Tea cosy crazy quilt and TAST

I've started working on a crazy quilted tea cosy. I love having a morning cuppa but find that the tea is getting cool before I've finished.  Hopefully a tea cosy, as well as looking nice, will let me extend those lazy mornings!

Both front and back will be crazies.  One side is done.  This is also my May block for the CQJP2015 challenge.

I've been keeping up with the TAST challenge, but last week got slack about posting on my blog, although I did post on the TAST facebook page.  So here are week 2 and week 3 for the TAST challenge.

Week 2:  Buttonhole stitch.  As a seam treatment, buttonhole wheels and a buttonhole leaf.

 

Week 3 is feather stitch.  Worked here as seam treatments and also to join blocks and borders.

 

Anyone wanting to learn how to do these stitches, should click on the TAST badge to the right.  This will take you to the Pintangle page, then click on TAST FAQ which lists all the stitches and gives instructions on how to do them.  Mary Corbet also has great tutorials, including easy to follow video instructions.





 

Over on  Kathy Shaw's page a new free crazy quilting course will be opening for registration in a couple of days.  The course is Embellishing with Threads.  I'm looking forward to learning more on this course.   Anyone wanting to get into crazy quilting should take a look at her free classes.  They are great classes with easy instructions and so much fun seeing what other participants are doing.

 

 



CQJP2015 April block completed

After spraining my hand in April I wasn't able to do any embroidery for a few months.  I'm now working to catch up on the CQJP2015 challenge.
I've completed the April block which has a winter theme.

April block

Detail of the beaded snowman. This was made using the trapunto method, then beaded, then appliqued to the block.  This was my first attempt at trapunto and I was pleased with how he turned out.

Each of the 4 blocks features a Hardanger piece.  The Hardanger on this block was placed on top of a piece of lace to give a lace border, then beaded chain stitch around the edge of the Hardanger with a silk ribbon poinsettia flower.

While we don't get snow in Auckland, a winter theme has to feature snowflakes:

The first 4 blocks of the CQJP challenge are completed and I've made them into a cushion cover.

The 4 blocks are joined with feather stitch and feather stitch also joins the outside border with the blocks, there is a central lace motif to bring the pieces together.

Now on to my May block.  

March update

I started a new Jacobean embroidery in March from Hazel Blomkamps book.  I've not taken any photos yet.  Finished this month was my Autumn theme block for CQJP, with autumn leaves as the theme.

 

I did a beaded oak leaf

 

Also a couple of acorns and a hardanger featuring oak leaves and acorns.  Photo below shows one of the acorns and  the hardanger.

 

 

On the side of the block is a wheelbarrow that has tipped over and spilled its leaves, with a hedgehog heading for the pile of leaves.

 

 

Completed another page of Spirit of Winter.

 



 

 

Unfortunately I've sprained the ligament at the base of my thumb.  This means I can't do any craft work at the moment which is hugely frustrating.   I start physio on Thursday so hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll be able to restart some projects.



More finishes

I finished my February block for the CQJP2015 challenge.  This is a summer block with a butterfly theme, as part of the four seasons theme that I'm doing.

Close up of stumpwork butterfly, done on sari silk, and a sunflower.  My sunflower centre is a bit on the small side.  I did a practice piece first.  As is the way of things, the practice piece worked up perfectly, but then the 'real' piece didn't come out so well.

Close up of needlelace butterfly and Hardanger piece.  This was my first attempt at needlelace

Close up of beaded butterfly.  This is based on the colouring of a monarch butterfly.

 

Last month I completed Kathy Shaw's beginners CQ class.  I made this up into a cushion.

 

I have a photo of my skirt and top that I made and blogged about in the last post.  Here it is.

 

I also made a couple of tri-pillows.  My mother has a lot of neck problems so I made one for her and one for myself.  These have tabs on the end, so it is easy to reach behind and position them.

 

 

That's it for now.  Time to start planning my March CQJP block.

 



January crazy quilting

For Xmas I was given some toiletries in a snowman shaped tin.  I thought the tin was an ideal shape to make into a matryoshka doll.  I wanted the embroidery to give the fabric a textured feel so for most of the pieces I used thread in a similar colour to the fabric.

The face took me about 3 attempts to embroider.  I did it on felt and then appliqued it.  Once embroidered I then mounted it on a piece of card, glued some lace around the top of the tin so the lace covers the sides of the tin and then glued the card to the top of the tin.

I'm using this to store my buttons.  It stands up nicely, just like a doll should.

I've also finished my January block for CQJP.  My them is the seasons, 4 blocks for each will be made into cushion covers.  This is spring.  It has a Hardanger centre, this was a freebie from the spring biscornu on the victoriasampler website

At the top right is a beaded daffodil.  I did the beaded flower on felt and then appliqued it to the block.  The leaf is filled with chain stitch and surrounded by coral stitch.

At the bottom sits a stumpwork spring rabbit in a basket and to his right is a bunch of tulips.

At the left is a fat bumblebee.  At the top left corner is black rick rack with interwoven chain stitch in gold on top.  In the corner is a needlewoven wheel in red and gold.



Below is a close up of the lace on the bottom right.  At the far right is black lace overlaid with red lace.  The photo doesn't show it very well but along the edge of the 2 laces is alternating chain stitch done in both black and red thread

December projects

I've been wanting to make a CQ cat for a long time.  I got around to it this month.

She stands about 6 inches high. The front has a photo of my cat Maxie transferred onto a cotton fabric via my home printer.  She is surrounded by beads, couched thread, Suffolk puffs and a little cat charm is in the bottom left corner

 

Close up of the tail.  Little bluebird stitched on tip with a rambling vine of cast on stitch flowers.  The tail was very awkward when making this up. It was so small to start with and with extra bulk due to the stitching it was hard work to turn it right side out when sewing it.  If I do this again I'll make the tail separately from the body and stitch it on at the end.

 

Front of cat showing lace, and embroidered seams

 

 

This is the back of the cat.  I was going to leave it plain, but then I saw some "normal" quilts on pinterest with a fan shaped cat and thought that would be fun to add to the back.

 

 

Close up detail of the embroidered seams on the back of the cat.  The face and tail are velvet.

 

 I'm also going to be taking part in CJQP2015.  See link on right hand side.  The aim is to complete a block a month, minimum size 8 inches..  I want to make cushion covers.  They will have 4 blocks per cushion so at the end of the year I should have 3 CQ cushions.  The theme will be the 4 seasons.  The first 4 will have Hardanger centres taken from Victoria's samplers free patterns.

I've got my naked block for January and first Hardanger prepared.

The Hardanger will have beads added when I've completed the rest of the embroidery.