Constructing a CQ Block from the centre out part 2

Embroidered and embellished.

Storing all the stash

On CQforNewbies, there's a discussion going on about how folks store their stash. I've been involved in loads of different crafts in my life and none of them have stashes that grow so much and so fast as crazy quilting! I began last March with one small box of "fancy" fabrics and some DMC floss. Now I am bursting at the seams! I have a great wall unit that takes up almost one wall in my bedroom made by my handy friend. The unit is just adjustable shelves and 12 x 12 x 12 cardboard boxes covered with wallpaper. Most of the boxes have fabric sorted by colour. The centre open unit is scrapbooking and genealogy. There are 42 large boxes and 6 small, three quarters of them with fabric.

In my living room I have a small corner where I do cake decorating. My handy friend used an old door, a big sheet of arborite, an old sewing machine table and an extra support to give me lots of workspace. Underneath all of that are three rolling drawer units supporting the door and giving me lots of storage for beads, charms, buttons, and threads. All the drawers are used, most are full.

Within the larger drawers there are two plastic containers with beads or threads.

This system works for me. But I am at capacity and must stop adding any more stuff. By the way is there a "stash anonymous"?

Memories of the past

Before I emigrated from England in 1960 to Canada, I started this quilt from bits of left over fabrics from skirts and dresses I had made for myself. it's completely hand stitched. I used 6-sided paper pieces and wrapped the pieces of fabric around them and tacked them all separately. Then I oversewed them together. Well, I don't like brown and I didn't finish it. When I joined our Seniors club about seven years ago I donated it to the Club where it sat in a cupboard for another few years. Well one Tuesday when I wasn't there, out it came, into the frame and the ladies went to work! I'm so pleased it didn't end up in Goodwill!

Anne and Rita working on the quilt.

Weather update

A few days ago I posted a photo of our roaring creek. I had warmed up and rained for two days which sent torrents of water down towards the lake (about 2 kms) away from me. This was how it looked today. The creek is back to normal but has left hundreds of ice floes all the way down.

Grand Motif Swap

Sounds very posh! A group of crazy quilters are taking part in a swap of motifs. This is my first time trading motifs, this is what I made:

East End Cake Decorators - February's Workshop

Lots of babies being "born" and sweet little cradles being crafted on Sunday at the EECD workshop. Lynn ran the workshop and instructed on how to make a cradle from two sizes of heart cutters. The red Wilton heart cutters worked really well. Other members brought samples of different cradles and cutters. A good time was had by all!

• Lynn is shaping the baby's head and body.

Here the pieces have been cut out from gumpaste. The large heart piece is the head of the cradle, the smaller one, the foot. The other pieces are the base, and the side rails. There is also a molded baby. Our members concentrating on getting the pieces cut just right. Lynn now has the rails attached to the bottom. The finished cradle on the right is prepared ready for a canopy. This shows that the basic cradle can be enhanced and added to. Lynn prepared the canopy beforehand. For the posts she used glass swivel sticks which will go into holes already made in the heart plaque.

Diane K.'s heart cradle with her canopy design.

Here are more cradle designs. On the left a small sugar molded cradle, the centre is another design using cutters. On the right a larger sugar molded cradle. and in the front, a bare bones cradle made as an experiment. Because the bottom points of the hearts were left on, the cradle needs some kind of support underneath to keep it from falling over. The sugar molded cradles will be offered as a workshop at a later date.

Thread addiction

Isn't it wonderful when your kids actually know what you would like for Christmas!!! Mine got together and deposited some money in PayPal. The nice thing about that is you can't spend PayPal money in the grocery store or on your telephone bill! So it went to thread. This is a lovely package I just received from Evening Star Designs. There's Needle Necessities and Sassa Lynne, can't wait to use them! Thanks kids!

Rain and melting snow

It's rained here for two days and the temperature has been up to 40F. We had piles of snow, most of which has melted. Here's a photo I just took of our local creek, usually quite docile and meandering, today a dangerous, deep, fast flowing river.

Chicken scratch tea cosy

No wonder chicken scratch embroidery was so popular back when. It's so easy, works up quickly and looks nice when it's finished. Here's yet another tea cosy. I did a different pattern on each of the two fronts. To see my other chicken scratch, click on "chicken scratch" in the label box below. There's also a tutorial for making this tea cosy. Click on the sidebar label for "tea cosy tutorial" It's basically made from four square blocks, the crazy quilt ones were, but this was made from one big oblong. Added August 16, 2009. In my sidebar I have a gaget called "Feejit" that tracks visitors to my blog. I've noticed in the last few days that I have many, many visitors who are coming directly to this post on Chicken Scratch. I'd be interested to know where you made the connection. If you like you could leave me a message on this post please.

Needlelace dragonfly

I have sore fingers from this! And I think for a learning project I should have chosen a design with bigger spaces. The body has two rows of buttonhole stitch, in fact everything is buttonhole stitch so far. On the blog that I mentioned with the tutorial, there were good set up instructions, but I didn't find stitch instructions. Those I found in another place, http://www.vintagecraftpatterns.info/. But as I said, the spaces I have to fill in are too narrow. I'll finish this dragonfly, and then maybe try an angel. Annet left me a message that she has done this type of work and will look out some photos. Thanks Annet, I'm looking forward to seeing what you have made.

Just had to try this out!

Today on SharonB's blog, Pintangle, she wrote about needlelace and mentioned a blog, extile Dreams that has a tutorial. I've been wanting to have a go at this for a while, so I put all my other projects aside for this evening and dove right in. It's quite a process to prepare. It involves drawing the design on stiff cardboard, tacking the cardboard onto two layers of strong fabric, pricking holes all around the design, and then couching down thickish threads around the design. Here's where I am after two hours.

Precious little goodies.......

Since I've been deep into crazy quilting, my family, friends, neighbours & aquaintances have showered me with precious little goodies. This morning a friendly neighbour brought around this bundle of threads. She is originally from Hungary and the colours are what are mainly used in their embroidery projects. The orange and cream balls and the little muddily pile have a wonderful sheen to them. I think they would be great for bullions. A Dutch friend from my seniors group passed on this beautiful piece of lace. I can't imagine cutting this up. It probably belongs in a museum.

More chicken scratch

Chicken scratch has been a great first technique to experiment with in SharonB's Stitch Explorer 2009. I tried lots of variations which you can find in previous posts or on my Flickr site. Since I'm on the "tea cosy" wagon right now I decided to make a tea cosy with some chicken scratch decoration. It is the four-square design again. And this is the basic chicken scratch stitch on this square except that I have switched colours on the inner and outer rows. This is the front. And this will be the back. Another basic stitch. This side needs another round of stitching. These designs work up really quickly and are very effective. I like the contrast of the navy and white on the pale blue gingham.

East End Cake Decorating Club - Feb. 15th Meeting

January 18th Workshop was led by David Hall on making a decorated Valentine’s box using graham wafers, and molded chocolates to fill the box. Each participant made 2 boxes, 2 chocolate hearts on sticks, and 8 caramel-filled hearts. Here's a photos taken by Lyne.

February 15th Workshop will be baby cradles made of gumpaste or pastillage and using heart cutters. Lyne Coderre and Diane Kingston will lead the workshop. Various others will bring different cutters and/or baby cradles they have made, and possibly demonstrate them.

• The workshop will consist of participants cutting out the parts and colouring/decorating them. If time permits, a baby for the cradle will be made. However, as the sugar paste must dry before assembling, the leaders will demonstrate how to assemble the cradle using pieces made previously and dried.
• ********************
• Ball of gumpaste or pastillage**
• Medium heart cutter
• Decorative embosser
• Rolling pin
• Gumpaste or other spatula
• Rolling/Cutting board
• Corn starch puff
• Small container of shortening
• Ruler
• Baby head mold
• Bag of royal icing the colour of your gumpaste or pastillage, with tip 2
• Bring whatever you have of the recommended list. If you are missing something, we can share. **Gumpaste or pastillage will be available for sale if you don’t have any. ********************************************
• Take a look at this website, it's hilarious! http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
• **********************************************

Upcoming classes

Please let me know about any cake decorating classes you are offering.

Creative Cutters are offering some interesting classes. Check out their website http://www.creativecutters.com/ Click on "classes" to get to the details.

Flourconfections have some great classes too: http://www.flourconfections.ca/classes.html

Diane M.

UFO - owning up

Looking back to last April when I started this blog, the April 13 post was all about UFOs. I was full of good intentions but the projects that were UFOs then are still UFOs now. Only one of them has progressed and that is Mum's curtains. Not that they are finished yet, but they are hanging. Not lined or hemmed, but at least off the chair by my sewing machine. Finding a person to install the curtain rails in the concrete ceiling was a challenge. Unless you have a resident handy person, you are left with friends and relatives, and frankly, this was too big a job to ask as a favour. So I checked out the handyman section of the local paper and had one quote on the job: way over $100 which was about the value of the curtains themselves. Mum is Scottish and doesn't throw her money away. Almost all summer they lay in waiting, and finally we found a reasonable handyman who worked for $25. an hour. He took less than 2 hours to install the curtain rails and also fix the hinges on a kitchen cupboard door. My point is, why do I take so long to finish a job? I suppose the honest answer is that curtains aren't as interesting as crazy quilting. So, as this is February 1st today, my promise is that I will finish them before February 28.