Sendai Block is Really Finished

This is the block after I have worked some more Bamboo on the left hand side, thanks to Gerry's wonderful suggestion and the gold work on the Crane completed.  It will be winging it's way to Leslie in America before the day is done, (the block, not the Crane, LOL).

Hearts and Hands for Sendai Block Completed

This afternoon I finished my Hearts and Hands for Sendai block.  I'm happy with it (I think) although DH suggested I should put something in the corner with the crane.  As far as I am concerned, the Crane is so big and so glitzy that it doesn't need anything else in that corner. I will now post this block off so that it can be included in the fund-raising quilts for Sendai.  What shall I do next?  I guess I should finish off the "Found Objects" cream on cream quilt block while I wait for the next block in the Tone on Tone Round Robin to turn up......plus every time I get one of those blocks on which to work my 1/5 of the embroidery, I also do 1/5 of the hot pink/red block for Debbie's tote bag.

I have also been out in the garden today and picked aother sixteen mushrooms from underneath the grapefruit tree, which is where I picked a dozen or so last week.  I have scoured the rest of the back yard but there are no more in the other places where I found them last week.

Doing the Happy Dance !! Japanese Koi finished!!

After yet another four hour stint stitching, the Stumpwork Japanese Koi are finished.  They are not perfect but I've had enough of them, I want to move on with other seams and pieces for the Hearts and Hands for Sendai block. I have managed to shut up that whinging, whining Mrs Perfect who lives inside of me and wants everything to be just so.  Well, I have a message for her, the Koi are going to stay just the way they are because I want to get on with pond plants, Bamboo, Fans and everything else Japanese.  I set myself a challenge to do the Koi but I had no idea just how long Stumpwork takes.........ages!!!! Not to worry, I can move on now.

Stumpwork Koi fish on Japanese block

I have been thinking, drawing and finally stitching three Koi fish for the pond in the centre of my Hearts and Hands for Sendai block.  Here is the first fish and the five steps I had to take before I got there.  I am not particularly happy with the tail end which looks a bit thick and fat but that is due to the fact that I padded it with orange felt first.......maybe I shouldn't have done that???  Nevertheless, the other two will have to be done the same way as the first, I can't unpick him now!!  I stitched the fish in ONE strand of stranded cotton which had been dyed bright orange and bright golden yellow and used Blanket stitch, each row stitched into the one before.  The high-lights were sewn with one strand of Kreinik orange blending filament while his eyes are two black glass antique beads.

 Steps 1 and 2 in the top photo and steps 3, 4 and 5 in the bottom photo.

Naked Block for the Japanese Fundraising Quilt

I came home from work today and went straight out to the studio for three hours to sort through my fabric stash for some suitable jewel coloured fabrics for my block.  I even found two Japanese storks which I didn't know that I had and attached one to the block with fusible web to keep it in place until I can stitch around it.  Anyway, I think this naked block will give me lots of scope for incorporating Japanese icons such as Cherry Blossoms, bamboo, maple leaves, pagodas, fish, fans - I am looking forward to starting the embroidery on it now. Here's my naked block with only the pink bird iron in place.  The middle piece looks like water to me so I might start with a bright orange Koi.  There is not a lot we can do to help the people of Japan at this time apart from offering our prayers of support so hopefully when we have finished the quilts, the money raised will go a long way towards making life just a little bit more bearable for some.

2011 Tone on Tone RR

Yesterday I received Susan's naked block in the Southern Cross Crazies Tone on Tone Round Robin. I had no idea just how much stuff in the teal/purple/pink colour range I had in my stash until I started looking. Wow, it was like Christmas come early. Anyway I sat up last night sewing and again this morning and here is the end result. My only problem was remembering that there are four other people besides me that will work on this block and to make sure I only did 1/5th of the area.  I hope Susan likes what I have done because before I started, the block looking oriental now it looks floral.

PARASOLS Block 12 Cream on Cream Crazy Quilt Finished.

These are my Parasols for the March Victorian Symbolism Challenge for CQI but it is also Block 12 for the Cream on Cream Crazy Quilt.  I have had the hand-made broderie anglaise circular lace motif for ages - it consists of the circle in the centre, the flowers joined on individually with a few over-sewn stitches and finally the ovals around the outer edge were sewn on separately at the end. I kept picking it up and deciding that it just didn't suit any of the crazy quilted blocks until this one. It made a perfect parasol top!!  First of all, I appliqued the lace motif to cream satin and attached the tatting around the edge. It was still a bit ho-hum boring so I cut the parasol shape out of the cream satin and appliqued it to some darker fabric which matched the lace.  It was still missing something so I added the pearl beading and that's how it stayed while I finished off the rest of the block. This morning I added the parasol spines, ending each one with a 'grain of rice' pearl and a round pearl in the centre and voila! A parasol viewed from the top. 

The other parasol is the one that I embroidered last week while watching the DVDs of my nephew's wedding. Because I didn't want to take away from the parasols, I concentrated on the seam treatments and on some really unobtrusive flowers which hopefully will remain in the background.

Beautiful Sunday

I spent a lovely afternoon stitching a parasol for my next Block 12 while watching the entire three hours of DVD from my nephew's wedding.  Last September when Russell married Amanda, we were overseas in the UK and couldn't go which was a huge disappointment but our trip was booked before their wedding was!!  Anyway today was another hot day 38 degrees celsius again so I sat under the air-conditioner and sewed on my hand-drawn parasol and watched Russell and Amanda tie the knot, I even cried when Amanda walked down the aisle of our childhood church just like I would have if I had been there.  Weddings do that to me, especially when the young people are as totally in love as this couple is - it truly is a match made in Heaven. Congratulations all over again, you two!!!! It wasn't until I blogged the photo that I realised that my inspiration for a parasol was right there in front of me...duh!!!

Tone on Tone RR block for Southern Cross Crazies




This is block which will be used for the Tone on Tone Round Robin

 The latest Round Robin for SCC has a Tone-on-Tone theme.  Seeing as I am busy with my cream on cream blocks for my quilt so I thought I would make two red/hot pink blocks and make a tote bag for a Chinese workmate who loves bright colours.  One block will stay with me while the other one will travel around Australia and New Zealand being worked on.  When the block comes home in five months, I'll make up the bag for my friend Debbie.  The Red/Hot pink colour scheme is waaaay out of my comfort zone which makes it more of a challenge for me.  I am now into the fun stuff of finding suitable coloured threads, braids, charms, buttons and beads with which to decorate it.

Block 11 Cream on Cream FANS

This is the second Fan block for the Victorian Symbolism Challenge because the first block only included fan charms.  I set myself a challenge to see how many types of fans I could include on one block and came up with these five plus a bouquet of roses in the centre.......suitable for any Victorian bride as she flutters her fan.  I used silk thread for the needle woven fan with a very fine tatted edging (I can't take credit for the edging or I would still be tatting away and not blogging VBG),  It was part of a length of vintage tatting which I'd unpicked off an old garment just in case I would want to use it some day, while the others include antique lace and the beaded crocheted fan utilises beads unpicked from a purse bought at a thrift shop.

Block 10 Cream on Cream Finished - Beneath the Sea block

I had a lot of fun with this block, in fact it was hard to take it seriously.  The fish in the centre of the block looked very pale at first so I unpicked it, put a piece of darker cream fabric underneath and stitched it back again. The fabric underneath is actually a lot more subtle than the photo suggests - the colour is not as orange.  The two Coral/Seaweed motifs which are either side of the fish were centres of a rather clunky lace edging so I cut them out, turned them upside down and appliqued them to the block.  On the top section is a wavy line of ribbon.  This was originally the centre of the braid pictured left. The backing for the braid is netting so I carefully unpicked a length of the gold and cream edging from both sides because it also caught the ribbon at the widest parts. After that I unpicked the copper coloured sequins (which show up in the photo as multi-coloured). I then cut the wavy ribbon from the middle, taking care to leave the original stitching which held the ribbon to the netting background on a netting strip about 1/2 inch wide. It was easy to then simply slip-stitch the netting to the block and run a small running stitch along the centre of the gathered ribbon and catch  down the loops at the outer edges .

Valentine's Day Fabric Postcard Swap

 I have spent the last three hours holed up in my studio finishing off these seven Valentine's Day Fabric postcards for a swap with my SouthernCrossCrazies group.  I really only needed to make five, four to swap and one to keep for myself but I know a couple of people who could do with a cheer-up so I made two extra.  I really enjoyed this challenge as it gave me a chance to use up all my little red bits and pieces which I would never use otherwise.  I rarely use red in crazy quilting as it is not one of my favourite colours.  I decided to stay with traditional crazy quilting this time seeing as last time with the Autumn leaves I went waaaaaay out of my comfort zone.
These cards are all "romantic" based on the printed images which I got from Flights of Fancy Boutique. I've been waiting for an opportunity to use them. I made four vertical postcards and three horizontal postcards and the one I have chosen to keep for myself is vertical one at the top right-hand corner with the two small images.

So, Faye, Maureen, Natascha and Alison jump in and choose the one you want to receive and the two left over can go to my friends who need the cheer-ups.  Email me with your choice and I'll address it to you.....

Block 9 Completed

I have finished block 9 which started out with no particular theme and finished up being one of the main blocks in the quilt.  When I'd finished adding an elephant, a heart, a butterfly and a bouquet of Roses plus embroidery, the block was suffering an identity crisis but then my husband suggested that I turn the heart into a "cartouche".  A what?  "A Cartouche!" says he again.  He loves watching Antique Roadshow on TV and often in the jewellery section, Victorian watches, lockets, trinket boxes, serviette rings and cuff-links have a shape such as a heart, circle, oval etc in the gold or silver where people could get initials or names engraved.  So, I added my own initials VMG and the year 2011 in the blank section of the heart shape, in my own cartouche. I'm a bit disappointed that the heart edging has a "bulge" in it, it isn't straight. I tried to fix it but it's the way the motif was stitched originally and I can't do much about it. Suddenly though, the block felt complete, it looks happy again........I keep saying and it's true, these blocks develop a personality after awhile!!

Yesterday was actually a horrible day for doing anything, including stitching.  The temperature reached 40 degrees celsius which is 104 degrees farenheit and the humidity was revolting.  Everything felt hot and sticky until about 3.30pm when I decided that I really would have to brave the yucky weather and go shopping. The Heavens opened and heavy rain bucketed down accompanied by rolling thunder then just as suddenly, it stopped and it was still as hot and stickier than ever.  Today we were supposed to be hit by Cyclone Bianca but thankfully it has now been down-graded to just a heavy storm which hopefully will cool things down a bit. 

Autumn Postcard Swap

Last year the Southern Cross Crazies on-line crazy quilting group for Australians and New Zealanders hosted a postcard swap.  I chose "Autumn" as my subject and made six, one for me to keep and five to send away to my fellow-swappers.  The background for the postcards was a sandwich of Autumn/Fall coloured threads, glitter, copper coloured foil paper, copper coloured chopped Angel Fibre and powdered glue which was ironed flat between two pieces of black organdie.  At the local Op-Shop (the Salvos), I bought a bunch of artificial autumn leaves for $4 which were really ugly, came home and pulled all the leaves off the plastic stems which netted me a sizeable bag of brown, light orange and reddish orange leaves. I then pulled all the leaves off two stems of brown and beige velvet leaves and added them to the bag along with several autumn coloured leaf skeletons. The skeletal leaves and the velvet leaves were then sewn onto the background using Blanket Stitch and the artifical leaves were heat set with powdered glue and a hot iron.  Finally trims were added which included brown leaf trim from Flights of Fancy, cording, copper wire, wooden buttons and tiny gold charms.

Block 8 "Spinning" Block completed.

I call this a spinning block because I started off with spiders for Good Luck - I finished up with two.  However, that made me think of spiders spinning and I remembered the lace motif I had of a lady sitting at her spinning wheel, spinning.  I think she was a tourist souvenir from Belgium because I saw a lot of lace motifs framed in gold frames when we were in Bruges but they were so expensive that I didn't but any, I just admired them.  When we returned to UK I went to the charity shops in Anlaby near Hull and found the lady, squashed between a piece of dark green velvet and a piece of glass in the mandatory gold frame.  Unfortunately the green dye from the velvet had bled into the lady's dress but with gentle washes in Sard and Napisan stain removers and then a diluted bleach solution, I managed to get most of it out.  There was still a slight green tinge to the back of her dress so I covered it as best I could with cream leaves and flowers. I also found the length of lace braid which looked a bit like a row of spinning wheels. This was also a good opportunity to use some of my antique mother-of-pearl buttons. Now on to block 9!!

Spiders from Block 8

The January theme for the Victorian Symbolism Challenge with crazyquiltinternational on-line group is SPIDERS.  I made two spiders, one a pearl bead spider and the other a cream Stumpwork spider. Spiders in Crazy Quilting mean Good Luck, so hopefully there is a double dose on this block.

Block Seven completed

This was a difficult block for me to do as I didn't particularly like the naked block. The only starting point I had was the remnant of linen doily with the tatted edge and motif. By taking one seam at a time the block gradually took on a life of it's own and now that it is done, I like it. My favourite element of this block is the three antique ribbon flowers on the right hand side although the lace with the beaded edging at the lower left side is a piece from my Wedding dress so I guess that is a favourite too.

Block 6 Fan Block

Block 6 is called a Fan block for obvious reasons.......the lace motif at the bottom set the tone for the whole block with fan shaped stitches and other fan charms added.  The beige satin patch in the centre shone like a beacon, overshadowing everything else so I Kantha quilted it to give it more texture and less shine.  I didn't realise when I did this that February's Victorian Symbolism challenge with the on-line crazy quilt group is Fans so I'm out of sequence.  Not to worry, on to block 7.

Fan Block 6 Autocorrected

Fan Earring and Fans on the Fan Block

The fan charms on the Fan block came from an earring.  My friend Mary Lewis and I were on a joint cq charity shop crawl when we spotted these earrings.  We shared them, one each, as you do and I thought they'd be perfect for my block.