CQJP2012 - Block 4

The first seam... I must admit I did copy this seam pattern but altered it slightly with the three  flower stems... One seam down - quite a few more to go... :-)

The seam is made up of straight stitches, lazy daisy and French knots using DMC threads..

Until later, take care and keep your needles threaded

Sharon x

Just for fun...

I have put this block together with the idea of just having fun and playing with some stitch combinations... sharonb mentioned this link recently on her blog and I remember that I had made a copy of it last time she had shared it. The idea is to use some of the stitch combinations and use mainly embroidery to embellish it. Again the colours aren't true because I took the photo with my phone - I have 'framed' the block so you can get the idea and  I must admit that I have fallen a little for it - I love the spots and the blue ric rack on the red block and I love its clean lines. I am almost reluctant to stitch on it at all. A  'crazy' purist would spot a couple of errors I have made but this is my block so nothing is 'wrong'... right??? Anyway it is all in the name of fun and learning...

As much as I loved the colours for the  proposed block I showed you last weekend  I just wanted to relax a little and have a bit of fun stitching the next block as the last one was hard work all the way... I started by looking in my 'scrap' container and worked up from there...The spot material was from another project that I become disenchanted with and it had fallen by the wayside. However the material just fitted with all the brights which I had chosen... Now for the next job  - to choose the threads and stitches...

Until later, take care and keep those needles threaded

Sharon x

New Crazy Quilt book

My newest 'indulgence' arrived today... I have long admired  Judith Baker Montano's work. While I don't have any of her books apart from her original - The Crazy Quilt Handbook - which I have just about worn the pages through - I thought that this one was well worth adding to my library.
The book is divided up into nine sections - each with their own sub sections. The sections cover such things as silk dyeing, photography, landscapes/seascapes from photos, embellishing, plus a whole lot more. Each section is like a treasure trove with something different to discover each time you look. I can see already this will be one of my 'go to' references and will be well thumbed through.
Perhaps this will give me a kick start - I don't think that I lack for ideas (sometimes I think I have TOO many) - only the ways to execute them - which seems to be where I fall down. Like for many of us I guess what happens in my imagination doesn't always translate in the way that I 'see' it in my minds eye and I become frustrated. I know one of my biggest failings is that I want everything to be 'just perfect' and that alone stops me. However, as much as I hate to say it - the more you do the more you learn and grow from it.
I am even considering signing up again for for the CQJ2013 . I joined this year and unfortunately fell way behind in the first three months. I think for a number of reasons - mostly non related to stitching -  but through doing the little I did and browsing at other peoples work - I have learnt an amazing amount and I would have a more definite 'game plan' if I were to do it again... But I am not making any hasty decisions as yet. In the meanwhile - I shall dive between the pages of my newest arrival and soak it all up...

Until later, take care and keep those needles threaded

Sharon x

*afterthought - just before my book arrived I had sat and stitched the spider web in silver metallic thread. No spider as yet and maybe there won't be... :-) One more motif to go and may March CQJ2012 will be complete - it's only taken eight months!!!!

Reminiscing and Auditioning

Skene's Creek - just outside of Apollo Bay - Victoria

While looking at some other photos I came across this photo taken in September of this year when P and I were down at Skene's Creek which is just outside of Apollo Bay - a coastal (largely holiday) township - of Victoria. P and I had walked along the beach and onto the rocks and I had been taking shots of the rising surf just beyond them... I am sure in another life I had been a coastal dweller as I love the sea and its constantly changing scape.I never tire at watching its ebbs and flows. This day I had been taking photos of the flattish rocks just in front as in some ways the grooves and indentations reminded me of an aerial view... Little did I know that within a couple of hours I would be in a helicopter seeing very similar aerial views. In the 'grand plan' of things I have always wanted to create a sea/marine themed crazy quilt and I collect images whenever I can...  When I was looking over the shots this one struck me as the two extremes - the reflective stillness of the rock pools in the foreground and the beauty and the fury of the relentless breaking surf behind...

Auditioning fabrics, shapes and threads for the next block 

However, not a sea theme - more of a purple haze - for my next block and these fabrics are the possibilities. I have had the floral material for sometime now and every so often take it out and look at it - but now it has been upgraded  to be be the 'principle' colour theme which I will draw from. The photo doesn't offer a true tonal quality - but you get the idea. That 'blue' fabric is actually more of a green which is reflected in the stems of the flowers and offers (I hope) the block a bit of 'zing'. I will leave them 'settle' for a few days before I decide. Perhaps only six or seven of the fabrics will make the final cut and I am relying on mostly embroidery stitches to offer texture but of course there will be some 'extras' in the way of beads, etc to justify my bower bird collecting...

Well, enough from me...

Until later, take care and keep those needles threaded...

Sharon x

Can you spot the difference??

To anyone who may still swing past this blog - no, no your eyes aren't playing tricks on you... The blog title has changed just a little. The change was quite unintentional really, as I was trying to make a decision about whether or not to continue the blog since I haven't stitched or blogged with any regularity at all in 2012 - when I was turning the title over in my mind instead of 'tomorrow' the words 'to follow' slipped in. It made me pause and perhaps I saw that as a sign of the promise of things to come so I have 'opened the door', 'pushed up the windows' and 'blown off the dust' and maybe with a little more incentive I shall become productive again...

Just before I leave - this is my March - yep, you read it right - block for the CQJP -2012 that I started at the beginning of the year... I could go into a tale of 'poor me' to why I haven't got any further - but hey who wants to listen to that - suffice to say I won't be finishing this year... Rather than dwell on what I haven't done - I have decided that it will be (among other things) my project for 2013 - a 'slow cloth'... sharonb imparted some wisdom a little while ago on her blog about doing work such as this - she said that it take time - it is not something that happens quickly... I have taken those words on board and that has become my philosophy.... I shall do what I can when I am able to and not beat myself up about it when I can't.

Not much more to say than that...

Until later, keep stitching

Sharon x