Category Archives: crazy quilting

Oh, My, Goodness!

Oh, My, Goodness!

Look what I have found!crazy quilt heart pinheart4 Gloster QueenThese beauties are the work of one Barbara Gray, the Gloster Queen. (She also raises Gloster canaries.) I found her work on an Artbeads Pinterest board. All photos should link to her etsy shop. I didn’t even look to see what she charges for her pins. Whatever it is, it’s not enough! Here is her logo:

Gloster Queen logo

Dover had a Sale!

Dover had a Sale!
Dover had a Sale!

In fact, they’re having another one right now. I bought these books in the spring. I’ll be glad when the Dover Pictura site is up and running. I hope I’ll be able to buy the images I want without buying a whole book. I already have a flash drive with a “Dover Images” file so I’m ready when they are.


 
Of course, I had to round out my order to get free shipping. I added a few items for my grandson, Peter James:

Red and Gold Paperback Cover

Red and Gold Paperback Cover
Red and Gold Paperback Cover

Finished at last! My sore throat doesn’t want to let me sleep, so I might as well sit up and stitch!





What I learned during this project:
1.) Dupioni takes a beating and pills under alot of hand work.
2.) I need something (like the Tiger Tape I bought) to keep my stitches even (though the perfectly spaced stitches I’ve been admiring online actually don’t look “done by hand.”)
3.) My beadwork is too tight, so the beads shift and become uneven. I also need to remember to stitch through them twice to reinforce them.
4.) Metallic printed quilting cotton looks good, but doesn’t have a lot of body, so it wrinkles easily. I don’t dare take a regular iron to it, maybe my Clover mini iron.
5.) This silkie was a good choice. The colors are fairly deep. I increased the saturation and chose “best” for the printing. (The girl is also holding a bird, and as crazy as it sounds, birds have come to me for help on several occasions, no joke.)
6.) Velvet was a good choice for the part covering the binding. It feels good in my hand while I’m reading.
7.) Take out basting stitches before stitching up the bottom opening.
8.) The pattern I drafted fit!

Red and Gold Update

Red and Gold Update
Red and Gold Update

I spent a long weekend working on my red and gold project. I really enjoyed myself and stitched till my fingers hurt. I’m just not so sure I like what I’ve done. I’d remove the beads, but it’d leave holes.
I plan on making it into a book jacket, so we’ll see. I think I’ll put it up for a week or so and have a look at it again,then.

Playing with Angelina!

Playing with Angelina!
Playing with Angelina!

Yeah, I know, that’s Brad’s job, but I’m talking about Angelina fibers. I bought a few packs of it at the needlearts extravaganza in Statesville. I experimented with embossing the fibers with a rubber stamp and iron: This snowflake stamp wasn’t “cut” deep enough to work well, so I chose what I hoped would be a better one:

I posted this photo on the CQI challenge site, and won a ‘squishie” full of crazy quilting goodies:

I’ll post a photo of my winnings when they arrive! I’m very excited!

A fantastic source of inspiration and instruction!

A fantastic source of inspiration and instruction!
A fantastic source of inspiration and instruction!

I am having a wonderful Saturday, stitching, watching the Travel Channel, doing some laundry. I am stitching on my red and gold project. I am surrounded by favorite crazy quilting books, but a source I like to check for inspiration and instruction is Sharon Boggon’s blog, Pin Tangle. Her “I Dropped the Button Box” quilt has every type of seam embellishment you can possibly imagine, and that’s just one of her resources!
One of the (many) things I like about Sharon is that she uses braids and trim to decorate seams (like I have in this piece.) She also uses embroidery and beads to embellish those braids. Check out her beautiful attachment of gimp: http://inaminuteago.com/buttonquilt/buttonbox49.html

New Craft Book!

New Craft Book!
New Craft Book!

Don’t you love it when you need just a little something more to qualify for free shipping? I am very pleased with this purchase and may take it to Staples to be wire bound so the pages lie open. I also have this book which is more about small projects than about the stitching. Small projects are right up my alley!

Which reminds me, I’m thinking about scanning all my craft books (and maybe patterns) and making myself a library/database. ‘More on that later.