Diane's Decorating Diary

Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012 Challenge

2012-01-28T13:26:00.000-05:00

This is my first block of the CQJP2012 challenge. I had planned another project, changed my mind and decided to make a CQ fan quilt and use silk ties and plain silk fabric for most of the blocks. To save the silk from distorting I used the knitted interfacing which I found in our own Fabricland for $5 a metre. I had a few goes at piecing the fan part, and finally used paper piecing to keep it even.

On the outer curve of the fan I decided to use a large design, and found Carole Samples book a great resource. I am well on my way with the stitching, but it won't be finished by the end of January. February's block should be on time as I have no other stitching commitments.

India's flag block

2012-01-25T10:45:00.003-05:00

It's finished, and I think it is my favourite block to have worked on so far. Part of the fun was researching Indian symbols and culture, and there were many to choose from. Plus I have access to beautiful fabric in the multi-cultural area that I live.

The green and white sequined curved pieces came from a child's tunic. The gold trim on the left decorated another garment, and the sequins and beads used for the peacock covered the sleeve of a lady's very ornate blouse.

Banyan trees

Lotus flower

Henna designs

Elephants

Shisha mirror and words from the national anthem

This is the centre motif from the Indian Flag

The peacock.

East End Cake Decorators - January 2012 Meeting

2012-01-25T08:20:00.001-05:00

Sunday's meeting was fun. Our planned demonstrator was not able to attend due to illness, but despite that, the meeting just evolved and we certainly filled our two and a half hours very well.

To begin with Glenys, our president arrived with a boxfull of British and American cake decorating magazines spanning 20 or 30 years, from another cake decorator who is retiring. We pored over these until breaktime.

We each bring in a plate full of snacks to share, and Glenys had these amazing cupcakes that became rainbows when cut in half. Of course we all needed to know her secret which she shared.

After that Glenys surprised us with a quickie demo that she put together to replace the cancelled one.

Glenys' demo was on pattern transfers. She showed two methods. First is the outline method shown at the top. Second is the method of piping the design and moving the frozen design on to the cake.

Thanks Glenys for all the above!

TAST Week 3 Feather Stitch

2012-01-23T22:11:00.000-05:00

Only one example of feather stitch for TAST this week. I have been really busy getting my piece ready for the "Crazy Quilts are Quilts Too" exhibition on Thearica's blog, also the Indian flag block which is due at the end of this month. This seam is just a little piece of my Indian flag block where I used beads for the feather stitch.

My CQI All about angels RR block is home

2012-01-23T21:58:00.003-05:00

My block is finished and home, thanks to Debbie S., Joyce R., Laurie N. and Wendy R. for their pretty stitches. I enjoyed working on all their blocks too. This was a really nice RR, it went very smoothly and the blocks looked great.

This lovely swirly design and the cute button flowers above was and the seam above, embroidered by Joyce.

Joyce added the crochet hat, Debbie, the crown, the purple seam and the tatted seam

Wendy's daisies and green feather stitch seam.

Laurie's lace applique and lace trim on the seam

Debbie's littlest angel, Joyce's seam above and below.

Laurie added the monogram and the sequin seam. Debbie's feather stitch is on the left and daisies on the right.

Wendy's silk ribbon work and seam above

TAST Week 2 Buttonhole Stitch

2012-01-12T23:12:00.001-05:00

Sharon B's second week TAST stitch is the buttonhole.
The little flower at the bottom of the top photo I learned from Sharon, and it's called Kiko's flower. It's composed of a series of five sets of buttonhole stitches worked very closely together, with a bullion across the top of each set, and straight stitches with a french knot at the end.

These three are buttonhole stitch rows of flowers.

Check out information on TAST on Sharon's website here.

TAST Week 1 Fly Stitch

2012-01-10T09:01:00.002-05:00

A small contribution to the fly stitch possibilities, week one's stitch in Sharon B's Take a Stitch Tuesday.

Information for the TAST Challenge week one can be found here:

http://www.pintangle.com/journal/2012/1/3/take-a-stitch-tuesday-week-1.html

Happy New Year

2012-01-03T20:16:00.000-05:00

I spent a marvellous New Year's eve at my nephew Hamish's wedding to his sweet fiance Ali. The view from the banquet room had a three-sided view of Kingston, Ontario's harbour. The wedding was off-site and the next photo shows Ali's beautiful dress, back view.

The dress was full of flounces, front and back, and she floated down the aisle.

Of course Aunty Di (me) made the cake along with my cake partner Verdie. The cake is sitting on the Matthew tartan. The men in the wedding party all wore kilts and they looked stunning, and even the groomsmen who had never wore kilts before said that they felt good.

These are huge roses. This cake is 6" diameter, the flowers are each 4" across.

It was such good fun, my sister Helena, her daughters Rohanna and Dahlia, Rohanna's husband and their little son drove up from New York. The dinner was delicious, the DJ played lots of oldies, and just before midnight we had Times Square live on a huge screen and did the count down. After midnight there was more food, pizza and poutine - it's a Quebec thing! French fries, cheese curds and gravy. And then the Kingston New Year's Firework Show began over the harbour. It really was a night to remember.

East End Cake Decorators - December 2011 Meeting

2011-12-30T17:36:00.000-05:00

This was the last meeting of 2011. We had a pot luck, a fun gift exchange and show and tell which included this pretty little chalet brought in by our long-time member, and the Christmas cakes below.

All this takes is a few cookies. Two whole ones for the roof, two trimmed for the front and back, and one cut in half for the sides. The trimmed bits are used for the chimney. Then decorate.

The challenge for this meeting was to only use the holly leaf cutter to decorate a Christmas cake. There were a couple of variations: the top left has a poinsettia made from red holly leaves, and the sleigh in the front is a clever way of using larger holly leaves.

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The next meeting will be on January 22nd at St. Margaret's in the Pines, Lawrence Avenue near Kingston Road in Scarborough. Cynthia Lewis will be demonstrating the correct way to do brush embroidery.

Frosty!

2011-12-28T16:59:00.000-05:00

This is the postcard I made for the Christmas swap on Stitchin Fingers.

Star quilt

2011-12-28T08:00:00.002-05:00

I posted this photo at the beginning of 2011. I had just started making blocks for a paper pieced quilt for our Seniors' group.

Now here it is assembled by Terry. Jan (on left), Terry (top right) and Anna are getting on with the quilting of it.

Boys and their toys

2011-12-27T13:18:00.001-05:00

A quiet moment. It could have been a whole quiet afternoon if Jack (8) had been allowed to keep playing his game. Josh (4) and Elijah (2) were fascinated with it.

This is Emily, now 6 1/2 months, and she still has blue eyes!

And sweet little Elijah who looks as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth! (But we know better!)

Just a few pictures from our Christmas celebrations this year.

Angel swaps

2011-12-23T10:00:00.002-05:00

I took part in two swaps this month. On the Swap Bot group Hooked on Dotees, Nancy and I traded our choice of dotees. I requested an angel, and she a kitchen witch. This is the outcome and we couldn't be happier!

Angel

Kitchen Witch

The second swap was for a Christmas themed postcard on Stitchin Fingers. Again I requested an angel and received this great postcard from Liz. The postcard I made went to Australia and hasn't arrived yet, so I can't post a picture of it until it does.

Angel fabric postcard from Liz

Gardenia and hydrangea wedding cake

2011-12-22T10:00:00.003-05:00

I just really appreciate it when a customer shows me what they have achieved with their purchase from my etsy shop.

I had a lovely surprise in my e-mail in-box when Carla from honeycrumb sent me photos of a gardenia cake she had made using my gumpaste gardenia tutorial. The overall cake is beautifully made, the fondant looks perfect, and the gardenias and hydrangeas are just lovely.

Carla, thank you for letting me brag about it!

Wedding Cake

2011-12-21T22:06:00.001-05:00

This was a very special cake that my friend Verdie and I worked on last week. It was the wedding cake for her son and his fiance. The bride chose beautiful jewelry which sparkled brilliantly on gorgeous wide satin ribbon.

It looked very elegantly plain until you looked closer and saw the hundreds of little white flowers on various areas of the cake.

All About Angels RR - Joyce's block

2011-12-09T22:12:00.000-05:00

Joyce's block arrived with lovely stitching already on it by Laurie N.: the cross - lower right, hearts and gathered ribbon seam - upper left. Wendy R. :sequin flowers with chain & drizzle stitches, and the lazy daisies below the angel. Debbie S. added the lace with the blue stitching and gold bead clusters, the sequin flowers and butterfly to the left of the angel and the roses across the top of the block. Also beading on the white rose lace to the right, blanket stitches and the gold stars above the angel.

Joyce's All about angels block is the last I will receive in this RR. I've enjoyed working on each and every one of these lovely blocks.

I really like working with blues. This block had a great assortment of rich cream and blues. The centre is a very pretty cross stitch that I think Joyce did.

Double herringbone

My favourite two stitches at the present time: the scallop and Kiko's flowers.

Some large chevron to fill in the space on the right hand side.

Some pearl swirls with tiny charlotte beads.

While the block was hanging around waiting to be written up and then packaged for sending in the New Year, I had another go at it, encircling the angel block seams with four different tiny stitches that didn't intrude into the block and the angel. And if you look very closely, you may find three teeny angels.

Commitments for 2012

2011-12-05T20:37:00.001-05:00

I'm signing up for things, right, left and centre! I'm going to be busy, busy, busy in 2012.

First of all there's the CQJP 2012 where we will make a block a month for a project of our choice; then there's TAST, take a stitch Tuesday organized by Sharon B., where she will choose a different stitch each Tuesday for us to investigate, practice and experiment with.

And now I have found WIPocalypse which deals with the forgotten, unfinished piles of sorry, neglected projects. For this challenge we will list our WIPs, and check in each full moon to report on our progress. I think this is brilliant. If you think it's brilliant and worth a look, check here for information.

And because I don't believe in writing something without adding a picture, here's my biggest WIP that needs to be finished.

This is a lovely selection of vintage hankies I collected from E-bay a few years ago. I appliqued each one onto a square of white cotton and they will become a quilt....hopefully in 2012!

Emily's block - finished

2011-11-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

I know I've posted about this block numerous times in various stages of it's production, but now it's finished! And I'm so pleased with it. I think in the last year thanks to four days with Sharon B in Connecticut, and various sessions with Gerry Kruger, learning about design, balance, flow around the block, etc., all things that I did not understand before, that I have actually "got it" (to some degree, anyway!)

Fancy fibres

2011-11-29T09:36:00.002-05:00

Well, I've solved the problem of what to do with all those fluffy, knobbly, hairy, tangly fibres! Actually Sharon B gave me the idea. At the "Adventure" in Connecticut she carried around her embroidery threads on a big ring rather than pack numerous baggies, and as she demonstrated a stitch, she just chose and snipped off a length from the ring. Great idea, thanks Sharon.

The Cookie Factory

2011-11-27T21:21:00.001-05:00

It has become a tradition each year before Christmas, at our East End Cake Decorators, to decorate cookies and donate them to various groups and charities.
Each one of us baked two dozen cookies, brought royal icing, sprinkles, and other decorations and got busy. Here's Glenys, our president in the Santa mode.

Cookies of all shapes and colours emerged from talented ladies.....

We had to work quickly so that the icing could dry before being packaged later.

Such a variety....

Some were absolute pieces of art...

Here we are at the wrapping stage. Two small cookies or one large in a clear cellophane bag tied with curled ribbon.

In total we packaged up 178 bags. These will be given to the church where we meet as a thank you for the use of the facility.

Well done everyone!

Emily's block

2011-11-18T11:30:00.001-05:00

This Emily's block in progress. Emily is 5 months and a bit.

These are Kiko's flowers. Sharon B showed us how to do them. Mine always turn out looking different from each other.

I love these little lilies. They're acrylic and I bought a bunch of them from an Etsy shop. By themselves they sit awkwardly, but in threes I think they look super.

A patch with buttonhole rings, chevron that needs more decoration, and my favourite scallop seam.

I'm working with bias silk ribbon here, and it's lovely to work with. This is a patch in progress.

More birthdays...

2011-11-17T16:31:00.001-05:00

Brynn, my 3 year old French-Canadian grand daughter and her five year old brother Caleb celebrated their birthdays together this past weekend. I went there by train (5 hours of stitching time) and had a wonderful weekend. My son Neil and his wife, Lee Ann had suggested a "princess" cake for Brynn and a monster truck cake for Caleb.

She's not the prettiest of princesses, but that didn't matter to Brynn.

Caleb had the trucks off the cake and washed as soon as the candles were blown out!

It was good fun creating the cakes, and I had them packed so tightly in boxes that they traveled on the train without mishap.

The party was at Lee Ann's parents place, and we were treated to the best home made spaghetti I've ever tasted. Her mum and grandmother spent a good part of the day preparing the amazing sauce with meatballs, spare ribs, stuffed chicken, sausages and the spaghetti.

Here's Brynn painting her magic wand that goes with her beautiful princess gown.

Caleb and my son trying to figure out how to build this 5-level parking garage.

It was a short, but a great visit with the family. Thanks, folks, I'll be back soon!

Hallowe'en 2011 with the Grandchildren

2011-11-04T21:23:00.000-04:00

While these four were out with their parents, Jack and Emily's other Grandma and I gave out the candies. Emily (4 months) is with her older brother Jack. The other brothers Josh dressed as a pirate and Elijah as a monkey can hardly wait to get going on the candy trail!

My other two cuties are in Quebec and although I couldn't be there, I was thinking of them. Brynn is a princess and Caleb a knight. A very handsome couple.

Elijah is two!

2011-10-30T22:30:00.000-04:00

Blowing out the candles

My grandson Elijah celebrated his second birthday today, and it was a noisy success! In total there were five 3 & unders, and three under 14's and eleven adults. Elijah is a sweet child who's answer to the question "what kind of birthday cake do you want Elijah?" has been for the last two weeks: "a Pooh cake Nana". So Nana (me) who's the cake lady to the family, did what she was asked!

A post earlier showed Pooh and friends under construction. My friend Verdie and I completed the birthday party scene, it was fun making the tiny pizza and cookies!

Laurie's All About Angels CQI RR

2011-10-30T12:00:00.000-04:00

This block has one of the prettiest colour schemes ever! Shades of dusty lilac and a deep cream are just beautiful together and I really enjoyed adding my stitching to it. Here is Laurie N's block after Wendy, Debbie and my work.

I made a lace flower for the top left corner and added bullions and gold beads to the seam.

I filled the patch with scallops of golden chains and added an angel inside each. Below the seam is a pretty piece of lace with exactly the same size scallops.

A sparkly piece of lilac ric-rac covered another seam, and in the bottom patch I added some swirls and Kiko's flowers.

A bit of fun with dollies

2011-10-28T21:26:00.000-04:00

The ladies at our Seniors have been knitting teddy bears like crazy for the Bazaar this weekend. This is one of the many little and big bears, in a big variety of colours, using up lots of our small balls of wool. The pattern is really easy - knit from the toes up and over and back to the toes. The arms are stitches picked up on the sides, and the ears are pinched and sewn. Easy as pie! And they are cute! But they are all boys!
I used the same pattern (almost) and came up with a girl doll. But it has taken me several tries at getting her right. The first one has dislocated arms and thunder thighs. The second one's a bit long in the body, and the third one, who knows what she will turn out like until I actually stuff her!

Big Surprise at our Quilt Show

2011-10-28T00:37:00.000-04:00

Betty's Crazy Quilt

Close up of some of the blocks

It was such a nice surprise to see this lovely crazy quilt hanging up in among all the "sane" quilts last weekend at the Rouge Valley Quilters Guild's Show. It's beautifully put together by Betty Wildeman, and all seams are neatly embroidered. There is also lots of embroidery on the individual patches and from what Betty said, it seems most of them relate to friends and family. There are no beads, sequins or button embelishing because this will be a quilt that is used on a bed.

A Quilt Finished

2011-10-28T00:18:00.001-04:00

Three of us from our Seniors group completed this "quilt as you go" queen-size quilt over the summer. Suzanne and I sewed the blocks together, I machine added the blue sashing, and Anna handstitched the final seam on the back.

It's one of the prizes in our draw this weekend at our annual Bazaar. All the blue fabric was donated.

This is a closer look at the individual blocks.

And here's a look at the back. We used all shades of yellow and purchased the pretty patterned fabric to use for the strips. I made blocks earlier this year that were sent to help Australian flood victims and I documented the instructions on how to make a block here.

Busy, busy, busy.....

2011-10-22T12:26:00.001-04:00

This is what I wrote last weekend, but didn't have any time during the week to actually post it!

I have too many things on the go at the present. There's a baby shower cake for the 22nd, my grandson's 2nd birthday on the 30th, a display of sugar maple leaves for my sugar group to be ready for Monday; today I spent half the day at our annual yard sale in our building, tomorrow is clean-up and dispose of unsold stuff. Tomorrow afternoon is our quilt guild show, and I'm on from 1 to 4! Phew!

It's a week later, the yard sale is done and dusted, the leaves were made and delivered to the Creativ Show in Toronto where Verdie and I did our shift yesterday from 9am until 3pm. I completed a fairy dotee that will be swapped. I also enjoyed working at our Quilt Guild Show on Sunday (where there was a beautiful crazy quilt on display - more about that on another post). And the cake for the baby shower cake was delivered this morning. Here's some pictures I took along the way!

Here's the fairy dotee. The wings were made with florist wire from my cake decorating stash.

I got soaking wet foraging for these branches in the ravine during heavy rain. The leaves are gumpaste.

Baby shower cake, 12" x 12". All sugar cradle.

Here's Pooh and friends still under construction.

One more e-bay quilt

2011-10-16T19:01:00.000-04:00

This 12" x 12" quilted block has been added to the E-Bay auction. I made this three years or so ago, as a Challenge in the CQ for Newbies group. We were sent a package of fabric, thread, trim and beads and had to make something of it. I loved the fabric in the middle and chose "Mother Love" as my project. I was very new to crazy quilting in those days, and I'm quite surprised at my creativeness here.

It did not win the challenge and has been idling in a cupboard until lately when Lesley issued another challenge on CQI as a Tribute to Mothers. I think I was the only person who completed the challenge (and that was because the block was already pieced and embroidered). All I had to do was back it and bind it. On the finished version on E-Bay the circle has been centred properly.

For interest's sake, I have the photo here of the package I received to make the block.

E-Bay Auction - CQI Crazy Quilts for Breast Cancer

2011-10-14T11:43:00.015-04:00

About 29" x 30"

These three beautiful hand embroidered and embellished crazy quilts are up for auction on e-bay. The blocks were created, donated and put together by members of CQI to benefit Breast Cancer. Click on the photos to enlarge and see the detail.

About 29" x 42"

About 27" x 27"

Tone on Tone DYB RR - My blocks

2011-10-10T12:12:00.001-04:00

I'm so happy to have my Tone on Tone blocks back home. This is how I sent them out: Six inch squares in rainbow colours. Five would be chosen by the group and the remaining one I would do. In the booklet I mentioned that they would probably be made into a small wall hanging for a child's room.

Cathy L. chose the orange block and added a wonderful dinosaur, a sparkly corner with a beetle, and some neat ric rac. I also see some tiny kiko's flowers in among the winding chain.

Cheryl A worked on the yellow block . She brought it to sparkling light with the enormous sun. It's clever the way the sun's rays show off her neat stitching.

Ritva worked on the blue block. In amongst her wonderful seams, she's added the perfect charms for a wee boy: teddies and the truck.

Candji's choice was red. Her dramatic dragon is definitely the focal point. There's sparkly seam treatments and a neat kite to complete the scene.

Green was chosen by Rita. Her spider is just waiting for his next meal! Look closely and you will also see a butterfly, some fishes, worms and a turtle, not to mention some lovely seamwork.

I
Thanks, ladies. I love all your work.

All About Angels RR - Wendy's block

2011-10-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

Wendy's block after Debbie's and my work. Debbie worked on and around the silkie.

One little angel

Two little angels

Three little angels

Swirls and roses

Scallops, pearls and sequins

Wendy's Angel block is small and pretty. It's going to be the cover page for the blocks in her Angel DYB RR that she is also participating in. What a great idea! I loved working on it and could have finished the whole block, but I had to leave some room for Joyce and Laurie's work!

Home again....

2011-10-02T14:29:00.003-04:00

Well, it's almost a week since I've been home from the Retreat in Estes Park, Colorado. What a great time I had again. It's my third time attending the CQI Shenanigans and it was as much fun as the previous Retreats. There are loads of photos of the scenery, the 8-bedroom cabin, the activities and eye candy on other blogs. Check out Kerry's here and Janet's here.

Lesley brought the Sendai blocks to the retreat and we were all amazed at the variety of imaginative designs, colour and stitching on the many blocks donated to the cause. Lesley is a master at putting together and she had several quilts made up from the blocks. You can see the individual blocks here on Lesley's Flickr site. Kerry has photos of the some of the made up quilts here .

I was amazed at the variety of cherry blossom trees that appeared on the blocks and that was my focus with my camera. I've also included a fir and a purple blossom tree.

Colorado bound......

2011-09-15T21:55:00.000-04:00

I'm all packed and ready to roll. Leaving tomorrow morning at 5:00am by car to Buffalo to catch a flight to Salt Lake City to visit my Crazy Quilting friend Cathy. We'll spend some really crazy days together, then drive through Wyoming to Estes Park in the Colorado Rockies for our Annual CQI September Shenanigans. From next Wednesday until the following Monday, we'll all stay in a big chalet with some old and some new friends.

I'll report back in about two weeks!

East End Cake Decorators

2011-09-08T23:09:00.001-04:00

The next meeting of the East End Cake Decorators will be on Sunday, September 25th, 2011, at St. Margaret in the Pines, Lawrence Avenue East, Toronto.
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This is the first meeting of the 2011/12 year, and membership dues of $25 are due in full at this meeting.
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Yvette Belfonte will demonstrate the gelatin bubble and sugar glass.

For those wishing to participate, the following is a list of things to bring.

Water balloons (these are really tiny - check any dollar store)
Toothpicks
Duct tape
Unflavored gelatin
Small microwave bowl
Styrofoam block for drying
Small paint brush
Super Pearl dust

Hope to see you there!

The Rib-Off

2011-09-08T22:10:00.002-04:00

The Day Family

Annual

This has become an annual event in Mo's side of the family. We all used to go to the Labour Day Long Weekend Ribfest at Burlington's Lakeshore Park. But gradually more of the family participated and the lines at the Ribfest got longer, so we decided to do our own.

Each adult couple provide either one or two racks of ribs and their special sauce (many special secret ingredients) and take turns at the barbeques at Gary and Bonnie's place. Voting takes place and there is a winner and a special Rib-Off plaque for 1st place.

Mo and I adding our sauce. Mine is very spicy, his fairly mild.

Too much fire!

Nine different saucy ribs.

One of each, then cast your vote.

Winners! 1st Jimmy (middle), 2nd Bonnie & Gary (left), tied for 3rd Mike and Ben.

Thanks Gary and Bonnie for being great hosts to this Annual event. Same time next year....????

Flowers - finished

2011-09-04T17:17:00.001-04:00

I'm finished. I took out the little bit of coloured flowers and kept it all green at the bottom. I also took Sharon's B's suggestion of using buttons for the flower centres. I was lucky that I had three the same size in the right colours.

More progress - flowers

2011-09-03T09:55:00.002-04:00

I've finished the petals on this 5 1/2" x 4 1/2" piece of embroidery for the Sumptuous Surfaces course. This is our final week and I'm trying to finish on time! I have some long green leaves to add, the raised stem stitch border to complete, and to decide the centres of the flowers. I also need to make up my mind about what to do along the bottom - just green foliage or green with some small flowers. I'm leaning towards just green.

Sumptuous Surfaces

2011-09-01T22:50:00.001-04:00

We got to use colour for the second project in Sharon B's Sumptuous surfaces.

I chose an analogous colour scheme and picked these threads.

It's not easy for me to draw a design out of my head, but I kept it simple and was satisfied with this. It's about 6" x 8" and it's on the same linen as I used for the rabbit.

Now I'm having fun! The edge is going to be a raised chain. I'm filling in the petals very heavily, with any stitch I can think of!

All About Angels RR

2011-08-25T22:40:00.002-04:00

I am in another CQI Round Robin - All About Angels. I have a thing about angels, so I was extra happy to sign up for this RR. At Christmas my tree is decorated mostly with angels that my children have given me as gifts over the years. I can't show you that, but above is a picture of my front door and the angel wreath that stays up all year. All of them are hand made, the top one my daughter made in kindergarten many years ago from a styrafoam egg carton.

I also had a run at ATC's, and traded with Margreet and Annet (second and third from the top).

This is my contribution to Debbie's block:

A row of tiny angels. The halos are bullion stitch.

This angel has centre stage. Her wings and face are mother of pearl, her hair is needlelace.

In the lower right corner I tried some heavy duty sumptuousness!

Sumptuous Surfaces

2011-08-19T19:13:00.000-04:00

I've been taking Sharon B's Sumptuous Surfaces on-line course. This little stone bunny rabbit is the subject of my first project which we were to work in monotone.

Here he is with suitable sumptuous surroundings!

Tone on Tone DYB RR - Rita's Block

2011-08-18T19:29:00.001-04:00

This was my first DYB experience and I really enjoyed working on the small (6" x 6")blocks, and having a whole one to do myself. The blocks I completed all turned out differently, even though three of them were beige tones.

Here's Rita's block finished.

Top left section, each of these are about one quarter of the block.

Top right section.

Bottom left

Bottom right

Cheryl's Tone on Tone DYB RR

2011-08-17T19:30:00.014-04:00

This is Cheryl's Tone on Tone finished. I really love to use my scalloped ruler, and I did here on the bottom section with the chain and roses. You will see it pop up in many of my blocks!

Tone on Tone DYB RR - Ritva's Block

2011-08-10T20:03:00.001-04:00

This is the DYB I did for Ritva. All her blocks were beige tones.

These little beads look like berries.

My button and bead cluster.

A gathered lace flower

Grape vine

Monster Rose - Part 2

2011-08-02T19:47:00.002-04:00

Two more layers of petals have been added to my Monster Rose. I'm still using the same sized cutter. I added five petals onto the previous six petals, tooling them a little more at the edges. Five more were added with a slight curl. The rose is now 2 1/2" from side to side and the same measurement high.

Progress on the British Flag Block

2011-07-30T18:12:00.001-04:00

The Rose of England

The Irish Shamrock - I used Gerry K's tutorial and made it on emerald green felt, outlining the shape with tiny chain stitches, then cutting out the shape after beading. I used two strands of DMC and buttonhole stitch around the whole thing!

I was so lucky in two ways with my thistle. I found this variegated dark green/purple thread for the leaves and stem, and the beads which look pretty good as the calyx.

Monster Rose

2011-07-30T10:41:00.001-04:00

I can be so tempted when it comes to cake decorating tools. And this set of rose petal cutters is my latest indulgence. I visualize a marvelous monster rose, stunning on the top tier of a wedding cake.

The largest of these petal cutters is 4" across, the smallest 3/4". The bud is 1 3/4" high.

Here is the bud with it's first four petals. And to show the size, a quarter.

I'll post more photos as it grows bigger.

All About Angels RR

2011-07-28T10:10:00.001-04:00

This is my naked block for the CQI All about angels RR. I began with a cute little impressed angel image on the centre velvet patch, but it was too small. I checked through my "angel" stash and found this perfect angel. I put her on a cloud of tule which covered the velvet image. I fiddled a long time to get my picture on point, but it's still a little off.

MISSING QUILTS

2011-07-19T19:56:00.003-04:00

CT Publishing has recently announced that a few quilts, in their guardianship, disappeared after Spring Quilt Market. They've done everything they can do to find these quilts and are now asking for our help to find 3 cover quilts and a table runner.

The quilts have gone missing from a quilt show. Please take a good look at the photos, and watch for these turning up somewhere. CT Publishing, who had these quilts in their possession, has offered a $4,000.00 reward for the return of the quilts. If only one quilt is found, the reward will be pro-rated on the appraised values of the quilt.

Six cheeky monkeys!

2011-07-06T22:56:00.000-04:00

It doesn't happen often enough, but this past Canada Day weekend, all six of my grandkids were under one roof! From left, Jack (8) and his new sister Emily (4 weeks); Caleb (4-1/2), Josh (3-1/2), Brynn (2-1/2) & Elijah (1-1/2). Caleb and Brynn are brother and sister; Josh and Elijah are brothers.

Welcome Emily!

2011-06-15T22:30:00.001-04:00

Here's the latest addition to my family. This little sweetheart is now 8 days old and is the second child for my daughter Suzie and husband John, and baby sister to Jack 8. Emily is my 6th grandchild and second grand-daughter.

Basically Beaded RR Eye Candy

2011-06-10T17:13:00.000-04:00

My beautiful basically beaded block! This is my finished CQI RR block worked on so richly by Arlene, Kathy, Meg and Pegsue. The block weighs a ton!

Arlene's work on the top right corner, the whole block photo shows the pink dangly flowers patch better.

Buttonhole stitch with pearly flowers, and blue button flowers, with leaves. Love the buttons!

Arlene's pretty flowers, chevron and sequin seam and clear beaded corner.

Arlene's pendant from her childhood, a special addition!

Kathy's four beaded seams around the centre patch. These are very detailed. Meg added the silver feather as a focal point in the middle.

A close-up of Kathy's grape vine.

Meg's beaded wheel of many colours! Meg also wrote that she had added a few more seams.

Pegsue's super neat paisley.

Pink pearly flowers one on each side of the paisley.

These are two gorgeous seams that I couldn't find an owner for in the booklet. Please let me know so I can give you credit.

Brazilian RR Eye Candy

2011-06-10T16:27:00.000-04:00

My finished Brazilian CQI Round Robin. The group working on this RR did a great job. The block is beautiful and very delicate. The majority of work was embroidered with Edmar threads which are not for the faint of heart. Thanks to Karrin, Kathy, Rebecca, and Deloris (Dee).

Deloris' lovely corner spray. Dee, you are certainly more than a beginner at Brazilian!

Karrin's sunny daisy and cast on stitch flower

Karrin' very neat bullion and french knot sprays and cast on stitch seam. See the whole block photo for it all.

Kathy's classy bullion roses spray and bullion seam.

Kathy's feather stitch and star flowers! The flowers sit high and are very pretty with the variegated boucle thread.

Rebecca's pretty and colourful spray, and Rebecca, there will be no unpicking by me, it's lovely work!

Rebecca's "falling roses"!

I had to wait to take the photos because I left my photo box behind at my sister's in NY on my way back from the Adventure in Connecticut. I found two different sized opaque containers and my handy friend cut the circle out to hold my camera lens. Using these I don't need a tripod and can use the macro for close ups.

Mourning Heart for Hideko

2011-05-16T08:30:00.000-04:00

This is my Mourning Heart for Hideko. It's on black grosgrain, with sections of grey linen, black velvet and black lace over white satin. I edged the heart in a lovely piece of black lace trim. The middle seam is silver grey with black beads, at the top is an oval black faceted glass piece edged with tiny black beads. At the bottom is a small black button with a centre crystal. The grey bead with a black centre daisy chain separates the velvet and lace patches. It seems to me very sombre, but I thought that it conveyed the message of sorrow with a bright light of hope at the end.

Signs of Spring!

2011-05-15T14:55:00.007-04:00

This beautiful magnolia tree is in full bloom. This is on my "to do" list as something to embroider.

My sugar partner and I made these small daffodils for an order. Their stems are hanging below the apple tray.

These are sugar pansies in the first stages. They still need to be dusted and steamed and their little faces painted. I'll post the "after" photo next week.

One Wedding, two Cakes

2011-04-27T20:53:00.006-04:00

The one on the left is a black fruit cake, the other a vanilla cake with lemon curd buttercream filling. Both are covered in fondant. The flowers are tiny sugar gumpast roses and rosebuds with silver sugar leaves.

Canada Blooms

2011-03-22T23:16:00.001-04:00

This is the cake that members of CSSA (Canadian Society of Sugar Artistry) made for the Canada Blooms show. To our great surprise our booth won "Best Booth in the Show"

These are the peonies that my friend and I helped to make and I posted about a couple of weeks ago.

CSSA members also made this cake to celebrate the Genie Awards which are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television that was held during the week of Canada Blooms.

The cake was in a very pretty setting sitting beside an orchid "tree".

Hands and Hearts for Sendai block finished!

2011-03-21T11:54:00.002-04:00

It's finished and was a joy to work on. It will be part of a quilt to raise money for those in need due to the recent earthquake/tsunami in Japan. This was a CQI initiative and you can find out more here on Crazy Quilting International's blog.

Hearts and Hands for Sendai

2011-03-14T22:50:00.002-04:00

My crazy quilting group "Crazy Quilting International" has been quick off the mark in providing a project for us to help those affected by the earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan.

I think that this will be an enormous project as there is already a great response from CQI members, and we are hoping to open it up to all quilters who wish to help. All the details are available on the CQI blog (on my sidebar of blogs) or use the link below.

The idea is for us to create a 9" square crazy quilt block (finished size 8" square) in jewel tones, or for those non-crazies, a regular quilted square the same size and colours. These will be made into quilts to be exhibited in Japan to raise money to help those affected. You may track details on the CQI blog: http://crazyquiltinginternational.blogspot.com/ or the ICQA Facebook page.

This is my naked block. I'm going to really enjoy embroidering and embellishing it for such a worthy cause.

Bits & Pieces

2011-03-13T21:02:00.002-04:00

I can hardly believe that it's been over three weeks since I've blogged! It's not that I haven't been doing things, but mostly just finishing up "bits and pieces" and getting stuff ready for the Crazy Adventure in Connecticut coming up at the beginning of April.

Oh, the innocence of it. This is my first storage for "lace & trim" from 2008. It's 10" x 4" and has long been discarded for lace and trim!

My find of the week is this little evening handbag covered with mother of pearl beads. There are a few missing, but I picked it up at my favourite store for $1.24, which works out at 2 beads for 1c.

I signed up for my first DYB (do your block) CQI RR. Six 6" square blocks are sent around to the participants. The first chooses one and finishes it. Then they are all sent to the second person, etc. etc. This is a "tone on tone" I chose the rainbow: a block in each of yellow, green, orange, red, purple and blue.

And this is one of those "quilt as you go" strip quilts. I seem to be quite taken with this pattern since learning how they work on the Ozzie flood relief quilt blocks that I made. For this one I used strips from men's shirts with the centre strip a piece of silk tie. I have just begun joining the blocks up with navy blue strips.

Preparing for "Canada Blooms" Garden Show

2011-02-21T11:56:00.004-05:00

Our group, Canadian Society of Sugar Artistry (CSSA) will have a booth at the garden show "Canada Blooms" in the middle of March. One of the exhibits will be a six tier cake decorated in sugar flowers all handmade by members. Verdie and I are working on the peony tier. Lisa (Flour Confections in Pickering) is our team leader. This past Sunday we worked in Lisa's amazing shop and produced these spectacular peonies.

Here's Lisa covering up the foam "buds" with gumpaste petals. This takes three small petals first to cover the Styrofoam, then three and then five petals of the next size.

This is the bud with eleven petals. Add a calyx and this would be a bud. Most of them will need another ten to 15 petals to complete the flower.

Kathi and Stefani are making the larger two sizes of petals on wires. They are drying in a plastic former that has a hole for the wire to go through. A better system than the apple trays I was using!

The petals have been tooled and shaped and are drying.

These are peony leaves, tooled to thin their edges. They are drying on the foam to give them a more natural look.

These are the cutters we used for the leaves and petals

The next two photos are of Lisa's shop. It's well stocked with great cutters and cake decorating toys. All the tools we used to make the peonies she sells. Here's a link to her website Flour Confections

Verdie is adding the larger petals on wires to the buds.

The inside of an open peony is filled with stamens. Lisa is holding the inside of one peony.

An open peony finished.

It was a lot of fun and those flowers are really lovely. Can't wait to see the cake. But that won't be until the middle of March and I'll post some more photos then.

Flowers - Sugar and Thread

2011-02-18T01:11:00.002-05:00

Mary Corbett's Needle & Thread arrives in my e-mail inbox every day. She asked the question: "Do you have other crafts and hobbies that you pursue, in addition to embroidery?". Yes I do, my other wonderful hobby is cake decorating, especially making sugar flowers. Here's examples of some that I have made.

Here are sugar calla lilies, and underneath calla lilies in stumpwork

These are sugar hydrangeas

And here and below are stumpwork hydrangeas

This is a sugar cherry blossom tree

A silk ribbon rose tree

A sugar wild rose, or briar rose

And a silk ribbon rose

These are sugar hybrid tea roses

And these are ribbon roses

Sil

And finally some sugar pansies just waiting to be included in a spray for a cake.

Silk ribbon pansies

One thing I realize is that I love flowers - sugar, silk and real!

Recycling a Church

2011-02-17T20:13:00.002-05:00

The view from my balcony faces east. Our building is about 35 years old, built when land wasn't so expensive and buildings weren't squashed together, so we have a lovely wooded ravine and stream at the back of the building and a long drive and gardens facing the front. From my balcony I have a pleasant view, mostly trees and a lovely old smaller church with a wonderful spire. Every morning and evening from the spire came some lovely music. It sounded like bells, but it wasn't the real thing, something electronic. Nevertheless, everyone in our building looked forward each day to the few minutes of music. It was built in the 1800s and a few years ago was declared not safe. So the congregation and the music maker moved a little distance up the street to a new church situated within a Catholic School. The rumours went around that the old church was too bad to be fixed and too expensive anyway. Much to our delight, the Town stepped in and purchased it and began renovations. The plan is to make it into a community arts centre. It will have a stage and rows of movable seating, and a new area in the front of the church that will serve as an welcoming area and a small bar. We were a little leery of the design sketches, and waited for the work to begin. During last summer and fall a lot of structural, roofing and inside work took place, and just recently the outside has begun to take shape. The photos below show the project so far. It doesn't look at all out of place, just a bit modern and if you have to add a big chunk to the front of a beautiful church, glass was a good choice.

Kathy's Basically Beaded RR Block

2011-02-14T10:50:00.000-05:00

By the time this block arrived at my place it was a heavy piece of work. Peggy, Meg and Arlene had added plenty of sparkle and unusual pieces. The empty spot left for me was the middle (!!) and a section of embroidered lace. While I was working on the other two RR's I had this one on view to get some ideas of what I could do on the lace section.

I followed the inside pattern of the embroidery and added tiny beads, charlottes and delicas. And in the centre of each of the three a crystal. The flower, top right is a piece from a chandelier and to bring it to life I sewed sequins underneath.

This is a rose. I pretended I was doing bullion stitches with beads, shading them to look like petals. Did it work? The two small beaded seams are beaded daisy chains.

This was the last block in this round robin. I have really enjoyed trying to come up with something different. The book with the instructions for the daisy chain, "The Beader's Floral" is a wonderful book and I'm determined to progress further than the daisy chain!

Rebecca's Brazilian Embroidery RR

2011-02-09T22:55:00.000-05:00

I added the lupins on the left. The stitch is a raised chain band. I used Sassa Lynne variegated thread perle #5. The hollyhock is loads of cast on stitches. For the smaller flowers at the top I used Edmar thread, further down DMC perle 5 colour variations. The pansies are cast on stitch. The tall leaves are woven picots.

A feather stitch seam and bullions both in Edmar thread.

Whipped spiders webs

This is how the block looks after my contribution.

Basically Beaded - Meg's block

2011-02-06T11:05:00.003-05:00

This is Meg's block ready to move on to Kathy now that Arlene, Peggy and I have added our beaded embelishments.

I added these beaded flowers and leaves and the seam to the right.

And this jewel in the bottom right corner.

And this dangly seam treatment.

Happy mail day!

2011-02-03T16:40:00.000-05:00

These three beautiful blocks arrived in mailbox a day or so ago. This first one belongs to our CQI Basically Beaded RR and is Kathy S' block. So far it has the work of Meg, Pegsue and Arlene and a section that Kathy added before sending.

Also in the Basically Beaded Round Robin, this is Meg's lovely block with Pegsue and Arlene's lovely beaded stitching.

Here is Rebecca's block from our Brazilian RR. So far it has made only one stop, at Dee's.

I think I have my work cut out for me these next couple of weeks!

Take 5.....for Beethoven's 5th

2011-01-26T13:12:00.001-05:00

I watched this short video this morning. One amazing child and Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Just click below and enjoy!

Which hand should I hold the baton in?

Australia bound

2011-01-22T14:22:00.001-05:00

By last night I had sewn together 12 blocks and pretty well used up the strips. But this morning when I checked the pile of strips I could have sworn that they had multiplied overnight! I began again and put together another 4 for a total of 16 blocks which I hope to mail to Australia this afternoon.

16 blocks laid side by side. Check out Jan's blog to see how she puts them together

Jan, the lady who will receive them (her blog is "Sew little time - too many quilts") is putting donated blocks together and arranging for them to be handed out to flood victims.

My undoing.....

2011-01-20T20:08:00.005-05:00

Oh dear, I wasn't able to keep the one New Year's Resolution that I made for 2011! This pile of cotton strips was just too much of a temptation, together with a story on "Sew many quilts - too little time" to not begin a new project.

These strips were part of the fabric stash of a friend who passed away in 2009, and whose fabric we have been using for the star quilt at our Seniors' Club which I posted about. This bag of strips I knew I wouldn't use, but just couldn't dispose of. And now after reading the heartening story of a drive for blocks to put together into quilts for folks who have lost much in the Australian floods, I just knew that this was the purpose that I had hung on to this bag of fabric.

It's such a simple method and they call it QAYG - Quilt As You Go, and as you can see from the photo below, I began with an 11" square of backing fabric and the same size square of batting. Across the batting lay a strip of fabric from corner to corner. Then pin another strip right sides together, and sew 1/4" seam joining the two strips together while sewing through the batting and backing paper, thus joining it all together in one go. This step is repeated on both sides of the middle strip of fabric until the batting is covered.

This next photo is one block finished and trimmed to 10 1/2" , the size they want. "Sew Many Quilts Too Little Time" is the blog with the information. I've tried to make a link, but it doesn't work. I'm going to make blocks until I finish the strips and then post them to Australia. If any of my local friends would like to participate, I will happily mail your blocks along with mine.

Brazilian Embroidery Traditional RR

2011-01-19T20:41:00.001-05:00

This is the latest CQI RR that I have joined. There are lots of bullions and cast on stitches in Brazilian style embroidery. Here are my contributions to Dee's block.

Lots of pistil stitches and french knots make up this flower I used Edmar Lola thread.

The outer row on each of these bullion petals have around 40 wraps, the inner ones 30. For these I used Edmar Frost.

The blue braid was on the block to begin with. I added cast on stitch flowers in a variegated silk thread, and bullion leaves in a Sassa Lynne variegated forest green perle. On the other side of the blue braid I added a small fly stitch with pink beads.

This is Dee's block after my work. Next it goes to California.

More baby blocks....

2011-01-14T10:00:00.001-05:00

Here are two more of the baby announcement blocks that I have finished recently. I was going to make them only for my grandchildren, but decided that my lovely neices and nephews babies are going to receive one too.

This is Elijah (brother to Joshua, see previous post)

Lucas is my New York great nephew

The lure of a new project.......

2011-01-08T22:36:00.000-05:00

.......usually means that I will leave some other project unfinished. And this happens a lot. So for me, the only New Year's Resolution will be NOT TO BEGIN A NEW PROJECT without a lot of thought.

Jack's block

Joshua's block

I love beginning something new, getting excited about planning it, then settling down to sew with all my threads and beads around me. It's a big temptation. So I've been putting aside thoughts of new ideas and dealing with several projects that were just needing a few hours of work to finish them off. This applied to three of my grandson's baby blocks that I still had to bind and correct a couple of errors in the birth information. So, I settled down to this and have completed these. Above are Jack's and Josh's. I have posted already about Elijah's. While I was printing out the photos and birth information for the front, I made a label for the back too.

Tea Time II Block is home!

2011-01-08T11:11:00.001-05:00

The finished Tea Time II block

I'm so pleased with this Round Robin block, that I have to share every little detail added by this group of talented ladies. Nicki Lee, Carolyn, Cathy L. and Thearica's work is outstanding and fills every little space on the block.

Nicki Lee added tiny lace and beads, velvet flowers and ribbon to decorate this delicious looking cake.

Nicki's crochet flower and teacup sit above Cathy's blue SR flowers and "Tea Party". Thearica's pretty pink hearts seam is so delicate.

Thearica's embroidery and birds on a branch fills the top corner perfectly. Cathy's dyed lace is just the right piece on the white fabric.

Nicki added the cabochon, Carolyn embroidered the dark pink seam.

The cake is decorated with Cathy's SRE. The vine, delicate beaded trim and hummingbird were added by Thearica.

Cathy"s mug of tea and tiny bullion flowers.

Cathy's silk ribbon and bullion seam above Carolyn's teapot, teacup and cake patch and seam below.

Cathy added this unusual tea cup ribbon and worked the seams on the top and bottom of the ribbon. The ric rac and such pretty embroidery is Nicki Lee's.

This elegant teapot arrangement and the flower beads are Cathy's lovely work. The blue seam to the left is Carolyn's.

Thearica added a "lace tablecloth" and these pretty charms.

I think everyone will agree that this is a superb block and one that I will treasure.

Happy New Year Everyone!

2010-12-31T16:25:00.005-05:00

Well, here it is the last day of 2010 and what I wish for everyone most of all is Good Health in 2011.

I feel like I have been sick with one thing or another since October! I had the remains of a head cold when I left for my vacation in Florida. During the descent my ears really popped and I had an awful earache and ended up visiting a clinic for that and an eye infection. Nevertheless I had a very restful vacation and had wonderful weather. Since returning home I've have one cold after another and a never-ending hacking cough that needed antibiotics and I still have unpopped ears! I want to wake up tomorrow and feel my old well self! Good health is really the wish to make, and I wish it for all of us!

There have been no RR's to work on for a couple of weeks, so I've been busy with a quilt that I promised to do for my Seniors Club. It's the star quilt that I helped with last year, at St. Margaret's in the Pines. It's paper pieced, and I was able to print off the sheets from a web site.

Printed paper pattern pinned to two pieces of fabric with their right sides together. Sew along dotted lines, cut on solid lines.

After sewing and cutting you have triangles. When the paper is removed and the fabric opened up you have a a neat square of two different fabrics.

These are the combinations I am using: on the left two mediums, in the middle two lights, and on the right a dark with a light.

Here the squares a pinned to a scrap piece of fabric. The four middle squares are medium tones, the corners are light tones, and the other eight are a dark with a light. This gives the star pattern.

Here are nine blocks completed. Each block has 32 different fabrics and finished are 8" x 8". The background here is my carpet. I'm not sure just what colour the ladies at our Seniors group will choose.

Nicki Lee's CQI Tea Time II RR heading home

2010-12-12T01:49:00.000-05:00

This is Nicki Lee's Tea Time block as I received it with Carolyn, Cathy and Thearica's work.

Carolyn, Cathy and Thearica really worked hard and filled Nicki Lee's block with loads of neat stuff. Just look at the detail, there's lots to see and admire.

My challenge was the top right hand corner, a triangle of white satin. My first thought was: This block is missing some goodies, sweet stuff to go with a cup of tea!

And this is what I added. They are cut-out cakes from a piece of fabric that I embroidered and beaded.

After that I added some silk ribbon embroidery to the cup and saucer in the middle of the block. And worked on the pink, green and gold beaded seam to the right of the cup and saucer.

And finished off with a little embellishing on the items on the second shelf. And below the block is finished and ready to head home.

2012 Challenge Crazy Quilt

2010-12-06T00:02:00.001-05:00

In between my various Round Robin commitments, I have been working on another piece for the 2012 Challenge. There will be three, four or five of these blocks in reds and oranges, mounted on point onto a black fabric rectangle. Below are some of the seams and decorated patches. I have been using mostly red, orange and gold threads and beads, so it's looking very rich.

Master Sand Castle Sculpting Competition

2010-11-26T20:30:00.003-05:00

Circle of Life - First Place Judges' Choice & First Place People's Choice

This past weekend the Inaugural Master Sand sculpting Competition took place on Siesta Key, Sarasota, Florida. The Sand on Siesta Key beach is considered to have the World's Finest Whitest Sand. It's one of only two quartz sand grain beaches in the world, the other is in Italy. Here is a link to information on the competition and competitors.

Dragon Sleeping - Second Place People's Choice

Close up of Dragon Sleeping

Grinch Stole Thanksgiving First - Third Place Judges' Choice

One of my favourites, unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it finished.

Another amazing sculpture

Tea Time II RR

2010-11-18T22:07:00.003-05:00

This is Thearica's Tea Time CQI Round Robin block that I have been working on for the past few days in sunny Florida, just resting up for a couple of weeks before the holiday rush. The block arrived with Carolyn's gorgeous work already completed under the tea pot - an embroidered tablecloth with the two sweetest napkins. Cathy made the steam drifting out of the tea cup, the hanging tea-bag and a candy sitting in the crinkly wrapper. She also added the crocheted party hat with all the trimmings. Cathy also added a pretty rambling SR rose vine. Above is the block with Carolyn's Cathy's and my work.

I embellished the top right tea cup with beaded bunches of grapes, gold vine embroidery and silk ribbon leaves.

I also chose to do the teapot with various stitches, and beads.

I echoed Carolyn's wavy rose vine with a scalloped chain stitch in silk ribbon with clusters of flowers and leaf beads at each point

Since writing this post, I've embroidered another of the teacup and saucers.

Paper pieced quilt ...... finished

2010-11-12T20:55:00.001-05:00

This is the finished paper pieced quilt that the craft group at St. Margaret's in the Pines Church worked on for the upcoming Fall Bazaar in a couple of weeks. I did a lot of the actual paper piecing and there are more photos in a previous post. Susan, who is one of our leaders organized and motivated us, and when it was finished it was machine quilted. It's bright and beautiful and some lucky person will have the winning ticket.

Peggy's Basically Beaded CQI RR

2010-11-11T17:07:00.002-05:00

This is Peggy's Basically Beaded Block after Arlene and I have done our bits

The navy blue small centre patch was perfect for these sequin flowers.. The seam on the left is beaded cross stitch.

This is a beaded fly stitch with added gold flowers

A row of randomly chosen beads.

A mother of pearl button and bead patch.

Visit to Morin Heights

2010-11-09T22:32:00.000-05:00

Caleb's birth announcement block

This is the centre portion of the block. The photo and letters for the birth information was printed on silk.

My son Neil and his family live in Quebec, about an hour north of Montreal in the foothills of the Laurentians. I have two adorable French/Canadian grandchildren, who at 2 and 4 can speak both English and French. I visited this past weekend for their birthdays. I also delivered Caleb's crazy quilted block. I've been making these birth announcement blocks for each of my five grand children. This is Caleb's and he's just about four years old now. I've only been crazy quilting for less than 3 years, so I was able to add extra information to his block because he's a little older. For starters, he's crazy for cars (just like his daddy), so I found some neat car fabric to include in the block. When Caleb began to talk it was in two word sentences, and I included a sampling using alphabet blocks. Here are a few more close ups:

A button patch

Feather stitch, chevron, buttonhole and fly stitches

Rose vine, chain scallops and some of Caleb's first words

Button cluster

Carolyn's Tea Time II Round Robin

2010-11-01T19:30:00.000-04:00

One side of Carolyn's tea cosy

The second side

Carolyn's tea cosy is made from old fashioned prints and was fun to work on. I chose the chicken scratch on the first side (above). I love doing chicken scratch and I was glad that she had one on each side, and one was left still to do. I also embroidered some blue bullion daisies on both sides of the cosy. On the first side there was a small rectangle that looked just like a table, so I filled it with beaded goodies. And on the second side I added a simple cross stitch seam treatment in red, white, yellow and royal blue.

Bullion daisies

Chicken Scratch

Cakes and Cookies! Chocolate eclairs, Empire Biscuits and a chocolate cake

Cross stitch, straight stitch, French knots and lazy daisies