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!