Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches

Practicing a few more of the Primary stitches from Carole Samples' Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches. These are 'E' and 'F',

and these are 'other alphabet stitches - non linked.

Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches

...Continued...

These are the next sets of stitching I've worked on:

Detached Holbein


Detached Arrowhead


These are more Secret Santa gifts. My SS is making me feel quite special!! Thank you!

Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches

Carole Samples' book, Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches, is a fantastic resource! And the woman is a true inspiration. Such a gentle, kind spirit she has. A small group of friends have come together to practice using this book as a guide. My intent is to draw a diagram of each of the stitches using rulers and templates to make them correctly, do practice stitches on Aida or other even weave cloth, then put them to use on a sampler or actual block.


Starting at the beginning with Primary Stitches, 1-14, then 15-27, these are my samples of 1a Single Stitches.

The next section, 1b, are the Arrow Stitches.

The final section of Group I - Primary Stitches, are the Fan Stitches.

A special component of this group is the Secret Santa sharing thought of and coordinated by Candi. This is my October 1 Secret Santa gift. It's the neatest tiny needle book I've ever received. Fall is in the air :-). We'll find out who Secret Santa is in December!

Patterns

Aren't we always looking for different patterns for stitching? I get a newsletter sort of email from Dover Publications each week, and they typically offer pages of Samples that can be used for multitudes of applications. Take a look to see if there's something for which you've been searching.

Heart Stitching

Melissa of the Hand Embroidery group shared a link to a paisley heart motif that I wanted to try. The fabric is a sheer silk, and the stitching is done with hand-dyed silk and silk buttonhole. The design is approximately 3.5 x 4 inches.

Stitching Again

This is the heart with a piece of the Oriental fabric I had been saving - for what, I'm not sure. That SPECIAL project? During one of the Newbies Challenges of sorting and organizing, I forced myself to distribute them into the other fabric colors, thus using a bit for this heart.

I think it fits perfectly, and gave the inspiration for embellishing.

The motif design is from Motifs from Crazy Quilting, J.Marsha Michler.











Planning ...










Thanks for your kind comments, ladies. The butterfly sitting on the heart is from M. Michler's Shadow Embroidery transfer book.

It seems so long since I've done any stitching, but yesterday brought out the needles. Not finished by far, but had to post the little progress I've made.

Cross Stitch

It has been ages since I did any cross stitch, but wanted to make a couple of bibs for a little girl at work who is having a shower on Friday. Catch that, 'little girl'? It was fun for a change!



I've also finished the first heart and started the second.



Work has been busy since I got back from class, and it's been hard to keep up with all the lists. And there are so many blogs I haven't been able to keep up with... I also need a calendar to keep track of the projects and things that are coming due. I have to go to Virginia for another class right after Labor Day. Need to get those projects done this weekend!

Today while I was outside, I saw a weed growing up through the Wisteria (that has a few second blooms - and so does the tulip tree). The weed is a deep red/wine stem with green berries that turn dark wine/purple when they're mature. I meant to get pics of it, but I didn't get it done. I'm thinking it would be a pretty thing to embroider... The last time we went out, about 9:00 pm, it is so muggy you could see the humidity hanging around the lights.

I did take the pictures in the daylight...

Weekend

Problems? Yes, there is no water running from my faucets... What to do? Well... Now that's a deep subject - it is the well or is it the plumbing, as my son suspects. It will be a total inconvenience, but tomorrow will call a plumber! My folks live near enough by for bathing today.

At least I've done some stitching... and did a little tatting, too.

Catching up with some Stitching

I've tried to catch up with some stitching, and made a little progress. Today I joined the Have a Heart Swap with the Hand Embroidery group. I couldn't wait to get home to find fabrics, so went ahead and put it together. There may be too much going on, but will have to study it a little more. It looks pretty good in the picture, but up close it seems busy. I do need to do a little edge straightening!! Comments?



These are my stitch challenge samplers for the Stem and Chain stitches that I did most of in Orangeburg last week. Not the greatest looking things in the world, but practice none the less.



And this is an embroidered fan I'm working on with new threads, Kreninik Soie Perlee. I'm loving them so far.

100 Details for 100 Days

I think I'll add completed days work of my Sharon's 100 Details for 100 Days to this post for a while...

Day 25 (Saturday) This was fun. I found another block in the drawer that had been pieced for a LONG time, but had NO seamwork or motifs on it. This day's work is made of chevron, detached daisey, and straight stitches, and I used Edmar rayon Nova.



This is Day 24 - (Friday) another variety of wisteria. I started on the right with Edmar rayon thread, but it wasn't showing up as I wanted, so I switched to Finca cotton 12 and liked it a lot better.





I'm not up to date, but have finished days 22 and 23.



The yahoo lists have been quiet the last few days - guess everyone is busy and hot. Today (August 3, 2006) the heat index was 104 here - whew!!

Finished the Peacock and Pixie

Thanks to the 15 Minute Challenge from our Crazy Seoul Sister of the Hand Embroidery list, I have finished the colorful peacock! Now I'll get on with the stitch of the month, the Stem stitch!



I jokingly told JK she should get her hubby to let her dry his feet like I do my pup's feet. When we come inside and it's wet or she has grass clippings on her feet, I say, Let me dry your feet, and she will hold up her leg to let me wipe them. JK said I needed to preserve that picture, so here it is. Pixie thought I was a little strange tell her to let me dry her feet when we hadn't been outside, but she did as I asked :-)

Catching Up to August

Wow - it's hard to believe it is August already - has it ever been hot. In the upper 90's is tough, but really should be ashamed to complain when others have been in the 120's for weeks on end.

Jonathan and Kilo (Great Dane grandpuppy) visited this past weekend. That little girl has feet almost the size of my palm. Her crate is bigger than one of my bathrooms!! My Pixie tried to shrink away from her as much as possible. Talk about Mutt and Jeff :-). She got to go for grooming on Saturday, and I think it was a relief for her.

Last week there was a real deal on DMC perle cotton size 5 for 25 cents a skein. I got lots of colors. It is pretty thick, but it will probably look good on cotton quilts. I notice Sharon uses size 5 on some of the 100 Details seams.

I'm going to try to do the 15 Minute Challenge with the Hand Embroidery group - stitch for at least 15 minutes a day. Right now a peacock, thanks to Pam Kellog's Kitty & Me Designs, is in progress, and it HAS to get finished, so that will keep me on target for a while. I need to get started on the lap quilt I intend to make for Mary Michael for Christmas and continue with the Travel quilt. Didn't I read a quote somewhere recently about crafters' good intentions?

See completed peacock ...


I just deleted a tirade on customer service that got started with the Postal Service last week. It is apparent that one more customer just does not make that much difference to many businesses in the marketplace today. Suffice it to say that customer service ain't what it used to be.

This is a white peacock from Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches that I stitched on someone's round robin block in 2003.

Not Sleepy Anymore

I got so sleepy watching TV a while ago, went to bed - then wide awake. So here we are. On one of the CQ lists there had been lots of talk about listening to books on tape while stitching. Got me to thinking since I like to do both very much, I should try it, so I am. It does take some adjustment - paying attention - multi tasking. I get pretty focused, but figure if I can 'watch' TV and stitch I should be able to listen and stitch; right?

I did Days 20 and 21 of the 100 Seams today. Day 20 is a silk ribbon embroidery motif. I'm not the best, but think it looks better than some I've done.



Day 21 is a seam treatment I did with silk buttonhole. The opposite side of the seam used star sequins with a glass bead to hold it.





I've also been working on the 2nd July stitch, Chevron.



I've been enjoying my button collection lately, too. I really don't know too much about them, but that's ok. As long as I like them... The thing is, as a 'collector' I want to keep them instead of using them.

Seam Treatments

I've been on a bit of a stitching sabbatical, but am getting back on track. I've worked on the Hand-Embroidery chevron stitch of the month and a section of tatting for a birthday baggie in the CQ for Newbies birthday swap.

I also did two of the 100 Seam Treatments. Now I'm wishing I were at home to go forth in stitches.
I went through my 'block drawer' and found a practice block that I did way back when, so it NEEDS some help - great for the 100 Seam Treatments! I do seem to have a problem adding to existing seam work, so if anyone has thoughts on how to overcome that, please comment!



Day 18



Day 19 was hard to photo with that shimmery fabric. The fiber piece used to weave through was also hard to work with, so it is more threaded than woven through the cretan stitches.