Neutral crazy quilt update

When i was at class last week, Mary asked me how my neutral crazy quilt was coming along. oops!!  i had to admit it was sitting in a box. so, when i got home i guiltily took it out of the box..... and realized i had not worked on it since christmas. sigh!!   too many projects.

So i made it a priority for the last few days and got another round on it...just for you, Mary.

It is now 48" square. in the whole scheme of things....that's about 1/4 of the total quilt finished. not bad if i think of it that way.

But, i need 28 more blocks to add another row around it. that sounds like a lot. since i only needed 20 blocks to add this round.

I am loving all the lacy bits that i am finding online. all these things are being added by machine. the only hand sewing was the center heart and the blocks directly around it.

I have discovered a new (to me) crazy quilt magazine and have been visiting all of the vendors advertised. (and buying)

The ecru colored lace in the left pic above this sentence has cool lace. in person it looks like paper...but is lace. i like it a lot

And i have found a lot of lace designs like this one, too.

This is a little crocheted flower. it makes me wonder how those folks can take the time to crochet these and then sell them for about a dollar each. but i'm glad they do. that rust colored fabric in the pic is painted batting by the way.

Another crocheted flower. i am making etsy shop owners happy with my purchases. LOL

Hopefully this project won't lay in the box another 2 months before i get to it again. it would be nice to get it finished this year also. but i was wondering if i can do something with the design rather than just the 8" square blocks. wheels are turning in the brain.

Stay tuned

Later

January's Crazy Quilt block

Back in November i told you that i joined the Crazy Quilt Journal Project with folks from around the world. you can see the info here  http://www.cqjp.org/blogs.html/  

I now have my January block done...i am trying to stay ahead on this project because i know next year will be very, very busy.

For my first 'real' attempt at this...i think it turned out ok...not fabulous but i am happy with it. my friend, Marilea, tells me by the time i get to December i will be much improved....i hope she is right. the design on the left...in the middle...was done on waste canvas with a mauve colored silk ribbon.

This corner has a butterfly and some embroidered flowers with silk ribbon leaves. the brown ribbon is a velvet ribbon that is tacked down with a buttonhole stitch. the trim to the right of the butterfly is a wide trim that i just stitched on...didn't add anything to it.

This lace corner looked like it need something so i added some beads...following the areas of the lace. there is a piece of black silk ribbon on the seam. the camera picks up more colors in the beads than they look in real life.

My friend Marilea showed us how to stitch on a covered button in class one day. i found this black covered button in my button box and made a simple flower on it. the top seam has a piece of black crocheted lace; the right seam has red velvet rickrack with french knots holding it down. i tacked down the black lace rose and added beads to the middle of it.

I like this piece a lot. it is a dark blue velvet. i added a small crocheted doily and then put a picture of a mother and child on top and added variegated ribbon around it. i put red french knots around the doily and added some black heart buttons. then added 4 buttons to the corner. there is a lot of rickrack on this piece...you can see some beige on the top seam...tacked down with dark brown embroidery thread.

This purple piece was the last one i did...i couldn't figure out what to do. i had already stitched the seam with purple embroidery threads. the middle had long ovals so i finally just stitched them across horizontally and vertically and put a french knot in the middle...using embrodiery thread.

This piece has silk ribbon flowers that were simply long and short lazy daisies with single long stitches around and french knots in the middle. the top seam has a piece of gold and black piping in the seam. the right seam is a blue and white rickrack with some gold threads in it. and the bottom seam is a continuation of the beige piece of rickrack that is tacked down with brown embroidery thread.

This took me several nights of work to finish. it is hard to decide what to do. and to find things that fit. i thought i had a large selection of embellishments but apparantly need more. LOL

My February block has blues and purples and i started it last night. this is fun but time consuming.

I better remember to take care of my quilting customers or i won't be able to buy any embellishments for crazy quilting. LOL

Later