the year goes on, each block will teach me more and become more fully rounded as a "bead embroidery."

Although you can get up close and personal by clicking to embiggen each photo, I thought I would include a couple of close-ups here in case you are tired of clicking. ;0)







I'd appreciate your comments and thoughts on my first BJP piece.

Coming up for air...

Well, time sure flys when you are having fun, doesn't it?!?! Sheesh, I really need to spend more time here on my blog, don't I? I'll make that a belated New Year's resolution, howzat? ;0)

Anyhoo, further progress has been made. I want to give you some closeups of the bottom border... the woodland floor if you will. I'm really tickled at how it came out. My vision was pretty true on this portion of the quilt.

So, moving from left side to right side we have the following:








Here's a closer picture of the center portion of the bottom border:


Materials used to create the forest floor include:
- Crocheted leaves from thrifted doilies
- Butterfly and moth pins from antique stores & flea markets
- Beetles and tiny lizards from the interweb and garage sales
- Wood, shell and semi-precious beads from discarded necklaces and buttons from the stash
- A belt from a lace dress makes up the vine along with some chenille from SharonB

I had great fun putting all this together!

Now, for the center portion where we have a slightly off center Titania:

“Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night”

Cowslips:


A fairy lantern:


Bead embroidery:


That's all the closeups I have at this point. The quilt "finished" in a marathon of stitching and embellishing. It was squared up, a border was put on, everything was tacked down nice and tight and a false back put on. "One Midsummer Night" is on hiatus and has gone on a small journey to an exciting place. This is what she looks like now:

Click on the image and you'll wind up at flicker where you can see lots of detail in the "original" size under "All sizes."

When she returns from her journey, there will be more embellishing done and I'll take many closeups before she graces the wall of our bedroom. This has been a two and a half year journey of learning so very much about crazy quilting. I highly recommend tackling a large project at some point in your life as a crazy quilter; however, it may be quite awhile before I do it again! :0)

In other news, I have joined the the Bead Journal Project for this year. I'm excited about it but still haven't settled on a format and it's getting close to the end of January already! Stay tuned for more info on this rapidly developing story. LOL!

Thanks for staying with me through this last year of almost no blogging, I'll do better in the future. Pinky swear! ;0)