Getting ready for summer

With the start of the Memorial Day weekend, it feels like summer has arrived. We don't have any big plans for the long weekend. Just spending it around the house and celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary.
I have been working on a new beaded crazy quilt, but cant show much of it right now. I did want to share a new beaded flower I created using some rhinestone circles I acquired a while back. The circles make a perfect center to the flowers with some size 15 beads used to make the petals and the finished off with some foliage created with bugle beads.

I also picked up a bunch of new patterns (Hobby Lobby had them all on sale for 1.99 each)

So I hope to do a little summer sewing for my self and the kids.

Abby's Garden

I have put the finishing touches on my entry for the Alliance for American Quilts New from Old Contest.

I love with how the little quilt turned out, but as always with my creative process there are things I would do a little different. I has several occasions where I had a design or embellishment additions were an after thought and then I had to figure out how to handle the changes.

Beading update

Work is progressing on my entry for the 2010 Alliance for American Quilts New from Old block. I have most of the seams covered and have few more flowers I would like to highlight with beads. I will need to add a bit of embroidery to hold down some of the raw seams and I have also been thinking about adding some sashiko stitching in the blue areas...maybe a bit of a geometric pattern along with some a leaf fronds....

More Ornaments

I spent my free time last evening embellishing a few of the ornaments I made with my Knit-n-Felt Ornament Pattern. Most of the ones I have made so far are more geared toward Christmas, but I just knit some up in pretty spring colors and think it will make a nice bowl full of eggs come Easter.

The purple ornament is the large size and knit with Knit Picks Andean Treasures wool and embellished with a beaded fly stitch in two shades of green. I love the Andean Treasure wool, it is so soft and felted up nice and quick, but I really did not like it for this project. I like my ornaments to be nice and firm almost hard and this one is soft and squishy. I think a better yarn to use is a merino wool I have used all of the following and like the results: Patons Classic Wool, Casscade 220 or I Love This Wool from Hobby Lobby. I am sure there are others that will work well too.

Embellishment

With a day off for the MLK holiday, I packed the kids off to daycare and spent most of the day working on various projects. And a lovely lunch date with my hubby.

I refined the placement of a few flowers on my Alliance for American Quilts New from Old entry. Tried to make some of the flowers look like there are behind the fans and others in front to create a little depth.





I have a good start on the beading . So far I have a few seams and the edge of the fan as well as one flower. I auditioned several colors on the flower until I arrived at what I think would work. I do this quite often when beading. If I am not sure if something will work, I go ahead and bead the motif or seam. Sometimes I know right away it is not going to work, and other times, I just leave the beads in place for a bit and the piece grows into it. I bead each element with one thread and then tie it off, so in the event I do need to remove a seam treatment I know exactly which beads will come off when I snip the thread.

Here is a close up of the bead embellished flower. I used size 15 for the center portion in teal dark pink and light pink and size 11 for the tips of the petals in an silver lined blush pink bead. I used a blanket stitch in size 15 seed beads around the flower to anchor the needle punched applique in place.

I keep going back and forth on the piece weather it is going to work or the embellishment is going to be too much. What ever the result I will keep beading.

Playing with Fabric

I have been playing with different ideas of adding some fussy cut flowers to the fan block I am working on. I pulled out this oriental print that I have had in my stash for a few years. I just love the graphic flowers. I think it is a Kaufman fabric, but I could be wrong.

I started with cutting out some groupings of the flowers.

I have another oriental fabric that had a cloud type graphic that I thought I would try to recreate with a subtle print black fabric. I think the corners are too black but I like the cloud effect.

Next was to audition some fabrics for the center. I use this shade of golden yellow quite a bit in my quilts. I should be on the look out for more as I am nearly out of this print.

The yellow didn't do it for me, so I went to blue. This is a very dark navy batik, but it made the whole block feel too much the same tone. The graphic of the flowers felt a little lost.

I tried a lighter blue batik and it worked a bit better for the center.

Now to fix the corners with the fans. I fussy cut some more of the floral fabric and thought it did the trick for the corner.

The block is needle punched together and ready for some embellishment.

Beading Class

I had a great time teaching my beading class at the Bismarck Quiltfest. I hope all were able to take home a few of my tips and tricks for getting the stitches on to the fabric.








I pulled this quilt out of the drawer to use in class as examples of beading and I have been inspired to work on it a bit. I have Wednesday off of work this week and the kids will be in daycare. So I have plans on getting the border attached and start working on the applique flowers I have planned for the border.
I have had it out a few times to work on it but have quickly become overwhelmed with the direction it is going. I hope getting the applique in place will get it moving in a direction I like.

Bead Embroidery Sampler

I am creating a sampler block for my bead embroidery class. I came up with a quick way to create a stunning fan block using 1 1/2 inch strips from a jelly roll and the coordinating background fabric. Once I had the idea, the block took me less that 1/2 an hour to construct.

I am using only the stitches I teach in the class and sticking with just the basic stitches.

Do you want to know my secret to the quick construction of the block? Raw edges, my thought is why turn under the edges when they are going to be beaded over anyway? Using the Moda Jelly Roll gave me 10 coordinating fabrics to lay out in a fan.

Finding time for little projects

Small projects seem to be all I can fit in these days. I need something I can pick up quick and work on for 10-15 minutes and then tuck away.

This little bead project is one I have been wanting to try based on a project from the book Bead Romantique. It is not quite done, I will be adding some fringe to the lower left quadrant to balance out the design. The most difficult part was getting the links of beads to stay around the face. I ended up taking a few stitches through the holes just to make sure it wont come loose. I am not sure if it will become a necklace or an embellishment on a quilt.

Finishing touches

I am finished with beading the block for the Alliance for American Quilts, Crazy for Quilts contest. Which is also a fundraiser for the organization and all blocks entered will be auctioned off on EBay.
I have named the quilt Crazy for Beads and the block is 12" finished with a 2" border. I decided not to do any beading in the border and will add a beaded picot biding to the edge. I think the motifs and border fabric that I added to the block created a subtle Asian feel to the design that is quite pleasing.

What I did add over the past few days are some bugs. ever since I picked up a copy of Jane Nicholas Sumpwork Dragonflies and The Stumpwork, Goldwork and Surface Embroidery Beetle Collection and I have been wanting to incorporate some of these fancy bugs into my crazy quilts.

The bugs were a great way to fill in some of the empty space with out being too busy or another flower motif. Bugs and flowers go so well together anyway. First I added these little lady bug beads I have had in my stash for a few years. I used the gray beading thread to add the legs.


Next I really wanted to add a beetle. Jane creates some very realistic beetles in her book using leather and bead and various embroidery thread. I went for a generic beetle using a size 11 matte gray delica bead for the wings, size 15 beads for the red tail area, then some size 11 silver lined beads for the body and three size 11 iridescent beads to form the head. Again I use the gray beading thread to create the legs and antenna. I just love how he turned out.

The last bug I added was a bumble bee. I started by searching "bumble bee" and "honey bee" on google to check out some images of bees. I found a line drawing of a bee and realized it was the stripes combined with the shape of the wings that really identified the bug as a bee. This little guy was created using size 11 silver lined gray beads for the dark strips and a size 15 opaque pumpkin colored bead for the other stripe on the bee. The head is a size 6 black bead with the size 11 silver lined beads use to create the eyes. For the finishing touches I used black thread to create the wings, legs and antenna. The antenna are finished off with an iridescent purple delica bead on each tip. Again I am very pleased with how he turned out.

This block came together so beautifully and I am very excited to see where this treasure ends up.

Beading update

I have the borders on and a few more beads added.

Filling in the blanks…

I have spent the past few evening filling in the beaded block.  I hope to get the border sewn on this weekend. 
I added some “dots” to the fern seam the two flower motifs in the lower right area and the spider on the far right. 


I also added to the Cretan seam in the upper right corner.  I have found I like creating the basic stitch out of size 11 beads and then using a smaller size 15 for the details. 

Crazy for Beads…

I have been adding to the beading on my block that I hope to have completed for The Alliance for the American Quilt, Crazy for Quilts contest.  I have 3 weeks until my due date and my goal is to have all of the main block beaded and then after the baby concentrate on the border. 
I still have quite a bit of space to fill but I am finished with most of the major seams.  Of of my favorite seams in the one to the top left of the center rose, the blue sprigs of foliage.  This seam was done with all size 15 beads, the stems are a yellow green foil lined bead and the leaves are done with a matte bead in a soft turquoise. 

I finished up working on the flower motif on the top left corner as well as adding to the blanket stitch. 

I am currently adding to the pistol stitch seam which is in the lower left area of the block.  I am using a size 15 bead in hot pink to add petals to each stitch the resulting motif reminds me of a spade shape.  

Blizzard

We awoke this morning to just over 11 inches of snow and it has continued throughout the day. The forecast is for upto 4-6 more inches. Here is a peek out of our front door. Check out that drift on our roof and we still have a pile of snow from many previous storms.
Here is the view of our deck and back yard shortly after my husband shoveled the deck but the snow is coming down so fast it is already covered again. We had a threat of flooding last week and now look forward to a tense week ahead with more flooding possible. With a baby due in 4 weeks I really don't need this kind of stress.

So rather than venture out, I decided to stay home and do a little baking......mmmmmm pumpkin scones.

paired with a cup of coffee, the perfect mid morning snack.

I have also been able to sneek in a little time to work on my beaded block. I have been stumbling a bit and not liking anything I have added lately. So I have been doing alot of ripping out.

Two new beaded seams

I added two new seam embellishments to the beaded block.

The first is a basic flat chevron. I like how it looks so nice and precise. I will be going back later to add to each seam. Right now I am focused on getting all of the major seams covered with one stitch. The other is from a beading book I just added to my library, Nancy Eha's Bead Creative Like Crazy. Great book, full of creative ideas for bead embroidery. I used her pointed flowers which I thought would make a nice balance in theme and color to the appliqued flowers I have on the block. In the photo they seem to blend in but with the addition of some foliage, the flowers will become a more prominent motif for that area of the block.

And an overall shot of the block. It is coming together nicely.

Beading away

I have done a few more beaded seams on my crazy quilt block.

Starting to bead

I have had a nasty cold all weekend and hardly touched a needle. But I did mange to get a bit of stitching done on my latest beaded block.
I just about have all of the applique placed on the block and I was anxious to get started beading. I started with a beaded feather stitch. I can already tell I am going to enjoy beading this block. By joining the seams with the embellisher they are flat and easy to sew though. I may have a few bits of frayed seams but that does not seem to be bothering me as much as I though it would.
I am really pleased how the flowers in the top right turned out. The beads and branches gave them a nice look. That flower in the lower left is another story. I am not happy with the stem I just added, it is more of a shiny leather finish and just shows all of my stitches way too much. I will be switching that out. Here is my messy clutter that I am working in. I try to bring up from my basement studio just what I need to work on at the moment, but through out the day that slowly grows.

Do you see that book on the top of the stack? It is one of my favorite bead books. It is Designer Bead Embroidery by Kenneth King. It has much more of a clothing embellishment direction to the beading rather than adding beads as a quilt embellishment. So if you are looking for a bit of a different direction and ideas for beading this is a great book to add to your collection.

Block pieced

It is pieced, but I used my embellisher on all of the seam so the only stitching so far on the block is the black thread for the finished block size guide. I am in love with the creamy soft colors, all of the bead work should show up fantastic against the light background. I also like the curved lines and the various shapes I get when I piece with the embellisher.
I really had no plan for piecing the block. I started out with a 14" square piece of muslin and my fabric choices. My only goal was that the block would not look like a pieced block using the method of starting in the middle with the sew and flip. So I started in one of the corners and mostly cut triangle and trapezoid shapes from fabric, over lap my seams and the zip through the embellisher. The punching needles of the embellisher will cause most silks to pucker a bit and I did have one fabric that I had to remove due to too much puckering. I think of it as adding a bit of texture to the block. And one nice feature of just tacking everything together, I can go back and remove a fabric quite easily.

This will be a 12" finished block, but I am starting with a 14" block. On my last beaded crazy quilt block, I only had a 1/4 inch seam allowance and getting the block perfectly square was difficult with so little wiggle room.
Next I will be adding some of the applique pieces I have planned and again I will be using traditional motifs but all done using Ultrasuede so no turned edges.


I am rethinking the fans I drafted out in a previous post. I think I will wait and see how I like the floral motifs and then decide on the fans.

Color Palette

I picked out all of the fabrics for the block. A nice soft color palette which will show off the bead work quite nicely. Now on to construction.

Drafting

I drafted out the block to the 16"inch size and found I like a 2" border better than the 3" border.



I hope to incoporate a few more traditional crazy quilt motifs, like the crecent moon and some flowers in to the block.