The Rest of the Stories...

Remember this post about the quilts I made for children in Turkey - victims of an earthquake sleeping in tents in winter conditions?

Well, I received this beautiful handmade brooch in the mail a few days ago from Rengin, the lady to whom I sent the quilts. It consists of oyas, a traditional needlelace of Turkey. I was expecting nothing in return for those quilts, but this was a pleasant surprise, absolutely gorgeous, and will definitely be treasured by me. (I've got it in a box with the stamp from the envelope, the card that came with it and an explanation of how I came to be in possession of such a lovely item. In case anything happens to me then my kids will know.)  In case you are interested in oyas Rengin sells them in her etsy shop.

And remember this post where I was wondering what the winner of my AAQ quilt was going to do with it? I had a surprising phone call yesterday from Judy K who is now in possession of said quilt. She found me on 411.com and wanted to know if I had anything on the quilt that began with "q", told me she was 70 and a quilter and was not going to use my quilt as a dust rag - she had it hanging on her sewing room wall. How fun is that? I'm about ready to email her to see if she belongs to any online groups, if she has a blog and that I thought somewhere on the quilt there was a little porcupine with quills.

Things Are Just Crazy Today

This is my work on Gayle's block for the "Lucious Lace RR" on CQI. At the top I tried some raised cup stitches that I hoped would look sort of like morning glories but I'm not convinced they do. Bottom right are motifs cut from lace that I buttonhole stitched around and added beads for center. In the middle are some silk ribbon french knots and lazy daisy leaves, gathered organdy ribbon flower  and  butterfly I tatted (that's the only thing I know how to tat).

This is my work on Ruby's block for a "Sew It Up" RR. I added what I hope looks like some cross stitch in a hoop on the left. There is a ring underneath the aida cloth and I couched some brown thread around it to make it stand out.  The bottom right is a gathered flower made from a selvage edge of some 30s reproduction fabric. I made some teeny-tiny four patches to go under the sewing machine button.  And at top I made a faux buttonhole that is definitely too small for that button!

For this RR we all decided to stitch as a group on one block. This is the part I did. I made a "pincushion" out of felt and added sulky silver thread pins with bead heads to stick in it. I wish I would have thought to put a little stuffing under it to make it puff up a bit...maybe on the next one. Then I did a herringbone stitch with french knots (to cover my pencil marks) and put buttons in some spaces.

And this is the group block after Carol and me. Hey, I just noticed that I accidentally made a pattern when I stitched on the buttons alternating four holes with two holes. What are the odds of that? I just grabbed some buttons and stitched them on. Weird...

Lucious Lace Round Robin

My work on Lisa's "Lucious Lace" block.

Finding My Voice (Literally, In Creative Writing and in Creative Stitching)

With my latest bout with a chest cold my voice has come and gone. That got me to thinking more about voice.

I have been taking a creative writing workshop a couple of times a year for the last few years. I'm going to start adding those stories to my creative writing blog "To My Children's Children". I have lots of stories...I just haven't posted them yet. I've been putting them in a journal for my descendants to discover someday.

I've struggled during those workshops to find my "voice". At the last workshop I think I finally figured out what was meant by "voice". All the workshop participants (5 of us) had a different voice and a different style. I think an author's particular voice emerges with practice.

And then I started wondering if creative stitchers have a "voice" just as authors do. I'm not sure I have one yet. I participate in crazy quilting round robins that have different themes and different people from all over the globe. I try new things. Yet, I don't think I have yet found my creative stitching voice. I'll have to think more about that. Will it come with practice as it has with my writing?

What follows are my latest endeavors in re creative quilting.

For the Birds for Connie. I added a wavy blanket stitch with some variegated thread grapes and another bunch of silk ribbon grapes at top. I crocheted some leaves and made some leaves from some textured ribbon and stitched some raised leaves. There's a circular fantasy vine on the side and some kiko flower stitch flowers and the circular patch. Somewhere on here I used DMC "Antique Effects" metallic thread for the first time and found it easy to work with and when I combined it on anothr block with regular DMC it gave a very prettey antique effect indeed.

This is another of Connie's blocks that all participants in the RR stitched on. The upper right corner was black velvet so I thought it called for some silk ribbon to raise above the pile. I added light blue stem and flowers. My other addition was the silk thread flowers under the bird near the button cluster. I just love the color of blue on that bird.

This is my work on Nicki's Lucious Lace block. It's really not a very good picture but there are lots of different laces on this block. I have a hard time figuring out how to embellish over lace.

This is Laurie's English Garden block that she wanted stitched as a child's garden. The fabrics are all flannel. I let this sit for a while before I took up stitching on it in order to figure out what to do on it. I was  first going to cover it all with lots of fabric leaves one could pick up and look under to find bugs or other jewels. For some reason I didn't go with that idea. I started by embellishing all seams with perle number 5 in feather stitch. I normally use perle 8 but felt flannel called for a little thicker thread. Anyway...after I added all the feather stitches I tried to add to all of them in a different way. Then, my grandkids just love butterflies in the garden so I added a big one at top and a tatted one at bottom. Then I added some other bugs, bees, insects and a spider. Joy.

Luscious Lace

This is my work for a "Luscious Lace" RR at Crazy Quilting International. I added different pieces of lace from my lace bin - laces acquired from thrift shop purchases. I have some lace motifs I want to add to blocks in this RR but I haven't worked up the courage to dye any yet. I'm afraid I will ruin the pieces.

Here's another shot. Maybe the contrast is a little better on this one. I hope Arlene likes it.

And here is a close up of meandering chain stitch done with one strand of gold sulky thread. My stitches aren't even, I know. I can hardly see one strand of thread. But I tried. This is "Build A Seam" (BAS) stitch 65 over on CQI (Crazy Quilting International Yahoo Group).

Seams Only for Helina

This was a block from an RR where you are only supposed to embellish the seams. I first added lace to each seam mainly because I love lace, have lots of it from thrift store finds and yet rarely use it.  Then since Helina requested a flower theme I gave her some flowers along the lace seams - rosebuds, pansies, and other fantasy flowers. And finally, I added a tatted butterfly along a very short seam.

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.

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.

Dying...I Mean Painting

Ok, I have seen everyone's success at either dying or painting laces, etc. so I decided to try some myself. I crocheted a few things like the butterflies and a few edgings with white No. 10 cotton and picked up some different white laces on sale. I used some fabric paint from JoAnn's and watered it down quite a bit. Then I wet the lace and painted. I'm not sure if I like the results but I'd say not bad for a first time. And my crocheted items could use another coat.

I will probably let the grandaughters try it with their Easter egg dye. (Or maybe not).