Crazy Quilting.........

I was given a gift card at Christmas for Indigo-Chapters which was burning a hole in my pocket...as the saying goes. Unfortunately the stores are closed here as we are in lock down again so I looked at their online store.

I bought Kathy Shaw's book "Stunning Stitches for Crazy Quilts". Perfect as I had bought her templates a few years ago and this book shows you how to create seams using templates. Here are the templates I mean.

I love CQ but I haven't really done a lot. I took Kathy Shaw's free beginners class in 2015 and messed about a bit but then my efforts fizzled out.

So I decided to join in the 2021 Crazy Quilt Journal challenge. You are permitted to work on small projects instead of one large project. That seemed doable. I made up three groups of four blocks. Four fans, four hexagons and four with "silkies". So a variety to work on. The challenge began right away with trying to find fabric in my very limited stash. I managed though the colours I used for the fans are a bit unconventional for CQ...to me anyway... and in a different circumstance (sans Covid) I would never have used them.

The bits of embroidery in the centre of each fan are from an older project that I recycled. They are Buttonhole Stitch Leaves. You can find the tutorial here. The templates I used for my hexagons came from the 2020 Crazy Quilt challenge on Pintangle.

Take care and keep safe:)

After all that......

Recently I've been reading the posts about the CQJP2015 project over at Block Talk With Gerry and she makes some very good points.

One thing she talks about is comfort zone as far as your pallette choice. While I'm crazy about colour and I did pull out a pile of  beautiful fabrics in the end I decided that my best choice would be neutrals.

I used to belong to the Monthly Far Quarter Club at Sew Sisters and every so often there would be a beige bit. I put them in one shoe box and there they have sat unloved.

See.....

I very rarely use beige in my sewing.

My rationale for my choice is that my aim in doing the CQJP project is to learn and become more proficient at seam treatments. That will be my ultimate focus and challenge.

So all my agonizng over palette choice is over and done with.....sigh of relief:)


Gerry said that she will talk about template selection in her next post....good.  I need all the help I can get.

I looked on Pintangle and there are 79 templates......79!!!!!!!!!!!!

Take care:)