Midnight in the Fairy Garden

I started Midnight in the Fairy Garden - a crazy quilt wall hanging with a lot of stitching with glow-in-the-dark threads - several years ago.   I've had a hankering to work on this once again this summer.  On these two blocks I outlined the fairy bodies with glow threads and then painted the body with glow paint. I just need to finish filling them in with some satin stitch.  I'm hoping to do that this afternoon (if I can find my glow threads) while enjoying cocktails on the deck with my husband who will hopefully be grilling spareribs.  But he had a root canal Friday and is not feeling all that well so we might just have homemade chicken soup for supper. 

Here's the rest of the blocks I have so far. All of them need a little work. On two of them (top and bottom right) I made the blocks and then stitched the fairies and the blocks were then stitched on by others in a round robin fashion.  I might redo some things on those blocks. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

I'm Finished With Crazy Cravings!

Crazy Cravings

50 x 62

It's definitely not your grandma's crazy quilt.

The 12 inch blocks were all hand pieced, embroidered, embellished. 

Then sewn together by machine. 

Then the seams were embellished.

I think normally crazy quilts are tied; however, I added batting and backing and then kind of free form hand quilted it with #10 crochet thread. 

I do love chocolate. 

And now I can cover myself in chocolate. 

This was fun to work on. I think it's been in the works for a couple of years. 

I like handwork and embroidery so a crazy quilt is a great way to mix the two...

...and end up with something yummy! 

The back. 

Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?

Finish it Up Friday. 

Soon I'll Be Covered in Chocolate

I've finished all of the "quilting" on my Crazy Cravings lap quilt. 

So today I hope to add the binding and finish this up.

Normally I think crazy quilts are tied. And I don't think they have batting.  But I actually quilted this with a running stitch here and there throughout the quilt. 

I've tried to make the running stitch part of the quilt by stitching around cupcakes and donuts which makes them stand out and puff up a little. 

Sometimes I stitched in the ditch under the seam treatment or I added a row of running stitch to the embroidery, or I stitched around a cupcake or I stitched on top of embroidery that was already there. 

I wish I could show the texture the stitching adds to the quilt. 

This is all hand pieced, embroidered and quilted.  In fact, the only time I've used the sewing machine for this is to sew the blocks together.   And I'll use the machine today to add the binding to the front but I'll hand stitch it to the back. 

And soon I will cover myself in chocolate. 

Join us today for Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

if you are working on something by hand.

Chickens and Chocolates

Yes, I'm hand quilting hotpads. 

I thought it would actually be easier than quilting on my DSM and look better if I did so.  The backing fabric is jewel toned chickens on black.  I'll probably add binding I will hand stitch down later today and get these finished off for Christmas gifts.

I made 7 -10 x 10.5 chicken blocks based on a pattern at Sew Inspired.

I've always loved the story of the Little Red Hen and I thought this block in different red fabrics might make a cute baby quilt to go along with a Little Red Hen book.   (Now on my to-do list). 

I've also stamped a few more dishtowels for embroidery.  These will go along with the chicken hotpads and a crochet dishcloth as Christmas gift sets.   

I was digging around in some boxes of fabric and was surprised to find I had so many chicken themed fabrics. I might have enough to make a couple of fabric grocery bags to add to the gift sets. 

And since last week I've hand quilted another section of my Crazy Cravings quilt.  I've been trying to make the big stitching with Fudge Brown #10 crochet thread blend in here and there throughout the quilt. 

I figure sewing on chocolate is better than sewing while eating chocolate. 

I'm going to take a short break again from hand quilting on this until I finish all my Christmas gifts. 

But I am anxious to get it finished up. 

Are you hand stitching today?

Join us for Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts. 

Crazy Cravings Update

I'm working on quilting my Crazy Cravings crazy quilt. 

I think most of the time crazy quilts are tied. 

Mine, I guess, could be defined more as an actual quilt - front, batting, backing, quilting. 

The problem is trying to figure out how to actually quilt it.  I am using #10 crochet cotton. Fudge brown seemed an appropriate choice. And I'm using a #5 embroidery needle.   I just look at each patch and add some big stitching where it seems appropriate. 

I big stitch around candies, around patches, along seam lines, around cups...

 ...around more cups, more patches, more seams, more candies...

...around more cups, around cupcakes, around circles, along more seam lines...

 ...and all of the big stitching keeps the layers together plus kind of disappears into the backing. 

I'm slow stitching today. Are you? 

If so join us at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday. 

Just Like Grandma Used to Make

I've finally assembled the Butterfly quilt top. 

I've been trying to duplicate a quilt I inherited from my grandmother that is falling apart. 

And now I'm pinning it in preparation for hand quilting.  I may not get much hand done in the next few months because I don't have air conditioning in my house and so it gets a little too warm for me to have a quilt in my lap. BUT this summer so far has been rather cooler than normal...so we shall see. I'm anxious to get quilting. 

I finished the 12 inch Crazy Farm block I was working on last week for my lap quilt. 

We used to have geese when we first moved out here to our 18 acres. Maybe when I retire we will get some again. 

I have to say that Pansies are one of my favorite flowers.  I start them from seed every year and have pots and baskets and all other sorts of containers on my deck full of them.  I used to press them and use them on homemade cards. 

I kind of free form stem stitched a vine around the pansies and added some french knot and detached chain stitch wisteria. 

I actually do have apple, pear and cherry trees on my farm. I used to have a plum tree but it died several years ago. 

And below that I did some free form buttonhole stitches topped with some detached chain (lazy daisy) stitches. 

The butterfly doesn't show up as well as I wanted. Maybe later I'll add some stitches inside. 

I forget what stitch that is that I used for those green leaves. 

And finally there's a little lady bug button. 

Slow Stitching today? 

Join us for Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts. 

Odds and Ends but Mostly Odds

I finished another 12 inch block for my Crazy Farm lap quilt.  The Crazy Quilt Journal Project somehow keeps me on track with getting at least one block completed per month.  

I embroidered a windmill in back stitches. On the sunflower patch I added a strip of ribbon with sunflowers on it. I tacked it down with some blind stitches and added some tiny sunflowers of straight stitches and french knots which look more like rudbeckia (black-eyed-susans) than sunflowers to me.  Then I crocheted a sunflower and tacked it on. (Note to self: maybe I should add some french knots in the center to make it look more like the sunflowers on the ribbon.) 

I didn't want to detract much from the printed fabric so just did a bunch of straight stitches in a v-shape. On the lime green section I did some lazy-daisy flowers in variegated thread.  The lazy daisy stitch is one of the first stitches my grandma taught me. 

And here we have a tractor (button) without a driver in the fly stitch field. 

Here I did a stem stitch in perle #8 in kind of a pea vine free form squiggly meander and then added some leaves.   

Finally, I added a feather stitch with straight stitches and french knots. 

And here is how it looks joined up with three other blocks. 

For Christmas I like to give sets of embroidered dishtowels, crocheted dish cloths and potholders. I finished up a dishtowel yesterday as well as a dish cloth.  That finished dish rag look wonky but it isn't. I'm in the middle of another dishcloth that I hope to finish today. (My retired husband does the dishes and swears by these.)

Slow Sunday Stitching slows down for me in the spring and summer months since I spend a lot of my time off work out in the garden but I still like to stitch a few minutes each evening after dinner and before bed so...

I hope to get a couple of blocks ready for CQ and another dishtowel stamped and ready for embroidery some time today, Slow Stitching Sunday. 

Join the virtual sewing bee, Slow Sunday Stitching, at Kathy's Quilts, if you are doing any hand work. 

How's the Crazy Farm?

I've finished my March  12 inch "Crazy Farm" block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project.  At the end of the year I hope to assemble all blocks into a lap quilt. 

Carrots, buttonhole wheels outlined with chain stitches and feather stitch and lazy daisies...

...stem stitches with french knots to sort of imitate the green fabric, cast on stitch pansies and the red are just straight stitches topped with a detached chain stitch...

...crocheted star flowers with french knot centers and a tulip in wrapped back stitch. 

And now it joins the other "Crazy Farm" block

And now that my March crazy quilt block is finished I will probably spend the rest of the month finishing up the final 10 applique butterflies I need for the quilt I'm making like grandma's. 

After I finish hand binding a quilt I'll be working on the butterflies for my Slow Stitching Sunday project.  If you are hand stitching today join the party. 

Slow Sunday Stitching

In crazy quilt news...I've finished block 2 of Crazy Farm - my Crazy Quilt Journal Project for 2014. 

Every crazy farm needs a scarecrow.  (Note to self: doesn't look like I finished scarecrow pocket) And growing next to him is some crazy colored wheat (wheatear stitches). 

On the seam above the pigs I just did straight stitches thinking they might look like a fence.  You can see a poor lone strawberry. When I was thinking about seam treatments I was originally going to wind the strawberry runners up on the seam above it with some additional little strawberries but when I actually got around to the seam I forgot and instead added some bullion rosebuds because of the peach roses in that scrap of blue fabric.   One good thing about crazy quilting is there is no right or wrong way to do things, no pattern to follow...you can just go with the flow. 

Every crazy farm has tomatoes.  (On my real "farm" I grow Celebrity and a different heirloom each year and some cherry tomatoes.)  Seam above is fly stitch and lazy daisy and seam below is three rows of chain stitch. 

I crocheted some little flowers and gave them some french knot centers to imitate the daisies in the fabric.  I have lots of odds and ends of crochet cotton I've picked up from thrift stores so this is a good way to use those bits and pieces. 

This seam just has herringbone stitch that I did twice. First pass was in the lime green and second pass was in the darker green.  And I also added some french knots. 

Blocks 1 and 2 together. 

In other crazy quilt news I've got the rick rack stitched in the border on 2 sides. 

In embroidery news... I've got another fruit embroidered - Thursday pears.   Somehow I'm going to use all these embroidered days of the weeks fruits in my Tea Towel Challenge Quilt.  I think I have 3 fruits left to embroider. 

 Finally, in applique/embroidery news...Last week I had 10 butterflies appliqued. This week I've finished the blanket stitch around all 10 and now I need to ...

...finish up the other stitching.   After these I think I will have 32 butterflies and I think I need 48 in order to make a quilt like I inherited from grandma.  After I make my quilt I am going to try to repair hers. 

So that's it for my Slow Sunday Stitching projects.  Kathy's Quilts is host to the Slow Sunday Stitching linky party.  There's a lot of beautiful projects being worked on. You will miss out on them if you don't visit.