2020 Crazy Quilt Challenge on Pintangle.....

A new chalenge that Sharon Boggon has just announced on Facebook.

http://pintangle.com/2020-crazy-quilt-guidelines/

Take care:)

Finishes and WIP's

I was following along with Pam Kellogg's "Never Ending Sampler Stitch-Along" and completed Sampler One. As I mentioned in a previous post I was trying to use up bits and pieces of canvas left over from other projects.

I haven't really followed along with her second sampler as it didn't really appeal to me. Maybe a bit too traditional although I did use two of the bands...the middle part of number 2 repeated and number 3.

I didn't quit though. I've been adding bands on my own. Some of them found online. Some my own creations. There's lots of inspiration for bands out there. Just Google Blackwork, Redwork, and so on. Pinterest is also a great source...better than Google actually.

 Some look at bit plain. I intend to add some beads here and there.

And......

I'm ALMOST caught up with "Take A Stitch Tuesday" aka TAST". 

I decided that I needed somewhere to put my stitch samples. So I made a cloth book with cloth pages. For the front cover I decided to use some of my ORTS....old ragged threads...that I have in a bottle on my work desk. It's where I put the ends from embroidery threads, ends of silk ribbon...whatever. I have stared at them for ages and wondered why the heck I was keeping them. Habit I guess.

I was sort of inspired by various crafters/artists that use fibres, threads and ribbons and layer them between sheer fabric or netting and create "fabric". I used a piece of white cotton and a piece of white wedding tulle. In between I placed threads and bits of ribbon from my ORTS jar.

To sandwich the layers together I used a running stitch on the diagonal.

The rest of the cover is some lovely purple batik. To reinforce the cover I used cardboard front and back and a separate piece down the spine. The fabric pages were glued together and then glued to the spine of the book.  So messy and gluey...eeek!  Ah well:)

Not my best effort. There are much better ways of making a cloth book. Next time I will do it very differently.....less glue.....LOL  But, I must say it's quite tactile and it does invite one to turn the pages. I have lots of pages. I intend to put my sampler pieces in the back as a reference for future CQ seams.

Take care:)

Happy St. Patrick's Day..........

A Finish.....

I've been working on a mini challenge for the online doll group I belong to on Facebook. If you're interested please visit my cloth doll blog over...... here.

Tale care:) 

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!!!

Here is a link to some really wonderful free blocks and bonus projects that will be available only until February 19th. I downloaded a few that I was interested in trying.

Enjoy:)

Another embroidery piece.....

I made another little hanging from a freebie I downloaded from Jenny of Elefantz Designs.

I think I've only appliqued twice before (if even that many times) so it was something different to do.

The light today was the pits for taking pictures. So far we had a very mild winter...maybe I shouldn't say that out loud. Today we had a little dusting of snow which is the first we've had in weeks.  I haven't worn my boots yet once this winter....shhh.

I'm joining up today with Needlework Tuesday.....

Take care:)

The Booby Bird.......

Jenny of ELEFANTZ Designs offers a free image called the "Booby Bird" on her blog. The name made me laugh. You can find this pattern on her Craftsy site here.

I thought it was quite a sweet little picture so I downloaded a copy and made a small wall hanging for my sewing room. 

It's raining yet again. No problem...rain is good. Our cat Deva went out to take a look and was back inside after about five minutes. A little too cold and too wet for her majesty. 

Joining up with Needlework Tuesday......

and The Needle & Thread Network  

 

Come on over and join us.

Take care:)

Cloth Doll Artistry Mini Challenge #1

I just finished a mini project for my Facebook doll group...Cloth Doll Artistry 

I decided to use the house template provided to make a needle case for my embroidery needles. I'm not sure where that idea came from but it seemed like a good one.

At first I drew a cottage onto my fabric and coloured it in. Hmm. Leonardo I am not. I was beginning to think that my idea wasn't so great after all.

So I took a look online to get some inspiration. I Googled "pictures of old cottages" and I found a free image of a cottage on The Old Design Shop . It gave me a whole new idea on how to do this challenge.

I printed the image onto Moda cotton using the freezer paper method.   I have never found freezer paper in my grocery store.  They must sell it locally somewhere but so far I haven't had any luck in finding some. I buy my supply from Doll Makers Journey. It comes in a package of fifty letter size sheets.

Sorry the pics aren't very good. I was raining when I took them. I'm not complaining. It's much better than getting tons of snow.

I made an attempt to embellish the image and then gave up. Less is best.

I had a scrap of fabric left over from another project which worked nicely with the colours in the image. Luckily I also had some wool felt in a nice shade of peachy pink that matched as well.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Visit the Cloth Doll Artistry Blog to see what everyone made.......here. 

Take care:)

Never Ending Sampler Stitch Along....a beginning.

I decided to join in with the "Never Ending Sampler" that Pam Kellogg has started on her blog and Facebook page.

I made a mistake in band 6 but I left it. I didn't notice until I was half way through band 7. Those flowers in band 6...arrgh. I picked out more than I stitched...LOL So needless to say there was no way I was going to pick it out again.

I'm really enjoying doing this sampler though. Some bands are easy and some not so much. A good challenge.  There are lots of possible seam treatments for Crazy Quilting as well.

This is my progress so far.....

I've been using variegated threads for most of it as I seem to have a collection of them. A couple are so old they are J & P Coats. That used to be the only brand of basic embroidery thread that was sold locally now it's DMC thread. This is also a perfect opportunity to try to use up as many of the small remnants I have of needlepoint canvas.

The light today isn't very good to take pics. My canvas it a blue gray so that doesn't help much either:)

The thread that I used in the last line barely shows against the canvas as it's very pale shades of green and turquoise so I may unpick it and use a darker colour.

Take care:)