Two Finishes

The trim by Renaissance Ribbons arrived and I have used them to finish two small projects, the Rose Window and Barbara's Door.

I do like the look! This finished out at 18" X 18".

"Barbara's Door" uses two different trims.

I like this too....it's just more interesting to me than plain binding. The finished edges on the ribbon are a plus to work with, too. It measures 13 X 18". Barbara, it will be in the mail on Tuesday!

Now I am down to one ufo, my "Go Crazy" project begun last fall. But the colors are not right for working with this time of year...too autumnal!
So even though I am looking forward to making a new class sample for my "Home Portraits" class at the Victorian Stitchery Retreat next November, I really and truly need to make a flower quilt right now.
So that is what I shall do!

Rose Window...tweaked!

You how know when you look at a digital thumbnail picture of a project, you can "see" what needs to be fixed?
Well, the white center of my Rose Window looked a little "blank" in the thumbnail, so I decided to outline the petals in the crochet work of the center doily.

I used Aurofil #12 cotton and just wrapped the outline.

It's kind of subtle but I think it "reads" a little better.
The doily itself wasn't perfectly round, which kind of bugs me, but what can you do?
Now if that trim for the binding would just get here!

It is this one, designed by Laura Foster Nicholson. I like the idea of having lots of detail all the way out to the edge....at least, I think I do.....

Rose Window...progress

This past March I started a crazy quilt collage experiment. Now that Market and classes, patterns and traveling are behind me I've decided to finish this before embarking on new work during the summer.
How good it is to be back stitching in my sewing room!

It feels like it has been a long time....

....that I have gotten to play with my flowers...

...and use some of my button treasures.
This is all done except for the binding. It will use a special ribbon that hasn't arrived yet. I can't wait to use it! It measures around 17" X 17".
Meanwhile, here is the overall shot.

Ah, this felt good... ;-)

Crazy Collage Experiment

I just finished a long project for my friend Tracey Brookshier, a pattern (with samples) that will be debuted at Spring Quilt Market!
The work involved sewing with strictly cottons, so when it was completed and mailed off, I wanted to play with my CQ fabrics, emphasis on the word play!!

When I was a very little girl my grandma used to set me up with all kinds of bits and interesting papers to make collages of in her playroom. I loved doing that and would get absorbed for hours. And it was that exact mindset that fueled my experiment with crazy quilt collage. Here is how it went...

The "blank page", 20" X 20".

I have this luscious floral printed pink charmeuse silk that I wanted to feature...also that rich cotton print on dark blue that Tracey had given me because she knew I loved it.

It was like fitting together a puzzle.

I pinned everything down, but left the edges raw, not turning them under.

Everything got stitched down with clear monofilament thread in a zig zag stitch.

I knew I wouldn't have time to hand embroider all those seams, plus I wanted to see how it would look with machine embroidery (one of the goals for this project being speed.)

I chose some Kreinik Soie Perlee thread (alas, now discontinued) for my machine feather stitching. It is silk and about a size #12 perle, and you can stitch with it using a size #110/18 topstitching needle. I like how it looks.
I left long enough thread tails at the beginning and ending of each seam that I could thread them into a hand sewing needle and bring them to the back of the piece, where I knotted them off. Good T.V. work in the evening.

Here is where I am now after two afternoons of work.
It's fun to take time off and just play, to see what happens.... ;-) Like these flowers finding their way around the center!

How's a girl supposed to get any work done around here?

I guess I will have to give up and give in to this today!