Thursday, June 21, 2007

CYOT latest blocks

Here are the latest Choose your own theme round robin I am in. The one on the right belongs to Becca and has a mouse theme. Isn't he cute? In this robin we each make a whole block for the participant in the theme that they chose. I made the block on the left. Mice we're kind of hard to find. I had some little buttons so used them to go from their little hole to a chunk of cheese. I then found a cute little picture of a mouse sleeping holding a pic of her mously love. Then I just decorated the block with various seam treatments. finally I found some mouse buttons on ebay and a charm in the scrapbooking section at Wal Mart so added them to the button cluster. I actually found some cute mouse charms on ebay but even though she said she mailed them on the 25th of May I have never received them. Frustrating, but need to go ahead and get the blocks in the mail on to the next person so will just use the charms on something else if they ever come in, or maybe will mail some to Rebecca later.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Auction pillow and Egyptian swap blocks

Here is a CQ block I made for a family reunion auction coming up this weekend. Plan to make it into a pillow. Just need to get my behind to the store and buy the pillow form. I really enjoyed working on this block. Even tried some new stitches. The fly stitch and the pekinese stitch. A lot of the elements are things I have already done but these family members haven't seen them so that is fine. I used the center focus fabric and made a beaded medallion out of it. And how bout that blue spider. Cute aint he!
Here are my four blank blocks for the Egyptian swap. Hopefully I will get all four done. Plan to make this into a wall hanging for my DH who loves pyrimids and Egyptian things. I might, underline MIGHT make it into a throw for him as he is not too crazy about wall hangings. I may do so by only adding borders rather than make more blocks unless I just make a few more. Way too many projects to make lots of blocks for it.

I also have some more pictures of swap blocks have worked on but haven't uploaded them from the camera yet. Will try to do so tommorow.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

My latest CQ block and another project

This is my latest block. My bedroom is done in leopard prints with black and rust red accents. I made this block to send on a sane round robin to make a wall hanging for my wall. The walls are a taupe color with one accent wall in rusty red. the rusty red wall has needed a wall hanging since I did the room, just could never decide what to put there. Now I am going to get my fellow quilters to help me make one. A couple of these fabrics came via my quilting friend Biffy in South Africa. The rest I have saved over the years. I added a button cluster in the top right, a starburst on the left top with a mirror in it. I couldn't not for the life of me figure out that technique where you sew in a mirror but I did figure out how to do it with beads and like the way it turned out. Oh, and I have those paper mache parrots hanging all over my room, one is 3 foot long, so had to add one to the block on the black patch. A zebra and giraffe charm and some bead flowers are on the center patch. The leopard is peeking out amongst the branches on the right patch. The rest I didn't think really needed anything but some seam treatments, but who knows, I might add something to them later. Oh and two of the seam treatments are coconut shell beads I have been saving for something for years. I will be putting a backing on it to protect the threads from getting pulled and a border of black to make it easier to add borders to in the RR.
This is a wall hanging I did for a class taught by Shirley in the Kaye Woods group. It is called a 3 fabric wall hanging and I like the way it turned out. The focus fabric is some I bought the whole bolt of cos I thought it was just gorgeous and it was only $1.00 a yard. It has a sparkle to it that I hope shows up in the close up of the picture. I plan to use some of it to make a tree skirt as well. It is a 60" wide fabric and has the ice pond and trees and all on both edges along with a pretty border. Just a great fabric. the big tree on the left is part of it but the red accent parts and birds are not part of it.

That is what I have been working on as well as another CQ block in blue and white I am going to make a pillow out of for a family reunion auction coming up the 23rd of this month. Will post pics of it soon as I finish it.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

CQ update

While I have been trying to recover from the flue I worked on these two blocks that came in. The first is from the Kitty Kitty RR and belongs to Lori. I added a little repro print of a kitty with trim, buttons and flowers. Below that I did a lazy daisy seam treatment in yellow flowers with some yellow seed beads. Below and to the left I added another seam treatment with lazy daisy leaves and french knot flowers with teal beads. These kitty kitty blocks are some of cutest blocks I have seen. Now this one is elegant. Love the all black block. It is from the Beading RR and belongs to Cathy. The picture doesn't do it justice as doesn't show the all black and I only took a pic of what I did so you don't get the overall idea. Guess any light that reflected showed up as a goldish color. I added a button and bead cluster. Had some great black buttons that were perfect for this. Then I added a feather stitch in black beads to the right side of the patch and a little fuzzy trim piece with bugle and seed beads to the left side of the patch. Can't wait to see this one when it is finished.
I have also been working on a CYOT theme block and have almost finished it. Just lack one seam I am saving for when i get some charms I ordered for it. Will post that soon.

Catching up

Wow, didn't realize it had been that long since I caught up my blog. Have been a little under the weather with MVP and then caught a flu bug. Yuck! Still fighting the tired and headache. Like I needed the flu to make me tired!

I managed to get 4 sane quilt tops put together. Since it will be a while before I can get them quilted wanted to go ahead and post pics. All of these are from block swaps done on the Kaye Woods Quilting Friends list. This first one is from a Yellow themed Beginner's block swap which I just added yellow sashing. Plan to use it for a wall hanging. I might add another border by the time I get the backing for it. Mine is the center block. You might notice that my blocks are usually quite different from everyone elses. I'm not sure what that means.
This is one of my favorites. It is from a rather extensive set of swaps we did with stars. This one was a red and/or blue stars on WOW background. Later i will post a pic of the quilt I made with blocks from the other half of the swap. I also tried to use fabrics I received in fat quarter swaps as the sashing but only had enough for half, used a star fabric I had to do the other half. I will add another border to this one before having it quilted, maybe 2. Isn't it great, love the variety. Mine is third row center.
I really like this one too. It is to be a wall hanging and is from another beginners swap, this time log cabins. I didn't have quite enough so used a spare leaf block from another swap. Haven't decided on another border for this or just let the binding serve as the final border. Mine is of course the pink and blue, middle top. I made the leaf block also.

This is the first of 4 Block of the Month swaps I participated in. I have 2 more ready to put together but the 4th is missing about 4 blocks. Will have to make those so who knows when i will get that done. Was planning to use these as wall hangings, maybe changing them once a season, even though they represent the whole year. got some really cute and unusual blocks from these swaps. Will add another border, decide on a backing and off to the quilter's it will go. Mine is the December block, bottom right.














A Little About Me

Hi and Welcome! I am 50 years old, married with 2 girls Andrea and Crystal, and 3 grandchildren. A girl, Jesi who is 13 that we are raising and a boy, Christian, who is 6 and, lives with Mom. Andrew James or Peanut is 6months old and brother to Jesi. We live in a house built in 1897 that is not in the best of shape but we are working on it and we love it. It is a 2 story colonial style with big columns and a big wrap around front porch. We also have 6 cats, of which only part of are allowed in the house, and 5 dogs. A Momma dog and 4 puppies. She had 9, we gave one away, then they all came down with parvo. I lost 4 but was able to save 4. A heartrending experience but was just glad to be able to save any. No help from the vet as they want so much money but found some homeopathic remedies that actually worked. I also have a 7 month old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that is my baby. She goes everywhere with me, sleeps under the covers with me, and is just the cutest thing ever.