February Section for CQJP

I am finished with the February Section of my crazy quilt for the CQJP (Crazy Quilt Journal Project).

I am liking these large sections and think it is going to be one awesome quilt....not to mention large and heavy. LOL

Here is the actual February block

And some close up sections of it. here is the main focus....a lovely Victorian lady surrounded by lace and rickrack and some beads. scrunching up that lace and stitching it down was the pits....just sayin'

Love this little crocheted starflower that i found. with orchid silk ribbon inside.

Had to put this little bunny button in the flower garden. i braided some yarn there on the bottom. and stitched over the leaves in the fabric to the left of the bunny. made those little purple flowers behind the bunny with waste canvas. i have just discovered that and like using it. it does take a bit of getting used to though.

A gold heart shaped button with more trim and embroidery embellishment. that was a gold velour ribbon that i tacked down with the rickrack shaped trim on the edges...then added french knots to the trim...then added X's to the ribbon....then put silk ribbon under the Xs....then added french knots to the Xs.  got carried away. the piece of velour ribbon will be the last thing standing on this quilt....it is stitched down GOOD.  LOL

A gold filigree trim tied down with some silk ribbon and a bit of embroidery fern. right above that is some blue rickrack with orched embroidery thread down the middle. .... then tiny tack down stitches of pink in the middle of that. i think i like layering. hahahahaa

Some silk ribbon flowers and a tiny purple dragonfly bead. the leaves are a trim that i bought. the flowers i just made up as i was stitching.

This was a rather large beaded earring that i found in a thrift store...LOL...it's about an 1" across. but the purple, green and gold beads just seemed to fit. and a bit of white trim with red decoration on it. then i added some red stitches to that with embroidery thread.

And here are the blocks surrounding the encrusted middle block. I just add a piece or 2 of embellishments to these blocks. this one has a white piece of trim with cute little tassels.

I was in Jackmans Fabrics last week and found a basket in the upholstery department with bits of trims on sale for 25 cents each. that is where this little bit of purple trim with tied tassels came from.

 This one has a large piece of lace dyed dark blue in the corner. it reminds me of a spider web and if i can find a spider button i will add it there.

 This one has some dark blue rickrack and a piece of purple lace. i dyed all my pieces of lace to match the squares.

More rickrack and a tiny bit of flowery trim right above the blue floral batik in the center 

Piece of light purple gauzy ribbon on the bottom left and another dark blue trim on the right 

More dyed laces 

 In the top right corner is a blue sort of crocheted net piece. i found that at the Upcycle Exchange place. it was part of a sample card with different colors and styles of netting. rather unusual. look for more of these pieces in future blocks. also a bit of purple lace. and some tiny red velour rickrack in the bottom left corner.

I like this section better than January, i think. i kept going back and adding more. i don't know if it is the crazy quilt 'way'....but the more i add...the better i like it. is that a bad thing?  ahahahahaha

I am currently working on the March block....it is red, orange and gold. will be an eye opener for sure.  get your sunglasses ready.

Keep stitchin' and be happy...talk to ya

Later

Stained Glass .... sort of

I don't remember where i found this idea....it's been a while ago. but the idea was to use a piece of fabric that you really didn't want to cut into small pieces to make blocks for a quilt. you use the whole piece of fabric and cut it into larger pieces and then fuse it onto a background with space between the pieces. so you get the effect of the whole piece of fabric that looks kind of like a stained glass windows.  no piecing.

Like this...

It turned out kind of cool...

But i think i needed a different fabric. wonder how it would have looked with a panel of scenery...

Maybe something other than flowers. hmmmmm....

Gosh...there are so many ideas out there in cyberworld. i sort of quilted a rough echo inside the parts...about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch apart. and did curvy lines in the border. will i ever make another one?  who knows...maybe...with a different print perhaps.

Here is the back. i had enough of a floral stripe to piece a back.

You can see the quilting a bit better here.

It turned out to be 46x60 inches. you are sort of stuck with the width of the fabric that you cut up.  actually, now that i think about it....it would have been easier to just leave the fabric in one piece and stitch bias strips over it for the 'stained glass look'.  oh well, i can say i tried it.

It will be a donation quilt for someone.

Gotta try new things...right?  LOL

Keep sewing...keep learning...see ya 

Later

Ceiling Demolition at the Duck

Who is this woman???!!!

Nah...she's not from outer space...that's just me...preparing to crawl up on scaffolding and tear out a ceiling. you don't even want to see what i looked like after....just pour plaster dust and black gunk all over this picture and you'll have the 'after'. yuck!  LOL

I decided the ceilings had to come down after all...mainly to get the old insulation out of the attic. so i had the bright idea that i could at least take down the boards that held up the ceiling tiles that i pulled down. i'm sure glad i didn't go up and pull all the staples out of those boards yet. Here are half of the boards torn down.

You see that big hole in the plaster up there....that sort of fell on me when i pulled the boards off. my ceilings are tall...but not tall enough to stand up straight on the scaffolding....i needed about another foot. so i sat on a milk crate with my pry bar and hammer and crow bar and pulled all the boards loose from one end....

and then had to move the scaffolding over to get the other end loose. i was a bit leary about getting the boards down and not breaking a window but turned out that wasn't an issue and i didn't have a problem.

i had to move the scaffolding 3 times to do the ceiling in 4 sections.  it took me about 3 hours to get all the boards down. it went quicker once i figured out the system. and, as you can see, more plaster fell down, too.

Once i got all the boards off, i figured i better get all the rest of that plaster down, too before it just fell on my head....or someone else's head.  so that required getting on a ladder and pushing my pry bar under the plaster to get it down. sometimes it came down in 1 foot chunks...once i got about a 4 foot section down at once. but it did require going up and down that ladder several dozen times to move across the ceiling. that took another hour.

I tossed the boards out into the garage...and then went out when i was finished and stacked them off to the side. i thought i would keep them..might have a need for some of them later. most of them are whole...although the ones with knots in them usually broke at the knots. they are 1x4s so might be useful later but there are a lot of nails to pull from them if i use them again.

So now i have piles of plaster in the living room. next time i go down i will have to pick those up before the slats and insulation come down so clean up is easier. i couldn't deal with it then because my back got tired and sore and i didn't want to hurt myself. here is half of the ceiling....

And here is the other half..

I bought more contractor trash bags to pick it all up. i need to get a dumpster soon to clear out the garage (for the second time)....so there will be room for the ceiling debris. and that will also necessitate a third dumpster. who knew there was so much crap to get rid of before you could start prettying up. i have 5 more ceilings to take down. ugh!!

Then in order to move the scaffolding to the next room....i will have to take the top rails off so it fits through the doorway. then put it all back together again. it's a pain to do but nice to have. that would have been a miserable job to do with just a ladder.

Probably be 2 or 3 weeks before i get down there again. Rick still needs to finish the wiring. then i guess i'll let him and his guys take down the rest of the ceilings. that's a young man's job. LOL

Until next time...stay warm and stay safe.

Later

Accomplishments in stitching

I haven't showed you lately what i have been working on.....but my fingers have been busy.

I am on Row H of the Dear Jane quilt. here are a few blocks. this is H13 (red background) and H12.

This is H11 (yellow) and H10

And H9  (red) and H8

I have 3 more blocks to make in the H row. i also did a couple more in the top border but didn't take a pic....my bad.

Remember the Home and Harvest wallhanging?  i have the last 3 blocks finished.

Falling Leaves

Leaves and Feathers ... love that little fat bird

Basket of Posies ... those were a lot of tiny pieces to stitch down. maybe those are pussy willows?

Now all i have to do with this is add these blocks to the rest and applique the borders. looking forward to finishing so i can move on to the next applique quilt.

I really loved appliquing with this wool felt and i really would like to use it again in my next quilt. but i want to use cotton as my background. so i am going to make a test block and see how it works and launders and wears. i decided to use a pale green flannel as my background. i will do a block and if it works out...then it will be a pillow to go with the quilt. wish me luck. everyone says you can't mix wool and cotton and wash it.....but i am a rebel. after all...everyone used to throw away selvages and look what i can do with them. LOL   i will let you know how that works out.

Our class quilt this year is to commemorate the secessation of states. our teacher likes the Civil War and history. the center block will be South Carolina...which she tells us started the whole thing. the blocks are 10" finished. i have trouble with these little pieces and it isn't as straight as it should be. and this is the center of the quilt. LOL

And surrounding South Carolina are 4 applique blocks....of which i have 1 finished. it has a cotton boll on it and tobacco leaves....which she tells us are on the state seal. where else do you get history lessons with your quilt lessons.....cool. 

All blocks will be set on point. i hoped the fabric in my tobacco leaves would look like veins in the leaves....but my sis says they look like turkeys to her. sigh!!  but my cotton boll has a cute dragonfly on it.

I am certainly enjoying all this hand stitching. but  don't worry...i won't be selling my sewing machines any time soon. hahahahaha

Gotta go.....quilting to do.....catching up to do....talk to ya

Later

The Duck is getting wired

I spent Saturday and Sunday at the Duck....supervising wiring. and Saturday was COLD. LOL  i tried to stay busy and move around to stay warmer...but there really isn't too much for me to do there at this time. i did do a lot of sweeping up.

But my contractor came in with his helper, Thomas, and they got wiring run. this is the spot in the laundry room where the breaker box will live. Rick is marking wires so we know which breaker is for which room. in the end we wound up running over 1000 feet.

Wires were pulled all over the house. this is the kitchen by the door going out to the garage. the little room to the left (with the red milk crate) is the pantry.

And here ... the front door.

And junction boxes were attached .... too bad the camera lady doesn't have a steady hand. LOL

And over 50 little blue boxes were nailed in and wires pulled into them.

And here

Thank goodness helper, Thomas, is a skinny dude. he got into very tight spaces to pull wire where it needed to go. he spent a lot of time in the attic and in crawl spaces.

If the weather cooperates this weekend i will go back so they can attach all those wires and put the guts in the blue boxes. fun, fun, fun.

And i did decide to go ahead and pull the ceilings down, too. i hoped to leave them in place but it is just not the right thing to do. the insulation .... what there is of it....in the attic is old as dirt and not doing its job so it all has to come out. it is actually easier to just take the ceilings down to get all that insulation out so i can put new up there. and then actually inspect the rafters to see if any of them need to be repaired. i already have found 2 of them that are cracked. and this way i will know exactly what is in my house. and there are pipes up there that need to be cut out, too. more fun, fun, fun. LOL

My job in the ceiling takedown will be to get the scaffolding over there from the Beast and pull off the 1x4s that the ceiling tiles were stapled to. then the guys can pull down the plaster and slats and all that ugly, noxious insulation.

So the next few days will be a flurry of activity to wrap things up in the studio for this month so i can leave again on Friday. so, if you don't hear from me again this week.....i am channeling a whirlwind. LOL

Talk to ya

Later

#5 UFO is finished

Yes, finished....pretty?..no.....ugly?..yes.....crooked?...yes.  LOL

My reputation as a quilter may be at stake here. this UFO was in the box for some time. some blocks were made already and others had pieces cut out. i pieced together the blocks that were cut out. after getting them all finished....i discovered that the first blocks that were made were 1/2 larger than the other blocks. who knows how that happened.

I didn't want to cut them down and mess up the pattern of the Churn Dash so i just scrunched them all together as best i could. so wherever a red block meets a white block...the red side has tucks. at this point i just want to say it is finished and done. this is what it SHOULD look like. hahahahaha

This is what mine looks like.

Looking from far away it is not bad. but i quit before making all the blocks so the intersections don't have cute little hourglasses like they should. i can live with that.

There was more than once that i wanted to just pitch it all in the trash. but was determined to get that UFO finished and out of here. having to report to Judy is incentive to finish.

It was total frustration and i don't like the final product at all. perhaps that is why it stayed a UFO for so long.

Don't know what i saw in that americana fabric in the middle...blech!  i have learned to not let things become UFOs...tastes change and what i liked a few years ago ..... i can't stand today. so, even though it is finished...it will not live here. it is going somewhere else...anywhere else.

The backing is a paisley of navy, red and white...although my pic is all fuzzy. but it worked for a backing.

Let's hope next month's UFO is something i like better.

Stay warm and be happy....i'll see ya

Later