CQJP 2012 May Block

I have finished the work on my May CQJP 2012 project.  I am pretty happy with it.  I think that filling it up more and making bigger stitches has made a difference.

May CQJP 2012 Block

I tried to do a version of a crinoline lady.  I tried to fill in the background with some flower stalks made of buttonhole wheels. There are flower bushes made of French Knots and French knots were also used to embellish the Fly stitch seam treatment on the left. You can also see a closeup of one of the butterflies that I have mentioned in previous posts.  The butterfly pattern can be found here. You can find other butterfly patterns on my Crochet page. Here is a close up of that section:

Close up of CQJP2012 May Block 

I get so much inspiration from the web.  In the picture below you can see the bottom lace piece was embellished with a Cable Chain stitch.  This was the stitch for week 25 of the TAST on Pin Tangle  The pink flowers running vertical along the right side of the crinoline lady were inspired by an article about Granitos on NeedlenThread.  You may like to know, that Mary Corbett has created an alphabetical listing of her stitch videos which she talks about in this post.

2nd View of CQJP 2012 May block

I have really enjoyed this block. Now I am going to get my June block started.

Theresa E

April CQ Block 2012

I am going to get my blog posts caught up!  I will!  I will! I will!  With that being said, here is a picture of my April 2012 CQJP.


April 2012 CQJP

 The white flowers at the bottom right were crocheted with #3 cotton.  The birdcage motif was really fun to embroider.  I found the image on Pinterest which is a very addictive site.  If you would like to see some of the images I have acquired, you will find a link in the right side bar. 

This block also looks a little bare.  It will benefit by adding some of the crocheted butterflies.  The butterflies are not ready to show yet, but I can tease you by saying that they are crocheted with variegated size 20 thread.

Looking at the block, I think that I need to make my stitches bigger.  Especially since I am using DMC 5 thread.

Also, I see some patterns that are emerging.  I seem to want white in the blue outside corners.  This project is to make 2 pillow shams using 6 blocks each.  There is a least one piece of white lace in each block and I have one embroidered motif in each block.  I have them hanging on my project wall and they do seem to belong together.  I am looking forward to see how they finish up.

Theresa E

Bookmarks, Updates & New Year Opportunities

 A long silence and then two posts in one day.  Well I have been busy, but I wanted to post some updates. 

Garden Trellis Bookmarks

I have finished my bookmark project.  I made two each of these.  One set was for me and the other set was added to the bookmarks that you can see here and contributed to the Arts and Craft Auction with proceeds going to the Sub for Santa campaign. With these 5 and 11 butterfly bookmarks, a total of 16 bookmarks were contributed. The starting bid was $5 and most of them have bids already.  The auction will continue for 2 more weeks.I did make an extra pink rose bookmark for my daughter. 



All of my bookmark supplies have been put away.  I always find it a little sad to finish up a project and put all of the supplies away.  But then, that is only for as long as it takes to pull out the supplies for the next project.  What now, you ask?  I have all of my red, white and green thread out.  The plans are to make some clothes pin angels for Christmas decorations.



November Progress on the Butterfly in Chains Pillow Cases



I have also made a little progress on my pillowcases.  Not as much as I had hoped, but then I've been making hats.  Both cases are at the same place and look like the photo on the right.  I find that I have to work pillow cases simultaneously or I finish one and not the other.  The final result is want I want to see so as long as they are both kept up, I keep moving along.

If you remember, I am doing a study in Chain stitch.   I filled in the central butterfly with Chain stitch.  The outline of the two end butterflies was done with Cable Chain stitch and the scallops have been embroidered using the Heavy Chain stitch.  Next I want to brush up on Rosette Chain and Detached Chain on some of the flower groupings.

Which reminds me. Sharon B is going to run a new year of TAST! See this Pin Tangle blog entry for more details.  I know that I have signed up.  This is an opportunity to work with others learning new embroidery stitches and developing one's embroidery skills under the expert tutelage of Sharon.

I m also very excited about the Crazy Quilt Journal Project - 2012.  Please be sure to click on the link for information about signing up.  I have also included the banner on the  right side of the blog. I first saw information about this new project on Kathy Shaw's blog, Shawkl.  According to her website, J. Marsha Michler is an honorary Chairperson for the year 2012.


November Progress overall on CQ crochet hook roll-up.



I love working on my current CQ block.  This is going to be a crochet hook roll up and I have made a lot of use of crochet applique. The center has been covered up by a crochet basket and some crocheted flowers. Currently, I am beading the crocheted butterflies.  There are also embroidered butterflies that flit around the basket.  I still have seam treatments to do.  The plan is to embellish the crochet hearts with some silk ribbon embroidery.  Here are some closeups!





November Progress on CQ Crochet Hook Roll Up Right





November Progress on CQ Crochet Hook Roll Up Center

 

November Progress on CQ Crochet Hook Roll Up Left


Theresa



Still More Butterflies

I am done with the Butterfly Bookmarks.  I have to admit that they did turn out very nice. Turn out is a good phrase for what I've done.  I have a set of 5 and so does my daughter.  I have 10 of them to contribute to the Arts and Craft Auction for United Way.  I have also given out so many that I forgot to count them.  Here's a photo of 5 in all the colors that I used.




Butterfly Set


The tassels are what put the finishing touch on these.  I used some of the cotton thread and added various ribbons that I had on hand. I picked up a tassel tool a long time ago and decided it was time to make the investment pay.  I don't remember how much I spent on it as I am sure it came from a Yard Sale of Thrift Store. I wouldn't call it a necessity, but it was fun.  Here is a picture of it.




Trim-It, a Tassel Tool


I was curious about the tool and did a search. I did not find this tool but I did find Crystalites Tassel Tool, Tassel Master,  and Tasselitt.

There was also an interesting Tassel Making Primer at Pretty Impressive Stuff. Did you know that you can make beautiful tassels out of fringe and cord?

The tassel makes the bookmark, well the word that comes to mind is flutter by.  This is a term that has been coined by Kelly Fletcher on her blog, Materialistic - A Blog about Stitching on a series of free butterfly designs for surface embroidery.  I love her work.  This is her 3rd set of patterns.  She has already released Jacobean Leaves and Bloomin' Marvelous.

While we are talking about butterfly patterns, I wanted to mention that last week I saw an e-Bay listing for the Butterfly Shade Pull that I listed in a previous post. I recognized the graphic used as it was taken right off the web site.  It had a minimum bid of $4.95 and free shipping.  I wonder how many times this seller has charged someone $5 to provide them with this link.  I think this is shameful!  I know that it is important to be an educated consumer, especially in a forum such as e-Bay.

I have put away this project.  The The Trim-It tool is in the sewing tool box.  The scissors, hooks and remaining threads and ribbon have been put away. BTW - I used 5 full skeins of #10 crochet thread. Now it is time to move ahead to the next project which is a CQ crochet case.

During the Basic CQ class hosted by StitchMap, I made two extra pieced blocks.  I have seamed them together.  Once I have finished embellishing them, I plan to make a crochet case.  Here is a photo of them as they are now:

Nearly Naked CQ Crochet Case