Autumn

My work on Rita's Autumn block. How does one capture the glory of Autumn in thread?

These are Rita's Autumn blocks so far. L to R - my work, Ritva's work and Beryl's work. I made the scarecrow purple to pick up the purple in the other two blocks. Maybe I'm learning something.

A Lot of Sane and a Little Crazy

Patches and Pinwheels quilt inspired by a pattern by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville. It's a full size quilt. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it - maybe leave it in a pile I have for gifts or charity quilts. Or maybe I will keep it. I do like it. It appears I should have used blue for the borders since I must mostly have blue scrap fabrics. It is my favorite color. But, I had enough of the red polka dotted fabric for the whole borders so red it was. And, the back is a sheet from the thrift store - a soft blue with morning glories - a favorite flower. And there was just enough left for the binding.

This is a race track quilt/playmat for my grandson, Jacob, for Christmas. He will be about 22 months by then so I'm hoping he will like it. I found some age appropriate cars to go with it. I've had the panel for quite some time but couldn't figure out how to finish it off. I found some St. Jude fabric that had hospitals, fire and police stations, etc on it, some fabric with school buses, and some miscellaneous fabrics. On the strips along the side I included a "fishing hole" and a "mushroom patch" since he loves to accompany mom and dad and sister on the mushroom hunts and fishing trips. So, now, when he plays on his mat he can pull off road to do the same.

These are the finished napkins and placemats for my dad and stepmom for Christmas. I've been saving Celtic/Irish looking fabrics for years.

And finally...a little bit of crazy- this is a Tea Time block for Nicki. Five of us in the group rotate our blocks and so you end up with your block home at the end stitched on by four talented ladies. I added tea cup and flowers, party hat, teapot button and some seam treatments in the same area.

Close up of my work - a teapot button, a party hat and a tea cup of flowers.

In the Good Ol' Summertime...

This is my work on Beryl's summer block. I tried to cram on a fan but it wouldn't quite fit.

Lucious Lace and Is it Winter?

This is the block I made to start the Lucious Lace RR - blah, lifeless.

And this is the block I received back after Paula, Nicki, Candji and Colleen did their magic. I was especially impressed when two out of the four who worked on my block said that blue was out of their comfort zone. Doesn't look like it to me!

 And this is my work on Wendy's Winter block. She wanted snowflakes, ice, etc. And, since the October challenge is spider webs I made the center of a snowflake a spiderweb. You can't see the glittery thread I used to overstitch everything but it's there. The angora yarn is supposed to simulate blowing snow. Not sure if it does, but that's why it's there. And, who says all snowflakes are symmetrical?

It's Spring in my Mind

My stitching on Ritva's Spring block. Spring is my favorite season. I get to dig in the dirt, watch the birds make nests, pick strawberries, radishes and onions and curse the rabbits.

On another note...I think my kindergartner granddau. has some anal-retentive tendencies. I left my pincushion on the dining room table and when I came home from work found that my pins had been sorted. She certainly doesn't get that tendency from me! I am always in a state of disarray.

Today Is Brought to You By the Letter P

P is for Pillowcases I'm making for Christmas. Fishing/outdoors ones for my daughter and husband who love fishing, mushrooming hunting, hiking and camping, a little monkey one for my little monkey grandson, aged 19 mo. ,  and butterflies for each of the granddaughters, aged 5.

P is also for Pansies and this block I just completed for Carolyn for the Pansies, Pansies, Pansies CQ RR. I tried a needleweaving pansy at top but it turned out so small. I guess next time I will try thicker thread since I could hardly see to weave properly. I don't see miniature well. I barely see large things right in front of me.

And this is the pansy block done by the whole RR group for Carolyn. Normally a sixth block returns home "naked"; however for this RR we decided to all stitch a bit on the sixth so all blocks will be full when they get home to the owner. I added the tatted butterflies and the smal pink trio of pansies.

I can't wait for my blocks to get home. I already have the bell pull hardware and some further embellishments I will cram onto the blocks when I get them back. I do so love pansies.

RR Starts and Finishes

I have just started a "It's Your Turn RR" to make a wallhanging. I chose hearts/valentines as my theme. I began the panel with my own block and will send it on to the other 3 ladies in the group to add a block. And, in turn, they will send their panels on to me to make an addition. The other ladies have themes of Fall, Christmas and Snowmen.

This is Colleen's finished "Lucious Lace" block.  Five ladies have added their beautiful stitching to the block that originated with Colleen.

I cut flowers out of lace and buttonhole stitched them to the block. I also added one of those rose buttons I painted and surrounded it with silk ribbon woven roses.

I added some lace and embellished it. It looked sort of like a trellis to me so I added bullion rose buds.

In this section I added a ribbon butterfly, tatted butterfly and a lace heart with satin ribbon running though it embellished with french knot clusters.

This is my work on Therica's Tea Time block. I added some ribbon roses along a curvy seam, a crocheted tea party hat. I used a barbie doll hat pattern I had on hand. I added some organza ribbon to simulate steam rising from the cup and cut a tea bag paper from some tea fabric I had to simulate  bag hanging out of the cup. And finally, I cut a piece of chocolate from some other fabric I had and put lace around it to make it look like a ruffly paper around a bonbon.

Therica's block after me and Carolyn.

And, finally, this is my work on Meg's "Seam's Only" block. I tried to think of all curvy seams to add. I used the colors of the block as well as some pink since Ritva had used pink on the block she did before me.