Crazy Quilting

Last week I sent off my Secret Santa Swap present and she should be getting it any day now, so I thought I should talk about what I designed.

I made a crazy quilt stitcher's envelope.

This is the back.
Inside there are pockets for scissors, threads etc.

I made it from Bali fabrics - I really like them for crazy quilting now. I never have curved lines in my crazy quilting - I prefer straight lines - I think it says something about my personality!!☺

This Brazilian Embroidery thread by Edmar is my favorite thread to use to embellish the seams, it comes in all kinds of wonderful colours and varying thickness, plus it is relatively inexpensive. Mainly I use Iris, but also some Lola and Frost. Glory is finer and works to add little details.

I also use silk buttonhole twist and Kreinik metallic thread, mainly #8 fine braid. I sometimes use pearl cotton. I never use embroidery floss now, I find that it splits and looks skimpy.

These are by DMC and Caron (Watercolours). I used different pearl cottons to make the twisted braid that is around the envelope.

The beads I use are #15 (the same size as Mill Hill Petite beads). It is getting much easier to find this size of beads in great colours. I did also add some Mill Hill bugle beads to the envelope.

Mother of pearl buttons are my favorite to add to crazy quilting. They are a great way of hiding odd seam intersections (instead of having curved seams).

I have mentioned before that my Grandmother did crazy quilting, and I showed a couple of quilts that she made here.

Here are some pictures of crazy quilting I have around my house.

This is my first piece, a pillow I made when I was 16, in 1982. One skein of embroidery floss and one stitch. I've come a long way - thanks to Judith Baker Montano.

This one is made from handkerchiefs and bits of lace from my Mother, Grandmother and Aunts

Plate frames are great for framing crazy quilting. The flower in the center is an old cigarette silk.

Silk fabric landscape - lots going on in the world that we don't see

Red is my favorite colour! More cigarette silks. For this one I wanted to try making little squares - I had seen the style else where. One of the square has no fancy embellishment, to show that plain is beautiful too.

Two bags, and the center circle is my first piece after I found a JBM book.

This is the largest piece I made (from 2002), I call it "Life is a Journey". The silk path in the center is the path of life, smooth, coming forward, brighter with only a few bumps in the road. , it is a real sampler of many types of embroidery -

Brazilian Embroidery

Stumpwork (3 dimensional on wire)

Canvas Work with a beaded tassel

More canvas work with a shisha mirror

Hardanger

Tatting, with my children's birthstones (I usually have a reference to them in my work - the red one and the lace one have some too). The bullion embroidery bouquet above is like my wedding bouquet.

Cross stitch and surface embroidery on painted fabric

Crewel embroidery and the heart is my only attempt at bobbin lace

Ribbon embroidery with shells and beads

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!!♥