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!!♥

Christmas Stockings!

My Secret Santa Swap present came today!

Two beautiful Christmas stockings made by Vivian!

My husband and I have the Christmas stockings that we made when we first got married hanging in our bedroom (yes, I said we - my husband stitched his - the only embroidery he has ever done). I made replacement stockings for us, to go with our children's stockings, which I hang on the mantle, and I have been thinking of making stockings for my children to hang in their bedrooms like ours - thanks to Vivian I don't have to! ♥♥

I have put the new stockings in their bedrooms -


They go perfectly with our other decorations, and I was so thrilled when I opened the box - Thanks Vivian!!

I decorated the house for Christmas this week, and here are a few pictures -

Our family room.
The stockings we have are all different types of embroidery - crazy quilting for my youngest, my oldest has a cross stitch one (my Father did the cross stitching), mine is hardanger and my husband's is canvas work (the fanciest one! ie - the one that took me the longest to make!).


Our dining room.

Our skinny tree with lots of hand made decorations.

We also have a tradition of buying Christmas ornaments on our travels -

one of the first, from Germany over twenty years ago

one from our trip to the east coast five years ago

we chose this one because we saw a whale when we were in Newport, Oregon two summers ago

and from this past summer in Italy

The next picture is of my favorite piece of stained glass -

I made it about 12 years ago, the pattern is from the fall 1992 issue of Glass Patterns Quarterly magazine.

That's just some of my decorations, I love having things change in the house at this time of the year!

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

Winner!!

I am thrilled to report that Terry won my mini quilt give away and she has already sent me her address, so I will be mailing it tomorrow. Congratulations Terry!! And a huge thank-you to everyone who entered!!
Something else going in the mail tomorrow is my Secret Santa present!

I'll tell more about crazy quilting later, when my partner receives the present.

There is a great fat quarter giveaway going on over at Merry Made Quilts - Rebecca is celebrating her 100th post!

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

Decision!

In October I joined my first swap - a Secret Santa Swap over at Ouvrages d'une Acadienne. I have been thinking long and hard on what to make for my "Secret Santa" swap partner. I have been going through my partner's blog - she has a beautiful home, a sewing room of my dreams and she makes the most beautiful creations!!! I can't imagine what I can make for her!!!

So I have decided to make something with Crazy Quilting - my personal favorite. I will post pictures as it progresses - it has to be in the mail on December 1st.

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