Flitting...Part II (or Those Crazy WIPs)

Yesterday I posted about how I flit from project to project. That was only the sane quilting projects. What follows are two crazy quilt WIPS. I have to say I may flit about quite a bit but  I usually do finish all the projects I start. Now I'm working so much overtime that I hardly have time to do anything. 

 This is my August block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012. The object of the project is to complete a CQ block per month.  My blocks are for a lap quilt and it's called Crazy Basket Case. I've used mostly red and white, included one or two baskets per block, and all has to be washable. Plus I've tried very hard to make each seam on each block unique.

 And in no particular order here's my Crazy Basket Case lap quilt so far. It's on my design floor since I don't have a design wall.

 This is one of my Midnight Fantasy Glow in the Dark blocks. I showed this one last time. Since then I decided to use a couple of strands of skin toned DMC to fill in the gnome's face, hands and ears since his features got lost if I just left those areas black like the background. I also finished my fluorescent green praying mantis. I tried some boucle thread and made a few lazy daisies down by Mr. Gnome's feet. I found that the thread frayed a bit and broke off so will use shorter lengths of thread next time. I do like the bumpy look of the thread. I've also used glow in the dark thread to make some leaves over on that butterfly fabric. I'm working up enough courage to start on some stumpwork mushrooms that will go in some of that blank area where that flowery fabric is. I've read the directions over and over and over and over and over again. Maybe this weekend I will actually start on them. There will also be a few stumpwork butterflies on that butterfly fabric.

 This is another block for my Midnight Fantasy Glow-in-the-Dark Garden. I stitched the fairy riding the dragonfly in the middle and the rest of the block was stitched on by 4 other ladies in a Butterfly and Dragonfly RR over on the Crazy Quilting International Yahoo Group. Someone remarked in my booklet that it looked like a Pink Floyd Block. Anyway, all the ladies added their magic but nothing glows in the dark so I will probably fill in more on this block to add my own touches too.

 Here is another block for my Garden that just returned home from a different RR actually themed Midnight Fantasy Garden. I stitched the fairy in the middle. The teddy bear was added by one of the talented ladies.  I took off a few of the plastic trinkets and premade flower sthat were added during the RR and will again fill in with a few glowing stitches/items of my own.

And here is how all 5 of the blocks (out of 12?) look so far. They are all WIPs within WIPs. Nothing is planned. I use my left brain at work all day so like to use my right brain at home. And sometimes I just don't feel like using my brain at all.

I'm linking up at Connie's Quilting by the River Linky Party and at Sharon's WIP Wednesday where you can see what everyone else in blog land is working on.

Midnight Fantasy Garden (A WIP)

This is block 5 of my midnight fantasy Garden. There's not much completed on it yet except Mr. Gnome and a butterfly. I'm going to add a lot of bugs to this block. At top is a beetle and the dragonfly is made of glow in the dark thread.  You can see a little bit of a glow in the dark praying mantis down in the right hand corner. I want to do some stumpwork mushrooms and butterflies to add to this block as well as some more glow in the dark things.

This is block 4 of Midnight Fantasy Garden. I previously posted a little bit about this block but have added some items since - mostly a lot of pansies and a little mouse.

I blogged about block 1 which is complete and blocks 2 and 3 are out in RRs. Not sure how many blocks I'm going to have all together but this is going to be a glow in the dark midnight fantasy garden  large wallhanging to hang in the spare bedroom where the 7 yo granddaughters sleep when they visit every other weekend.

I'm linking up at Sharon Boggon's Pintangle WIP Wednesday.  (That reminds me...I really, really need to catch up on my TAST).

Celebrate Life Challenge - My Grand Finale

I participated in a "Celebrate Life" challenge over on the CQ For Newbies Yahoo Group. Basically we learn new stitches or a different way to apply old ones. I've finally finished my 12 inch block I call Midnight Fantasy Garden.

To recap..week one was outline and and stem stitches.

Second week was buttonhole stitch.

Third week was cast-on stitch.

Fourth week was whipped spider wheel and whipped chain. I also challenged myself to make some angelina fiber leaves.

Fifth week was herringbone and...

...chevron stitch.

Sixth week was turkey work (or is it knot?) so I made some thistles with it.

Sixth week was also spiral trellis. I had a difficult time seeing where I was to put my needle for each stitch so you can see a few little holes where I missed a few stitches (or was that where I decreased stitches and shouldn't have?)

That was it for the required stitches but we also had to add two extra elements from a list of several. I did a spider and her web and it looks like the albino spider has a broken leg. There is a black spider hidden in there too. Both of them made the web but I think they were into the booze when they made it. The other element was a silk ribbon motif so I added some silk ribbon roses.

So that brings me to the finish of this block. The fairy body is painted with glow in the dark paint and I may also add stitches over the paint in glow in the dark thread. Or then again, I may not.

And that brings me to the end of this "Midnight Fantasy Garden". I have several others in the works, though.

Going Crazy (Again)

I've joined a "Be My (Vintage) Valentine" RR. Each participant sews up 6 - 6 inch blocks...

...and passes them around to other participants to embellish. Then they return home and (in this case) get turned into a bellpull.

And this block (12 inch finished) is for the "Midnight Fantasy Garden" themed RR. In this case each particpant embellishes the same block. This will be my fourth block in the Midnight Fantasy Garden theme. I want to make a huge glow-in-the dark wall hanging. My inspiration? The fairies that dance at midnight in my own garden!

Another Fairy in the Midnight Garden

This is another fairy for block 2 (of 16) of my Midnight Fairy Garden (CQ by 2012). I used a "glow in the dark" marker to paint the fairy body and used white "glow in the dark" DMC to embellish part of her wings. I have yet to see if she glows in the dark. And she shall remain faceless until I can decide I can do faces.

CQ by 2012 ???

I LOVE Fairies. I know they live in my gardens. I have a little fairy garden where I know they live. This is my first block for My Midnight Fairies (or Faeries?). All black backgrounds (ok, some have flowers), set on point and filled with lots of flowers, butterflies, fairies, mushrooms, etc. I bought some bright, flourescent and glow in the dark threads.  I am hoping for 16 (4x4) blocks.

Here's a close up of the first fairy riding a dragonfly. I stitched her dress with one strand of silk thread and embellished it with gold sulky. I'm not sure I will be using one strand of anything after this. My eyes don't see well enough. And, I am not good with facial features so that will need a little work. Plus...I should have embroidered her face in a little thinner thread instead of perle 8 so it would fit better with her dress. But...it's a learn as you go project. The dragonfly has sparkly ribbon wings. I am going to embroider the center fairies for the blocks first and then piece the blocks around them. The only plan that exists is in my head.   I hope to have this done sometime in 2012. There is a CQ by 2012 challenge and hopefully I will meet that challenge.

This is the other crazy quilt (well, I call it a bedrunner that I hope to lay over my Valentine Hanky Quilt) I hope to finish by 2012. A year doesn't seem like a very long time.

Fairies, Lace, Pansies

Pansy block for Alice. Buttonhole flowers were new to me. I need to work on them a little more. I think my centers are too big.

My work on Alice's joint block. I tried a felted pansy. This one didn't turn out too bad. The first one I made looked like some bugs nibbled at it.

The entire joint block after me and Arlene stitched on it.

My work on Janet's Canterbury Flower Fairy block. New to me was the raised cup stitch Canterbury bells I embroidered around the silkie.

Part of my work on Candji's Lucious Lace block. I made garden rows of lace and flowers.

Another section I embroidered of Candji's block.

And final section I embroidered. This was my attempt at a lace b'fly. I guess it turned out okay.

And this is what Candji's whole block looks like now that I am finished with it and ready to send it on to next person.

Fairies

My blocks are back from both Fairy RRs on CQI. I now have one from each of these RRs and 6 more to sew embellish and sew together for a big wallhanging. I love fairies. Strange thing...I am of Irish ancestry and their tales tell of fairies that steal away babies and other things.

Fairy II Blocks

Fairy III Blocks

Another Fairy Completed

Thistle Fairy - I embroidered turkey knots, cut them and fluffed them up to simulate a thistle on the top two thistles. I added bullion knot flowers along the bottom, fern stitch flowers to frame the fairy, sulky to the wings, some rhinestone stars, beaded buttonhole stitch and a couple of tatted butterflies.

Alder Tree Fairy

This is the end of my stitching on the flower fairy blocks in this RR. This is an Alder Tree Fairy. I tried to add leaves, seeds, catkins of the alder tree on Carolyn's block. I think the catkins should have been a little yellower instead of white so I added a little gold sulky but it doesn't look like it in the photo. The leaves are all raised leaf stitch. The seeds (or are they cones? ) are made of beads. I wasn't prepared for tree fairies in a flower fairy rr but rather enjoyed stitching on the two tree fairy blocks.

Rose Fairy

Finished my work on a Fairy DYB RR for Susan. I chose the rose fairy block.

Fairies and Hearts - Finishes This Weekend

I finished work on a fairy cq block. There was no particular fairy type on this block so I embroidered fairies walking over the tops of flowers. I love the pastels Arlene used on her block.

This block is Darlene's. Featured on it is a "wayfaring tree fairy". I did a little homework to discover that the wayfaring tree is a viburnum but different from the viburnum I have in my yard. It blooms with clusters of white flowers followed by red and black berries in the fall. I tried to depict that with my embroidery. I loved the combination of deep purple, pink and green that Darlene used on this block. That's why I picked this one to embroider.

This was Carolyn's block for the Heart CQ RR. I had to embroider 1/5 of it. Carolyn left a center block with a flower stem and leaves so I added a crocheted heart to the stem and added a few more stems with heart shell buttons. I also crocheted a basket and added silk ribbon flowers and a heart button. One of the seam treatments is wrapped chain hearts with a bullion rose in the center.

My fingers are staying nimble.

Crazy Quilt Fairies

I've joined a couple of Round Robins over on CQI yahoo group.  I will send my six fairy blocks around to several ladies in the group and they will each pick one to embellish. And I will pick one of each one of their fairy blocks to embellish.  This was my first set sent out before Christmas. I have Tulip Fairy, Pansy Fairy, Cherry Fairy, Dandelion Fairy, Daffodil Fairy and Clover Fairy. You will find all of these in my garden.

I have embellished two blocks so far with this group of ladies. The first was a Lavender Fairy for Lauri and the second is a Willow Tree Fairy I finished for Rita.

And now I have joined another group of ladies for more fairy fun. I love fairies - I have fairy music boxes, a fairy garden, fairy lamps, fairy cross stitch. I have a third set of fairy blocks that I will embellish all myself. And when all is said and done I hope to have a fairy crazy quilt.

Next set to be sent off:

Iris Fairy, Wild Rose Fairy, Rose Fairy, Poppy Fairy, Sweet Pea Fairy, Strawberry Fairy. They represent some of the favorite flowers of my garden.