Showing posts with label 2014cqjp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2014cqjp. Show all posts

Thursday, December 11, 2014

August's Block

Oh my, I'm way behind on the CQJP 2014 Challenge.  This is my eighth block.  

But...this is a 20 block project and there are 12 left to do, so I'm going to do a bock-a-month in 2015.


My aim at the beginning of this project was to drown it in lace, and that worked with couples, ladies and babies, but it wasn't so easy with the boy.  I did find a lovely piece of European lace in Wilmas' stash at the September Retreat.  

I love making bullion flowers with Caron Watercolours thread.  It's a 12 which is thin, but the variegations are just lovely.

This unusual bit of metal flower has been in my stash forever.  It was the perfect centrepiece for this button cluster

I have this cheapo dollar store ruler with lovely scallops that I use in nearly every project.  Here's one example.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

August's CQJP 2014 Block

This year's CQI Retreat was super.  The largest group so far in the seven years this has been running.  I think about 26 or so ladies, many that I had met before and were already friends, and lots of new crazy quilters to get to know.  The Retreat was from Wednesday afternoon until Sunday morning, and it's amazing how much we did in that small amount of time.  The organizing ladies did a super job. Elizabeth from the Kansas City area, and Cathy K. and 
Gerry H from Colorado made it happen - thanks!!  

Rather than take a mountain of projects and embellishments, I travelled with only two of the CQJP blocks, July and August.  I finished the August one, and here it is:


August's CQJP2014 Block
My sister Helena
If you look extra closely, I still have a few tiny Charlottes to go around the photograph, I actually ran out of them, even to looking between the couch cushions!

  

Friday, April 18, 2014

Emily's CQJP2014 block finished


I was lucky to have a lovely crochet doily in variegated lilacs that I cut in half for this block.  I am making good progress on this year's journal project.  This is the sixth block finished out of 20 for the project.  I need to do almost two blocks a month to finish by the end of the year.    

This is Josh, my next block to work on.  

Monday, April 7, 2014

CQJP 2014 Next Naked Block

This is Emily, Suzie and John's daughter and Jack's younger sister, and one of my three grand daughters.  The block is mainly lilacs and already there are a couple of areas that were already embroidered:  the pansies are from the corner of a hankie, and the bottom left fabric is a sheer net embroidered with lilac flowers.

I still have more than a week left of my vacation and I'm hoping to finish this block and one more.  

Friday, April 4, 2014

CQJP 2014 May's Block finished

This was such a lot of fun to work on.  Because the photo and frame took quite a bit of room on the block, each seam and area of fabric patch was short and small.   So I was continually changing stitches and threads.

This little spray was a surprise to me.  I'm not good at drawing or designing this type of thing.  But this one began with just one big cross drawn on the fabric.  The centre button stands out and then, as you can see, I added some bits and pieces, embroidered some leaves, and it looks pretty. 

Here's some of the Kiko flowers that Sharon B. taught us in Connecticut a few years ago.  

The hankie formed the frame for the picture, and because it was so delicate, I didn't want to overly embellish it.  I left it to the very last and in the end used every single fresh water pearl I had in my "brought to Florida" stash and it looked just right.


I do have my next block pieced together and photographed, but I have a Mac laptop now and my photo is on it, but I haven't figured out how to get it to this screen.


Sunday, March 30, 2014

April's Block but really only February's

Moving right along with the blocks for the 2014 CQ Journal Project.  

The finished quilt will have 20 blocks and I'm hoping to have it finished in the 12 months of 2014, which means I need to do 1 2/3 blocks per month.  

That is a daunting thought!  So far I have finished  4 blocks (4 x 3/3 is 12 thirds) and that is the equivalent of January and February (5/3 + 5/3 = 10/3) and 2/3 of this block to go towards March's block.  

Maybe that's altogether too much math.

This is my daughter Suzie as a baby.  The block is a bit wild, but it does go with her red dress!

The next block is Heather, my younger daughter.  I had this wonderful old fine lawn hankie edged with tiny rosebuds.  I didn't want to cut it up, so I laid the photo on top and folded the hankie around to make a frame.  I am without sewing machine while on holiday, and these blocks are all hand sewn, so they all look a little bubbly. 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

CQJP 2014 March block finished

This is March's block and these are my grandparents on my mother's side.  The block turned out rather fancy, but I don't think that my grandmother had many beaded or sequinned clothes, they were very much from the working class.  She worked very hard to giver her four daughters a decent education and a chance for the future.


April's naked block.
This is Suzie, my eldest daughter at about 10 months old.  I remember making her the red dress for Christmas.  


Friday, March 7, 2014

March's CQJP Block

This is my mother's parents.  I met my Grampa many times, but my Grandmother died tragically when my mum was about 11 years old. 


I've also been working on other projects to do with my Crazy Quilt class running at the local quilt store.  I made this small drawstring bag as an end product sample from two small blocks.  
The pink side, with pretty simple stitches.  The basic block construction from the middle out.

Under the Sea side which is a bit more challenging and is put together as a scenic block.


I've had the class for over a year now.  It runs in 4-month sessions, and I have a couple of students who are now on their 5th session.  

I've been making a fabric book of samples of the things I teach and as more inspiration.  The "pages" are 12' X 7" and fold in half.  I wanted to be able to add stitching to the pages at any time, but wanted to hide the back also.

Some fool's gold work

Folded and gathered flowers and different kinds of leaves

This page is mostly simple silk ribbon

One of the stitch pages - feather and cretan

Silk ribbon flowers.  

I've added metal eyelet holes.  I'll use two rings to hold everything together.   I have 12 pages made so far and I'm finding it really useful.  I'm also working on an instruction book to go along with each fabric page.




Sunday, February 16, 2014

CQJP 2014 - February's Block


This is my second block in the CQJP 2014 challenge which is  to finish one block or item a month for a year, and then make them into something.  


This is the naked block with a few pieces of lace added.  I'm trying to use more lace than I usually do.


Here it is finished.  The centre photo is of my parents at the beginning of their honeymoon on Jersey.  This was just two days before World War 2 began.  On their second day, my father was recalled to his RAF unit.  



 I'm doing a series of blocks that represents my grandparents, parents, siblings and my children and my grandchildren.  A total of 20 blocks.

Ribbon roses.   Above the roses you can see a piece of lace where I added a small piece of orange satin under the lace flower.


I added a lot of beads and stitching to the two rows of lace trim and I like the effect. The centre bead began as a small white glass flower and changed completely with some gold thread.

This was in my stash, and isn't it lovely.  A crochet flower with variegated thread gives a nice pattern.

A little patch of roses.


Saturday, January 11, 2014

January's CQJP2014 block

I love it when I have a project that I don't want to put down.   January's block was like that, and is pretty well finished I think. 

 
There is an empty piece of pink satin at the bottom, but I may use that space to embroider the name of the person (me) there, maybe using waste canvas.  I haven't decided whether to put the names on the block, on the sashing pieces, or on the back.


SRE roses and leaves on the left, and some beading on a really nice piece of lace

Velvet ribbon flowers and lots of cast on stitches using one of the Colour Variation Perle 5 threads.

I found this lacy looking embroidery in "Bead Embroidery Stitch Samples" by Yasuko Endo.  I used a #10 crochet cotton.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

CQJP2014

The annual Journal Project encourages me to tackle larger projects and finish them.  2011's quilt was the "Flower Quilt"

2012's was the "Fan Quilt"

2013's began, but I didn't finish it.  

2014 is going to be a family quilt with photos. Gerry Kruger gave me some excellent advice on her Blog "Block Talk", about adding lace, upon lace, upon lace to ultimate richness, and I'm doing my very best....

Naked Block

With some lace and embroidery added and having a bit of fun trying to be lavish!