Emily's CQJP2014 block finished

I was lucky to have a lovely crochet doily in variegated lilacs that I cut in half for this block.  I am making good progress on this year's journal project.  This is the sixth block finished out of 20 for the project.  I need to do almost two blocks a month to finish by the end of the year.    

This is Josh, my next block to work on.  

CQJP 2014 Next Naked Block

This is Emily, Suzie and John's daughter and Jack's younger sister, and one of my three grand daughters.  The block is mainly lilacs and already there are a couple of areas that were already embroidered:  the pansies are from the corner of a hankie, and the bottom left fabric is a sheer net embroidered with lilac flowers.

I still have more than a week left of my vacation and I'm hoping to finish this block and one more.  

CQJP 2014 May's Block finished

This was such a lot of fun to work on.  Because the photo and frame took quite a bit of room on the block, each seam and area of fabric patch was short and small.   So I was continually changing stitches and threads.

This little spray was a surprise to me.  I'm not good at drawing or designing this type of thing.  But this one began with just one big cross drawn on the fabric.  The centre button stands out and then, as you can see, I added some bits and pieces, embroidered some leaves, and it looks pretty. 

Here's some of the Kiko flowers that Sharon B. taught us in Connecticut a few years ago.  

The hankie formed the frame for the picture, and because it was so delicate, I didn't want to overly embellish it.  I left it to the very last and in the end used every single fresh water pearl I had in my "brought to Florida" stash and it looked just right.


I do have my next block pieced together and photographed, but I have a Mac laptop now and my photo is on it, but I haven't figured out how to get it to this screen.

April's Block but really only February's

Moving right along with the blocks for the 2014 CQ Journal Project.  

The finished quilt will have 20 blocks and I'm hoping to have it finished in the 12 months of 2014, which means I need to do 1 2/3 blocks per month.  

That is a daunting thought!  So far I have finished  4 blocks (4 x 3/3 is 12 thirds) and that is the equivalent of January and February (5/3 + 5/3 = 10/3) and 2/3 of this block to go towards March's block.  

Maybe that's altogether too much math.

This is my daughter Suzie as a baby.  The block is a bit wild, but it does go with her red dress!

The next block is Heather, my younger daughter.  I had this wonderful old fine lawn hankie edged with tiny rosebuds.  I didn't want to cut it up, so I laid the photo on top and folded the hankie around to make a frame.  I am without sewing machine while on holiday, and these blocks are all hand sewn, so they all look a little bubbly. 

CQJP 2014 - February's Block

This is my second block in the CQJP 2014 challenge which is  to finish one block or item a month for a year, and then make them into something.  

This is the naked block with a few pieces of lace added.  I'm trying to use more lace than I usually do.

Here it is finished.  The centre photo is of my parents at the beginning of their honeymoon on Jersey.  This was just two days before World War 2 began.  On their second day, my father was recalled to his RAF unit.  

 I'm doing a series of blocks that represents my grandparents, parents, siblings and my children and my grandchildren.  A total of 20 blocks.

Ribbon roses.   Above the roses you can see a piece of lace where I added a small piece of orange satin under the lace flower.

I added a lot of beads and stitching to the two rows of lace trim and I like the effect. The centre bead began as a small white glass flower and changed completely with some gold thread.

This was in my stash, and isn't it lovely.  A crochet flower with variegated thread gives a nice pattern.

A little patch of roses.

CQJP2014

The annual Journal Project encourages me to tackle larger projects and finish them.  2011's quilt was the "Flower Quilt"

2012's was the "Fan Quilt"

2013's began, but I didn't finish it.  

2014 is going to be a family quilt with photos. Gerry Kruger gave me some excellent advice on her Blog "Block Talk", about adding lace, upon lace, upon lace to ultimate richness, and I'm doing my very best....

Naked Block

With some lace and embroidery added and having a bit of fun trying to be lavish!

June's CQJP2012 block

This is June's CQJP 2012 block and the 9th block in the fan design series.  It's all silk and the patterned pieces are from silk ties.

This is a close up from my block above.  I've been using the designs from Carole Samples book "Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches" as inspiration, and below is the sketch from the book.  This is called a holbein stitch design. 

This is my version of the long-armed feather stitch.  Below is the sketch from Carole's book.

This is from the stem stitch design page.

A row of whipped circle flowers.

The top corner

The bottom section. Lovely lace with tiny gold beads.

Tone on Tone DYB RR - Ritva's Block

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

Hearts and Hands for Sendai

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.



Basically Beaded - Meg's block



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!

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!