More Romanian Point Lace

We are hosting a Christmas party tonight (people from DH's work), so I have been busy cooking and cleaning. I even put my sewing machine away - it is normally in my kitchen - so no sewing!

I have been working on the Romanian Point Lace table topper in the evenings - two more flowers finished, and more braid crocheted.
My RPL bag is from this book-


The origami bag is a fantastic work bag - it has a nice flat bottom, and just the right size to hold the balls of cotton.

There are some great giveaways going on -

Tara Lynn (Sew Unique Creations) is giving away a Shelburne Calico Garden fabric bundle that would be perfect for the Quilt Along quilt. The contest closes on the 16th. She is also giving away a Barn Quilt Calender. Be sure to check out the rest of her blog too.

Over at Traceyjay Quilts, she is giving away a Go Cutter - the contest closes on the 13th. She has set up a charity blog - Quilt Hope In - where you can donate a quilt, to raise money for women and children in Haiti.

Here, the birds and rabbits have been out in full force - the weather is getting colder.

There have been hundreds of sparrows at the feeders.

We also had the gray partridges back -

A few made it to the feeder while -

the others wandered back and

forth on the other side of the neighbor's fence, trying to figure out how to reach their friends! They eventually made it over. They are so funny to watch!

And so pretty.

The big rabbit was eating the apples -

and the little rabbit came to see - so cute!

I hope you are keeping warm where you are - here it is -22°C (-8°F) outside and inside it is 14°C (57°F), our (new in the spring) furnace has stopped working again! Someone should be here soon - hopefully before out company arrives!
Yeah! Furnace is fixed - changed a part.

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

Block #10

I chose a quick and easy block for this week - enough little triangles for a while!

This is another variation of a Variable Star.

For this one you will need -

Background -
1 - 5+3/4" square for the fast flying geese (FFG)
4 - 2+3/4" squares for the corners

Print A (mine is the brown print) -
4 - 3+1/8" squares for the FFG

Print B (mine is black) -
1 - 2+3/4" square for the center unit
4 - 1+5/8" squares for the center unit

Print C (mine is gold) -
4 - 1+5/8" x 2+3/4" rectangles for the center unit

With the 5+3/4" background square and the four 3+1/8" print A squares make four FFG (instructions here).

Trim the four FFG to 2+3/4" x 5" rectangles.

With the print B squares and print C rectangles make the center unit -

in the usual nine-patch sewing method.

I like to sew the pieces together leaving the chains of thread connecting everything

and then pin the seams in opposite directions (without pressing), making sure the seams "lock" together before I sew it.

I always do this for nine patches and I find that the corners usually match. Trim the unit to 5" square.

Now all the units and background corner squares are ready to be sewn together. I like using stripped background fabric for variable stars, because with the FFG method the stripes will line up (only important to me!). Sew everything together in the usual nine patch method.

Trim the block to 9½" square.

For the second one I switched the light and dark fabric placements for the center.

If you are thinking of joining the quilt along and just want to make a few blocks we have made a few variable star variations (and I know there will be more!), they would make a great lap quilt together.
Here is what we have so far -

Blocks #3 and #7 are the other variable stars (shown with alternating blocks)

Or with lots of fast flying geese and 13 blocks this would make a nice lap quilt (about 50" square). The FFG would be made from one 4¼" print and four 2+3/8" squares background, to make four FFG with a finished size of 1½" x 3" (trimmed to 2" x 3½" before sewing together).

Connie (no blog - yet) sent me a picture of her blocks so far (she is the person that has made all the alternating blocks already!).

It looks amazing! You'll notice that on one of her variable star blocks (the one with the pinwheel center in the second row down) she chose an alternating colour for the corner squares, and she changed fabric placements on the corn and beans block (beside the pinwheel VS) - great ideas. Thanks for sending me the picture Connie.

We are now half way done the blocks!! We are taking a break from the Quilt Along until the new year (good chance for me to make all the alternating blocks - I hope!), the next QA block will be posted on January 5th, 2011!

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

New Year's Resolutions?

It is almost the end of the year and I am already thinking about the New Year. Every year I try to do something new.
Last year it was learning Romanian Point Lace -


The year before it was learning to knit lace (and learning to knit from a graph)-

All the lace patterns are from older Anna magazines.

This year it was blogging and joining OPAM (One Project A Month), I thought it would be a great motivator for me to create things. It has been a great year and I have had lots of fun.
Now something different for next year - I think I want to finish a quilt that I started almost 4 years ago!

It is hand quilted (probably the last large quilt I will ever hand quilt), and it shouldn't take me to long to finish it, if I get working on it!


I decided to join Myra's PhD (Projects half Done) Challenge. I will start concentrating on the quilt in the new year.

For the rest of the month I will be working on the Romanian Point Lace table center.

I finished up another three flowers this week, only four flowers left to go.

Then I'll have to make lots of braid to finish it up.

There has been lots of sparrows in the yard.

The rabbits are like little vacuum cleaners under the bird feeder.

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

Finally Finished

I finished up the crow on berry branch mini quilt from my tutorial.


I hung it in my mini quilt room (aka - the laundry room).


Just a winter picture. Lots of people seem to have blue Christmas lights in our area.

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

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!!♥