Back of Dianne's bag

Back of Dianne's bag
Originally uploaded by Crazydolldresser.

This is the other side of Dianne's bag. I added buttons and needle-turned and slip-stitched a vintage applique along the long seam near the top. The bag was lined with a dull orange self-patterned cotton quilting fabric.

Front of Dianne's bag

Front of Dianne's bag
Originally uploaded by Crazydolldresser.

The barter system is alive and well at my place! A work colleague, Dianne, knitted me a winter scarf and hat, a summer weight dressy scarf and finished off a woollen cardigan I started knitting in 1995 and never finished. In return, I made her this cq bag. The photo makes it look uneven, but believe me, it was perfectly balanced in real life! Dianne wears a lot of browns and autumn colours so it seemed a good choice of colour for her bag as well....and because some of the variegated velvet had a bit of dull turquoisey blue in it, I was able to add the very vintage velvet flowers and leaves at the top. This is the first side I did, although the bag doesn't really have a front or a back.

Maureen Bonds Christmas tree 003

Maureen Bonds Christmas tree 003
Originally uploaded by Crazydolldresser.

Solvy DYB RR. Maureen Bond made a large picture for us all to embellish. It was a room with walls, floor, fireplace and of course, a Christmas tree. I chose to make a wreath for the wall which was a green pipe cleaner wrapped in funky fibre and a sort of green holographic tinsel with red beads sewn on. The clock was a piece of dark brown fabric appliqued onto the mantlepiece with a button clock face. Mary Lewis had already added the candles around the Christmas tree and Anne had put the star of the top and the button stockings on a gold cord. I hope Anne doesn't mind but I put her stocking buttons on the fire place and decorated the tree with gold cord and lots of tiny charms and bead ornaments. This was great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

margaret's block

margaret's block
Originally uploaded by Crazydolldresser.

Firstly, the Solvy DBY RR. After I finished Mary Lewis's cream on cream block, I received this bright orange, yellow and green block from Margaret Price. Wow, this block was so challenging because these are not the sort of colours that I normally work with, however I really enjoyed myself experimenting with 3D flowers and charms. The appliqued butterfly introduced brown colour to the block so I was able to balance it up with the dyed lace and the stitchery along the sides of the sheer braid with vinyl orange flowers. The flowers around the little gold "My Garden" charm were single tatted flowers which I worked in white thread and then dyed orange and yellow.

I'm back blogging

It's been nearly three months since I actually sat down and blogged. Life and work have taken up so much of my time and inclination that I have ignored my blog to the point that many of my friends are asking me when I'm going to add something. I'd feel guilty leaving it any longer. Obviously they've taken a look and found nothing new.......sorry everyone, I'll try not to leave it so long again. Anyway, I'll try and work out what's been happening since March and include as much as I can think of.

Complete Solvy DYB block

Complete Solvy DYB block
Originally uploaded by Crazydolldresser.

This photo is of the complete cream-on-cream block for Mary Lewis. Apart from the fan, linen circle with tatting and the sea-horse, there are some tiny flat copper rings covered in buttonhole stitch, embroidered lace, vintage pearl buttons and more.

Seahorse corner

Seahorse under the sea corner
Originally uploaded by Crazydolldresser.

This little cream lace seahorse just cried out for a sea bed to sit on. I stitched various types of seaweed in different types and textures of thread and added the tiny gold shell and starfish charms. There are a lot of irridescent bead "bubbles" rising in lines to the surface of the ocean but unfortunatly they haven't shown up in the photo.

Close-up of tatting and hem-stitched linen

Close-up of tatting and hem-stitched linen
Originally uploaded by Crazydolldresser.

I bought several sheets of these little hem-stitched shapes on eBay a couple of years ago. The circles measure 1 3/4 inches across and are meant to be used as centres of crocheted motifs. They date from around 1900. I slip-stitched some vintage tatted edging around the edge of the circle and added ribbon roses and rayon thread bullion leaves plus the little gold blue bird charm.

Method of making Solvy Fan

Method of making Solvy Fan
Originally uploaded by Crazydolldresser.

Here is a practice piece I did on some scrap material first. I wanted the fan to be controlled rather than just a pile of clipped thread pieces trapped between the two layers of solvy. I sewed the outline shape then filled it in with a rough grid of straight sewing lines. After a few experimental machine embroidery stitches, I finished up deciding on the top embroidery stitch which is a double zig-zag stitch, then machine stitched back and forth across the fan following the curves and making sure that each row went over the edge of the previous row. Once the fan shape was covered, I sewed an edging around all sides of the fan with the same stitch.

Solvy Fan

Solvy Fan
Originally uploaded by Crazydolldresser.

This is the fan I made for Mary's DYB block using solvy. I appliqued the fan shape onto the background over the top of a tiny organza frill then added silk embroidered bullion roses, ribbon, wrapped thread spokes and a satin stitched bow.

Tartan ATC size purse or jewellery pouch

I have just finished my third UFO for 2006. I'm doing well, only 37 more to go!! This one is a little ATC size tartan purse or pouch for a Scottish friend, Lorraine. I sewed lots of little scraps of different tartan fabrics to a foundation then embellished them with stitching on the seams, embroidered thistles, White heather and bluebells, using tiny bluebell shaped beads. Because the tartan itself was so busy I only added three charms - all Scottish, then added a black suede backing piece and lined it in tartan taffeta. I bound it in tartan bias-binding and added gold herringbone stitching and a black beaded fringe.

Crazy Christmas Stocking

I have been working on a crazy quilted Christmas stocking for a special friend. When I started it, I had no idea that I would be starting a new full-time job, consequently I have just finished it - never mind, it will keep for next Christmas. I scanned the stocking into the computer so have had to do it in two halves. The red frill at the top is rayon ribbon loopy fringe from the on-line Flights of Fancy Boutique topped by a matching red braid from the same place. I have no affiliations to FoF but I love their gorgeous trims and braids. Here's a link to their store. http://www.flightsoffancyboutique.com/cgi-bin/Store/store.cgi

All that Jazz block

All that Jazz block
Originally uploaded by Crazydolldresser.

I'll have another go at posting a photo of my finished block for the "All That Jazz" fundraiser quilt for victims of the Katrina hurricane. Thanks to Maureen Grantham, I may be able to do it this time. Here goes anyway......

Finished Katrina Block

I have finally finished my block for the Hurricane Katrina fundraising quilt - I hope. I can't see any spots that need a quick fix at the moment anyway. Also there is a close-up of the silk ribbon embroidered Wisteria and Magnolias with the little Humming Bird charm which I loved and was waiting for a perfect opportunity to use. I think this is the right time. I have really enjoyed working on this block, not just a good cause but a wonderful challenge. Thankyou Sharon, for the invitation to participate in the project.

Unfortunately, I have installed Firefox due to being caught out by the Spy Sheriff spyware and viruses and this stops me be able to post photos directly to my blog. I will ask my resident computer doctor to fix this problem but in the meantime, here are links to my flickr photostream.

More Katrina Hurricane Relief cq block notebook pages.

This page from my notebook contains simple sketches of ideas for stitching seams and patches on the block. On the left is my original idea for the dancing music and on the right are several sketches showing a Victorian hand charm scattering stars over the block below, which got changed to the hand scattering Purple, Green and gold beads to represent the colours of the Mardi Gras; a suggestion for random smocking and a seam embellishment idea.



The second page shows my "textures" page with sequins, glitter, beads, sparkly threads - all sorts of textures and glitz which represent the carnival type atmosphere of the Mardi Gras and New Orleans Jazz Festival.

Block for Katrina Hurricane relief.

It is so good to be blogging again after so long away handling real-life situations. I have to thank Sharon Boggon from inaminuteago for inviting me to be a participant in the Crazy Quilt to raise money for the American Red Cross so they can help victims of hurricane Katrina. Now I'm revisiting my much neglected blog as I use it to record my progress on my block.

I couldn't wait to get cracking on the block so immediately created a little notebook so I can record my ideas and draw my various stitch combinations before I jump in with needle and thread and find out that it doesn't work! My photos show my notebook open at the "colours" page where I glued pictures cut from the internet, from clip art, magazine cuttings and pieces of fabric.


Then I took a good hard look at the pages noting that I had quite a lot of turquoise, not much yellow, a small area of orange, a bit more hot pink etc and I tried to keep the colour combination on the block to the same proportion.


This photo is of my first completed patch - my Jazz piece! It is simply five lines of black stem stitch with a row of musical charms dancing along them. I think the charms were meant for scrap-booking but they were perfect for my block.

Cream on cream crazy quilt blocks.

I have been working on culling my stash in the nicest possible way. I had a large box of white, ivory, cream and antique cream coloured fabrics and another large box of antique lace pieces which have been gleaned from old garments, antique shops, eBay purchases and some that have been given to me. It seemed a shame to have them all squashed up together in a box so I am going to make a quilt for our queen size bed. My husband measured out the blocks and decided that I need to have twelve rows of eight blocks - that's ninety-six?? so far, I've completed ten! I should mention that any fabric pieces which appear to be a greyish colour or have what appear to be black threads running through them are in fact cream and threads are metallic gold. I will also do a tiny bit of gold metallic embroidery to liven up some of the blocks. At the moment, I'm not doing any embellishment or embroidery but I'm collecting cream coloured threads including two wooden reels of 1920s Pearsall's rayon embroidery thread. Here are the first four blocks using my favourite pieces of antique lace.

Lily's crazy quilted Monet's Garden with Lily Pond

I worked with a girl called Lily who wanted a special wallhanging based on my ATC size purses. She wanted abstract yet she also wanted it to look like a garden with a Lily pond so I pieced nine ATC size blocks and joined them together haphazardly. It is only by looking at my photos on Flickr and on this blog that I have been able to enjoy the lovely jewel colours, as in real life it looks like a jumbled mess of colour. I have just started to work some embroidered embellishments on the lily pond but I will scan it again once it is finished. Lily intends to put a large mount around the garden and then frame it.


To see the large version of this photo, put this link into your search engine.
http://photos23.flickr.com/28876212_92eedaa013_b.jpg

Opal and Bornite (Peacock Ore) ATCs

These are my favourite two ATCs from my gemstone collection. Bearing in mind that these are only 3 1/2 inches x 2 1/2 inches, there is a lot of tizzy glitz on each one. The Opal one which is my very favourite is just covered in black sparkle which once again has been killed off by the scanner, and includes six little real Opals which have been created by sandwiching a thin slice of opal between a backing and a resin "bubble", however they were perfect for my ATC. I was thinking "Mardi Gras" colours while I was working on this.


To see the large size photo, enter this link into your search engine.
http://photos21.flickr.com/28872880_551ed319f5_o.jpg

This ATC just MIGHT finish up with my good friend Linda from Chloe's Place if she is very, very good and grovels and begs nicely. My starting point for this ATC was the gold fan charm which adapted beautifully into the Peacock's tail. I used only Peacock colours on this ATC which represents Bornite and needless to say, I had heaps of fun, always with Linda on my mind!!

Gemstone ATCs

I have been working on more ATCs based on the colours of Australian Gemstones, similar to my one featured way back on Feb 12th which represented Copper. This first one represents the gorgeous soft minty greens of Malachite. I was lucky to find a broken necklace at the local St Vinnie's op shop which was exactly the right colour and that became my starting point.


The second ATC is totally glittery gold. Unfortunately, the scanner "killed" the sparkle but makes it easier to see the stitching and embellishments. I needed to bring in the black fabric and spider's web to make a contract between all the glitz!


This is the third one based on Argyle Diamonds which come in White, Champagne, Cognac and Pink. Once again, this ATC is really sparkly and features lots of diamantes and sparkle. The two champagne coloured flower centres and the white circular "diamond" in the centre were earrings, once again from St Vincent de Paul's op shop. I paid $5 a pair for them and when I got home I noticed that they were still on their original cards and had been priced at $47.95 pair.....bonus!!


This is a very gentle ATC representing Amethyst. My five year old grand-daughter brought me the plastic butterfly and two little flowers from her own bead box and suggested that I sew them in the very centre......so I did! I loved her input and interest so I might make her a little purse out of the ATC.