July's CQ blocks brought to you by .... India

My crazy quilt block for the CQJP for July is compliments of India. a few weeks back i had bought some wild, bright, sequined trim from a lady's Etsy shop in India. there was every color of the rainbow. and i was fascinated by the fact that she sewed together a little muslin bag, by hand, to ship the trims to me. i also purchased a couple of little elephant trims, too.

So, to celebrate India.....here is block 1.....that will go for the crazy quilt journal project. i used the same yellow fabric in the center of each block. this block has one of the elephant print trims that i got from her. the trims from India are the sparkly blue on the center left, red on the center right, and gold on the bottom.

This is block 2...i put a hand made frog in the center of this one. yes, i know, that has nothing to do with India....i just liked him.

Block 3 has part of the bag that she sent the trims in. her handwriting is a bit rough but you can see the last word in the address reads "India".  i even left the paper label.

Block 4. i might put something in the middle of the ones that are plain....don't know yet. the bright red trim with the swags came from a thrift store find. i pulled it off a shirt.

Block 5

Block 6...this one has some dangly beads, too. at the bottom of the dark blue velvet piece at the bottom. there is a mesh piece covering the yellow center.

Block 7 holds the other elephant trim....i didn't want them to be lonely...so i used them both. the red fabric under the elephant has a gold fringe edge.....so i had to leave that on the top, too.

Block 8...this one has lots of India trims....blue, purple, green, red, white. the heart in the middle was a thrift store find. it is felt.

And block 9 ... i used that beige fringe trim a lot....i see it on 3 blocks. and i used almost all of the India trims. i could sew right through them easily....i was afraid i would have a problem but i did not. they were just a tiny bit stretchy, also.

Already i have started on the blocks for August....this time in yellow. i don't have a lot of yellow, so i gave myself permission to add, golds, beige and some browns. and they have a certain print in the middle, too. will show you when they are finished...

Later

An Etsy shop in India

Yesterday i told you about someone you might not enjoy doing business with. today i have someone who is great to do business with.

There is an Etsy shop named Fabricana. it is run by a lovely woman named Shikha. i ordered some trims for crazy quilting ... they were a package deal...a yard each of 12 different ones. she ran out of one color and sent me an email telling me she would substitute another yard of a different color...and asked which color i would like 2 yards of. i told her to surprise me.  looks like the green won...

And i got these adorable little elephants. they are a couple inches tall. they are going to look so cute on a crazy quilt block.

Even more amazing than my purchases....was Shika's packaging. first they were put into a clear plastic envelope...like i send postcards in. then that was placed into this green fabric bag. isn't that cool?

Then...the green bag went into another clear plastic envelope....and all of that went into this adorable package. it looks like muslin or burlap...not sure. she hand stitched the edge together. wrote her return address on the back...along with the postage stamp and label. and there was a customs label folded and sewn into the closure.

And my address was written on the front. you can see the brown string at the bottom that was used to sew the package together. i am enamored with this. i am using this package in a crazy quilt block. i think the elephant and some trim from India will go on that block, too.

This is a shop i will go back to again. she has beautiful FQ bundles of sari fabrics...and brocades...and silks....and trims. it is all so colorful and beautiful. go to Etsy and look for Fabricana shop....be prepared to droool.

I am so excited about this....i may have to go start an India crazy quilt block now and not wait for

Later