January 31, 2011

Doll Swap - Updated!!

 LInking up today over at Quilt Story and Fabric Tuesday  and linking up also at Kim's and Get Your Craft On!

Edited to add:  This is the doll that I have made to swap.  I had a doozie of a time with her face and hair... I am no artist as you can well see.  I think she looks kind of magical in a way.  maybe her owner will love her!
 Barbara sent these 2 cuties in!
I will be mailing dolls home tomorrow morning! :)

I have just hosted my first doll swap on the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Forum.  The participant list was slim but that is ok.  It was a trial run to see if anyone would want to do it.

I am afraid that some might be wishing they had joined once they see the dolls that are coming in to be swapped.

Here are the first 2!!

How about you?? Would any of my readers be interested in joining a doll swap?

This doll was submitted by Nancy!
 This doll was submitted by Elizabeth!

January 27, 2011

When Quilters Come Together.... (updated)

Linking up today over at Kim's and her feature Get Your Craft On!

...... there is nothing they cannot do!

The who and why cannot be told just yet but I wanted to post a progress photo so some of the friends who are helping with this might see!  If all things go well, the story will come next week!  Stay tuned!
And this morning the 2nd quilt to go with the story is ready for quilting! Sorry about the photo being a little crooked.. Hubby exercised with me this morning and his arms were sore. hehe :)
I love working with the color blue.. any and all shades but I do have to say that the teal and turquoise family steals my heart!  I wish I had more of these fabrics to make myself a quilt with later. 

If you have a favorite color that you like to work with head on over to Paula's and enter her bi-weekly sewing challenge!


I am linking up this Wednesday with these fabulous bloggers!

Lee over at Freshly Pieced and WIP Wednesday!

Robin over at All Things Heart and Home and All Things Inspired!

Olivia over at Olivia Renn and Hump Day Linky Love!

January 22, 2011

My 2010 Favorite Creation!

Thank you for taking the time to visit my link that is a part of the Crazy Quilts Are Quilts Too Show!

If you had asked me 3 years ago would I ever consider doing crazy quilting, I would have said no.  I had never been drawn to it but I did love to look at other people's work.  Although you could give me a needle anytime and I would sit for hours handquilting, taking the time to sew on beads and do the hours of embroidery that crazy quilting takes, never intriqued me.  Until a couple of years ago when my friend Nicki talked me into joining one of her CQ One Block Swaps!  I could not believe just how much I enjoyed using my imagination and creating a piece for a friend.

Of course, that first piece was nothing much to look at.  I wish I could do that piece over but we all have to start somewhere.  My CQ abilities have grown by leaps and bounds over the past 2 years and I thoroughly enjoy creating the pieces I work on.  It is like someone else takes over my body and I am mesmerized by what is transpiring right before my eyes!

Of the few things that I was able to get completed in 2010 this CQ piece for my granddaughter Allie takes top honors of being the best thing I think I have ever created in my life!  I was very proud of what I had accomplished when I looked at the final piece!

My good friend Nicki issued a challenge to the HGTV quilters to create a crazy quilt block using a teacup, 2 fabrics, 2 charms and a piece of lace.  You could use any and all other supplies that you wanted but these things had to be part of your block.  She was going to have 1st - 3rd prizes after the ladies who had made the blocks, voted for their top 3!

I won 1st place!!  The prize was $100.00 which I spent in Nicki's Etsy shop! Ravioleedreams

My block was designed for my granddaughter, Allie. Her birthday was in October and this is her gift from me. She loves ALL things pink...EVERY new outfit she bought for school this year is...pink...I kid you not... We do get her in other colors but if she could wear pink every day of the year, she would be as happy as a little pig in the mud!

Every time we go home, she always talks Butch into getting in her bedroom floor with her and they have a tea party. She has dress up clothes that she wears but she hasn't talked Butch into dressing up yet but he does drink her "tea"...But bless her poor little dogs heart...she makes her dress up in a frilly tutu skirt and ribbons in her hair... Allie is a mess!!

The first photo is of Allie and my grandson Parker... As you can see, a rare non-pink moment for Allie. :)


And here is the block with lots of close up photos...


Below are a few more pieces of my work since this Tea Party piece!  I am trying to expand on my work and hope that I can take my work over the top in the next coming months!








I am linking this post to "It's a Social Hop like Crazy Party" ran by Denyse @ My Crazy Beautiful Life!

January 13, 2011

TeaTime Crazy Quilting Round Robin

I participated in a crazy quilt round robin with a group of ladies from CQI over the past few months and have just sent the remainder of the work I did on to my friend in CA!  I also received my own block home this week!  Here are some photos to share with you!

Nicki's work on my block:  I LOVE!! the over-embellishing she did to this teacup!!  Organza roses, silk ribbon used to look like the cup is full of tea, couched copper fiber, beads and embroidery!!  It is fabulous! 
Here she used a piece of lace and stitched down a teapot charm with a sequin flower and silk ribbon embroidery for the leaves.  The red and green seam treatment was also worked by Nicki and extends on the opposite side of the teacup as well.
 Another seam treatment worked by Nicki.  It also extends on the opposite side of the teacup.  She used gold sequins and white beads for the centers... lovely!
 To finish, she laid down a silk flower and added a gold flower bead to the center.  She added stitching with gold metallic thread.


My work on Nicki's block.. I am beginning to enjoy seam embellishing and had a lot of fun with both of these seam treatments! Adding the butterflies finished off this space perfectly!
 I love adding words to my projects and found these acrylic stamps at JoAnn's. I made a hole at the top and bottom so I could sew them on.  They are perfect for CQ!
 This lace motif was dyed by Nicki herself.  No better time than to re-gift it back to her! If you would love to own some of her gorgeous hand dyed laces visit her Etsy Shop: RavioleeDreams!

 I used gold metallic thread and embellished around the goldwork of the teacup.
 I LOVE using the Flower Fairies on my CQ pieces!  I fussy cut them out of the fabric with fusible applied and then over-embellish them to the piece!  You can see the french knots for the hair and the gold metallic threadwork on the wings when you blow the photo up full size.
A larger view of the Flower Fairy with more of Nicki's hand dyed laces!
 This lower corner was small so I added a piece of lace to represent a tablecloth and added a teapot and teacup charm.  I hope she liked what I did for her!

Diane's work on my block:  This little lady spent many hours on my block over-embellishing 2 teacups as well as my teapot and then taking the time to also do a seam treatment!!  The seam treatment is worked with a vine worked with silk ribbon, glass beads for flowers, acrylic flowers, and glass leaves.  The teacup is gorgeously embellished with silk ribbon, tiny beads, and gold metallic threads!
 Close up of the embellishing! Awesome detailed work!
The 2nd teacup Diane embellished!  Tiny french knots for the flowers, pearl cotton couched down around the perimeter of the cup with tiny gold beads, and gold metallic thread to finish! LOVE it!!
 The teapot was also embellished by Diane!  Tiny french knots for the flowers and tiny french knots for the leaves!  Gold and blue threads for outlining various areas of the teapot and outline stitch on the bottom of the teapot with a varigated pearl cotton.  This girl went above and beyond on my block!
My work to Diane's block: The seam treatment is worked to fall above and below the seam to fill the space well using glass hearts and seed beads.  The organza doily was stitched down with tiny pink beads and the teapot and teacups were added to finish it off. I also gave her one of the acrylic words!  I love using those!
 Another seam treatment using glass flower beads and seed beads and embroidery.  The metal bird charm was sent to me in a buy-in I participated in with Nicki.
 The light pink area is embroidery embellished with pink seed beads.  The lace trim on the seam is organza with beads and ribbon flowers.  I cannot remember where I obtained the bird charm but I thought he was perfect for this area!
Cathy L's work on my block:  Using organza ribbon she stitched it down to look like steam coming out of the teacup and also fussy cut an Earl Grey tag out of some fabric and stitched it down to hang over the edge of the cup.  She also stuffed a piece of fabric and put it on a piece of lace to represent a bon-bon.
 Cathy also crocheted a hat and stuffed the inside so it would stand up well and embellished it with ribbon roses.  Her seam treatment is beautiful with silk ribbon roses and an embroidered vine with rosebuds!

My work on Cathy L's block:  I used organza beaded lace on the seam and then stitched a vine in the pink section.  I embellished the vine with porcelain flowers and 2 teapot charms.  In the small white area above that I laid down a piece of organza lace and added a teapot charm, sequin flowers, and embroidered leaves with silk ribbon. Nicki had worked this on my block and I loved it and this spot was perfect for something very similar.
 Close up of the organza lace with sequin flowers.
Cathy's block did not have much work space left when it reached me and it had to go to the 5th person in our group so the work above was all I could do to the outer area of hers.  I finished off by embellishing part of her embroidered teapot that was in the middle.  I added pink beads between the embroidery and to the center of the flowers.

Carolyn's work on my block:  Carolyn had an old piece of linen that she cut and stitched right below the teapot in the center of my block to represent a tablecloth. She outline stitched a teabag to sit right below the teapot.  She also folded 2 pieces of linen to represent napkins and secured them to the other piece of linen.  She outline stitched a cherry on both napkins and stitched 2 cherries on the tablecloth. This was a really cute idea!!

My work on Carolyn's block: Carolyn actually sent along 2 pieces for us to work on and when it is complete, she will sew the 2 pieces together to make a tea cozy.  On one side of her cozy I painted a piece of lace in the shape of an open heart.  I then stitched it down and added white grosgrain ribbon which I twisted and couched down with beads.  I then added one of my porcelain faces that I bought off of an Etsy site (sorry, can't remember which).  The lady has blonde hair as does Carolyn and her hat matches the block perfectly!  To finish I added the butterfly to the right of the heart stitching him a flight path.
 On the 2nd side of the cozy I stitched down a piece of organza lace that had sequin flowers on the edges.  I then laid down an organza flower on top of that as well as a satin flower.  I then added a Victorian lady charm and a teapot charm to finish off this area.
 My last piece of work on the cozy are these sequin flowers.  I used pearl cotton for the stems and leaves.

Here is a full size photo of my block.  I plan to over-embellish the 4th teacup so it matches the other 3 cups and teapot.  I also need to do some kind of embroidery in the 4 corners because they are bare. I had thought about finishing it off in the octagonal shape but am afraid I could not bind the edges too well so I will do some kind of embroidery to finish the corners.  It shouldn't take too long.  I will show another photo once I have the block completed.

You can see some purple marks on one corner but that is where I have been drawing design ideas with the air erasable markers. :)