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Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Spring CQ...Butterflies and Oya

Well, I did get a lot done yesterday out there under the trees!

At this point in the development of my quilt, I am "filling in the gaps" of the ring of flowers around the center. I want them to make a complete, if loose, circle. So Sunday I pulled out my beautiful stash of Oya purchased from my Turkish friend Rengin and also those angelina butterflies that Catherine Smith of Oregon gave me when she was here visiting in April, and spent about an hour pinning them and unpinning them onto my quilt on its design wall, deciding where they were to go on.
Yesterday and this morning I sewed most of it all into place, also adding some cool Mokuba ombre ribbon leaves to some of the oya.

I used a leaf design from a Japanese book published by Mokuba. The oya are those pink dimensional needle lace flowers.

Here's a view of the back..pretty gnarly, eh?
I use a separate thread to tie off the ribbon so I don't have to make a knot at the end (though I don't mind starting with one.) I had to use pliers to pull the ribbon through for each stitch, which was a pain, but the ribbon held up just fine.

Here are the oya with their ombre ribbon leaves at the top of the quilt. I would have added more leaves but I ran out of ribbon!

Here is another little line of oya flowers, the purple and white ones. They came with little leaves on them so I just sewed them on there as is.

This line of oya is right next to the Golden Chain flowers...

These larger viola type oya are not sewn down yet...I have to figure out how to do the leaves for them still.

Here are two of Catherine's angelina butterflies. Wow do I love them...there are five on the quilt in all.

An overview of the whole quilt to date...you can see it is getting quite filled in!

Just like this is.... ;-)

24 comments:

  1. this is glorious! I dont comment as often as i should, but i am very much enjoying following your progess on this,and admiring your summer garden (finally!)

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  2. How gorgeous this is! I loved it when it was just the background piecing, but with each new flower, leaf and butterfly, it becomes still more stunning! Lovely to watch it's progress! And how lovely to be able to work on it outside in the garden!

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  3. Absolutely wonderful! No other words necessary!

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  4. Oya-veh! That is a lot of oya-sewing! This is a beauty to witness and behold. I can see the flowers circling and dancing and can't wait for the center performance. That being said, I'm still most fond of the green outside the circle...but I've always been an outside-of-the-circle kind of gal!

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  5. Allie,

    Every time I see one of your quilts come together it reminds me of a book I read by Clive Barker years ago called Weave World:

    "Weaveworld begins with a rug--a wondrous, magnificent rug--into which a world has been woven. It is the world of the Seerkind, a people more ancient than man, who possesses raptures--the power to make magic. In the last century they were hunted down by an unspeakable horror known as the Scourge, and, threatened with annihilation, they worked their strongest raptures to weave themselves and their culture into a rug for safekeeping. Since then, the rug has been guarded by human caretakers."

    I always see a world within your quilts and my imagination sours with the wonders of your work.

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  6. So beautiful, Allie. I'm so glad you explained about the Oya; I thought it was some sort of an unknown abbreviation. Wish I could see and touch this work of art in person!

    I like your garden, too; neat wall!

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  7. Ugh Allie, please excuse my silly typo. SOARS BABY, SOARS! :)

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  8. it is so beautiful. love your stitching

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  9. Love those larger viola oyas! they really are a cool addition.

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  10. Everything is so beautifully integrated. What a gift it is to be able to imagine all these varied elements complementing each other in a perfect whole. A wonder to behold.

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  11. I am having so much fun watching your progress and the incredible ways you manipulate ribbon and thread. Your piece makes me swoon. I hope you'll bring it to Long Beach.

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  12. The colors are simply wonderful: so spring-like and cheery.

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  13. Reading your blog and watching your progress is so inspiring. No matter what my mood when I click on your link, I always come away feeling peaceful and joyful in the beauty that exists. You are so lucky to be able to create such gorgeousness.

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  14. I remember back when you got the Oya from Rengin... so cool to see where/how you're using some of it now...

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  15. allie, your color sensibilities are so happy. i enjoy looking at your work.

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  16. Gorgeous, Allie. After a long and busy day, thanks for these real eye-candies...
    Do you know that, your beautiful oya applications makes me so much happy? :))
    Much Love,
    Rengin

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  17. Hi Again! I'm envisioning you outside busily working on your beautiful quilt and wanted to let you know that I nominated you for a Premio Award over on my blog. Don't feel obligated to do it, but I do want you to know how much I enjoy your blog!

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  18. I too don't always comment but have to say this is turning out so beautifully. Rarely does crazy quilting hit the mark for me but this is SO beautiful it can't fail to grab my attention.

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  19. Hey, Just thought I would let you know that I gave you a Primio-2008 award as one of my favorite blogs on my blog. I hope that is ok.
    Wendy

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  20. Wow - that is wonderful. It is going to be truly glorious when finished.

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  21. wow, I love this! I learned about crazy quilting from my grandmother who has handmade 15 or so crazy quilts. Your applique and embroidery is much more diverse than hers, though - I'm so excited by the possibilities this creates!

    It is amazing how you have sculpted different forms with ribbon and floss! I can't wait to see how it turns out.

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