CQJP2012 May's blocks

These are my two blocks for May's Crazy Quilt Journal Project for 2012.  Both have beaded sections that are part of Nancy Eha's Seed Bead Botany online course.  I'm also using Miss Carole Samples "Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches" as inspiration.  The patterned fan segments are silk tie fabrics, the remainder of the block is plain silk from other clothing.

At the top is a branch of beaded wisteria.  On the left, simple beaded flowers and on the right blackberries and raspberries.  The half circle seam and the bottom seam are my interpretation of seams from the book. 

A second block for May.  The left beaded section is a spray of beaded fantasy flowers.  The seam on the right and the seam along the curved edge at the bottom were inspired by the Crazy Quilt book.

I have Miss Samples kind permission to use diagrams from her book. 

It's fun to adapt old quilting designs and use beads instead.

My embroidery is a mixture of both of these designs.

I actually didn't have room for the cross stitch star.  This is a nice design and would fill a large space.  I'll use this again I'm sure.
I have the templates to go along with the book and I'm using them for spacing. 

Peacock in Paisley

Maureen's Vintage Acquisitions is offering interesting online courses.  This is Peacock in Paisley, a four week tutorial with Betty Pillsbury, that has just finished.  I really enjoyed working on this project.  I didn't purchase the kit, but used what I had in my stash.  See below for my version.

CQJP2012 - April's second block

This is the second block for April.  The beading in the lower corner is from Nancy Eha's Seed Bead Botany, an online course offered by Maureen Greeson.  

 I've been using Carole Samples book "Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches as inspiration  for the fan blocks for the CQJP2012 challenge.   Above on the left is the design from the book, and on the right my interpretation.  (Miss Samples gave her permission to me to reprint stitch diagrams from her book.)

Seed Bead Botany

I'm juggling a few online classes right now, one of them being Nancy Eha's Seed Bead Botany.  This is the last week of a four week course and I've completed all the lessons. The finished beaded projects I've used on my fan quilt blocks.  I enjoyed learning more about beading and was so happy that Maureen (Maureen's Vintage Acquisitions) offered the course. 

Fantasy flowers

Blackberries and raspberries

Coneflower?

Grape vines and leaves

Wisteria

Chikan Embroidery - fifth lesson

The fifth lesson is now completed and there's not much left to do.   I'm using the lighted magnifying glass for every stitch!  Anita from Artistic Fingers is taking us through this stitch-along.  

Canada Blooms 2012

One of my "sugar" groups, CSSA had a booth at Toronto's Canada Blooms Show this past month.  It was our prize for winning the best booth in the show last year.  Can you imagine, sugar flowers winning over real ones.  That just shows how realistic our creations are!  We were a little tight on space this time, so we had to scale down our exhibit.  And because one aspect of the show was supporting a cure for cancer, our booth was designed with that in mind.  

Our booth with our President, Eduarda, a lady with so many great ideas and the ability to put them into action. 

Our members were given the task to fill a yellow plantpot with sugar flowers in honour of someone who is a survivor, being treated for, or who has passed due to cancer.  The response was great and very touching.  

It was a really interesting display and there was the usual amount of astonishment when visitors discovered that the flowers were all made from sugar.

My friend Verdie and I spent a good part of one day demonstrating.  It's fun to produce a life-like rose in front of folks who have not seen the sugar version before!

Chikan Embroidery - fourth lesson

I'm following a stitch-a-long with Anita from Artistic Fingers. I'm all caught up now because I am home nursing bronchitis which gives me lots of sewing time!  Always find a silver lining!  I'm enjoying Anita's excellent weekly tutorials and the motif is certainly coming to life.  It's 6" x 5" with a lot of tiny stitches.  

CQJP2012 - April's block

April's block finished. The top beaded flower motif (thanks Karrin H. for the idea) I did as part of Nancy Eha's Seed Bead Botany online course.  The orange buttons going across are lovely old glass, all different.

I've been using Miss Carole Samples book: Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches, as a resource and inspiration for the fan blocks I am making for the CQJP2012 project.  She has very kindly given me permission to show sections of her book here.

I want to show the original stitch diagram from the book, and then how I have used it.  This one in the book, is from the "Band" stitcheries.

Closed stitch fly design.

Antique linear design large scale.  I copied this one, but used variegated thread that matched the silk fabric perfectly.  All the patterned fabric in these blocks are from silk ties.  Most of the plain silk fabric is not.  I wanted to use all ties, but it was too busy as most ties are well patterned.  

Creating a Family Heirloom

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A Crazy Quilting Block Tutorial

Baby Birth Announcement 

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Step by step instructions 

and materials

This 40 page pdf instruction book will take you step by step in great detail, through the process of making the 12" x 12" wall hanging celebrating the baby's birth. 

Each step is covered thoroughly with photos: 

• Piecing the block, adding the silk photo and text.
• Embroidering and embellishing.
• Backing and binding.
• Adding your message and the hanging corners on the back of the block. 

The 40 pages of instructions will arrive by e-mail as a "pdf" file. 

The pages are full size 8 1/2" x 11" pages in full colour, and the file can be printed from your computer if you wish.

The fabric and embellishing package will arrive by mail .  It will include:

• Fancy fabric and a piece of muslin to make your block;

• A coordinating selection of lace, trim, sequins, beads, and charms;
• Silk print of your baby and a silk print of the baby's birth details: name, date, weight, height;
• A square of batting cut to size;
• A piece of coordinating satin or moire for backing and binding the finished block.

There will be a choice of colour selections listed on Etsy, such as pink/soft green; blue/cream; lilac/pink. 

Following are a few pages taken from the Tutorial PDF

  

Thanks for reading all this!  It was a big undertaking and took a few months to complete.  Here's the link to Etsy.