Friday, January 29, 2010

Fantasy Landscape Round Robin-unicorn's garden

This is my last block to work on in this RR. It belongs to Christy in Indiana. She pictured a unicorn's garden and included the cute unicorn image.

I did the tree on the left, including the flowers under it. I continued the same type and color of flowers under the unicorn's cart and on the right under the other tree. Then I made the three red birds in the tree, and added 2 butterfly buttons, 6 embroidered bumble bees, a frog, and a ladybug. See if you find them all; I scattered them around a bit. I'm including some close ups because I'm not sure about the quality of the whole picture, but you can click on any of them for extreme close ups.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Boys and their toys...

Grandpa Paul and his little 4 wheelers. They had a trip around the neighborhood, then came back, got off, and decided to go again.

I finished the smaller coulotte skirt, this time with a ballerina bear applique and some pink roses.

And this is my half-worked winter block for the season to season swap going on at CQ for Newbies. My as-yet-unknown partner will work the rest of the block for me while I work on hers, and then we'll each get our own back. I did some tiny embroidery on here, so click for a close-up. I especially like the snowboarding snowman!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Thirty years ago....

...I looked like this. Paul and I drove to Oregon to visit his brother and he took us to see the Pacific and some beautifully green areas nearby. I don't think we've taken as long of a trip since then! Several people posted on Facebook that this is Wayback Week, and our profile pictures should reflect that, so this is the one I posted. It startles me every time it comes up!
That halter top I'm wearing is one I made out of denim, lined with gold satin. The ties that start at the front neck cross in the back several times and tie at the waist, so it was essentially backless.

And here we have a denim coulotte skirt that I bought for a great niece for her 3rd birthday. It was plain and I embelished it a little. I have another skirt like it for another great niece that I'll post when it's done.
The doily is one I found at Sally's. Lately at Sally's they are pricing their doilies ridiculously high; several dollars for one doily. This one is pretty mangled on one corner, so I got it for 15 cents! I love the rose in the center and that can be salvaged. Also I think the other 3 corners are okay and would make excellent spider webs on a large scale project. And who doesn't love a huge spider web? Oh, really? You don't? Well I do!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Round robins

I'm starting another new RR next month. This one is a DYB, or do your block, wherein each stitcher pieces 6 small blocks (6" finished size) and as they make their way around the group, each person chooses one to completely embellish. When the blocks come home, there's one left undone for the owner to stitch for herself. The theme for this one is Flower Fairies, and I've chosen to use images of fairies done by Cicely Mary Barker. Michael Miller has printed fabrics with some of her images on them and they're really lovely. The images in my blocks are silkies.

These blocks were actually given to me by Lauri B., who had 3 extras from her turn in a similar RR, and then generously offered to piece 3 more for me. I love the colors she used and the batik fabrics are perfect with the delicate fairies.

This block is from the Fantasy Landscape RR and it belongs to Velina. Her theme is at the beach, and other people have added a treasure chest, a mermaid, and a sea monster. I added the setting sun, the unusual moons, and the leaping fish (they're trying to avoid being dinner for the monster), which are done applique style using a sparkly knit fabric. I also added a pair of pink flip-flops abandoned on the beach, and a pink parrot guarding the treasure chest.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Progress!

I have been working a bit on my gold quilt. We're about ready to start a RR on CQI that is themed Bees, Butterflies, and Beetles. Figuring most people will be adding mostly butterflies to the blocks, I will attempt to put at least one beetle on each, and thought I'd try out an applique technique to see how it would work. I have some stretchy knit fabric that can be cut into small shapes without it running or ravelling (I've used it before for fish bodies) and thought that might work well for beetles, so I did one on one of my gold quilt blocks. The block really needed something blue up in that corner, and I like how the beetle turned out. He's a little bit 3D, as I stuffed a tiny bit of fiberfill in just before I finished appliqueing him on. Then legs, head, antennae, and bead eyes, and poof, there's a shiny beetle (albeit not one I'd like to have land on me unexpectedly) on my quilt. Hopefully the method will work on others' blocks as well.

Some seams on the corner fans of the gold quilt.

And this is my block for the BB&B RR. It is quite large; 18" diameter, so there might be room for me to add some work of my own when it gets home.