"After the Ball" is on it's way!

Made it! I squeaked under the wire and got my entry into the Alliance for Quilts "Crazy for Quilts" contest.

I kept the smaller embellishments to a minimum in order to emphasize the main design elements. The ones I did use I kept close to the color of the background. Supplies used on this piece include vintage linens, lace, pearls, crystals, buttons, sequins and gloves. Soie d'alger silk floss and perle cotton, along with a few beads made up the seam treatments. I had a couple of problems with the finishing but I'm hoping it will be accepted. If it's not, that's OK too! I learned so much in the finishing alone that it was worth doing.

Here's a close-up of the Lady herself.

There's a bit more buckling here than there should be but all in all, I like it! As always, click the pictures to get to a larger size. If you want to see even more detail, use the "All sizes" feature on flickr to go to a giant size.

All in all, I learned so very much doing this piece. It has also kick-started my creative self and that's a good thing! Keep your fingers crossed that it's accepted into the contest!

Later, ladies...

"After the Ball"

What a weekend! I spent nearly 25 hours this weekend working on my Alliance for Quilts piece, "After the Ball." I'm so glad it was a 3 day weekend! ;0)

This addition of gloves to a CQ project is an idea that has been percolating in my little brain for awhile. I knew I could weave a story around a pair of gloves, and when I saw this lovely lady and her hand mirror, everything clicked in my head.

The gloves have been slipped off and her jewels have joined them. She gazes pensively into the mirror and, once again, feels the music and his touch on her arm...

I think I may have read one too many historical romances! :0)

Anywho...

I've fixed the parts of the button detail in the corner that were bugging me. It "feels" much better to me now. The major components are all here, now I just need to add all the pieces that pull it together.

We spent the weekend before in Colorado with the kids and the grandkids. It was a whirlwind 5 days but it sure was fun. I'll treat you to a couple of pictures... after June 1st!! I have to go do some beading now.

Hasta!

Alliance for Quilts continues

Hey, ladies... how's everyone today? For those Mamas out there, I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day! I got a call from each of the boys so that made it a banner day for me.

I've been working slowly on my entry in the Alliance for American Quilts "Crazy for Quilts" Contest. Time is passing rather quickly, though, so I need to get my butt in gear! Here is the lovely lady that will reside in the upper left corner of the piece:

I finished the barely visible seams and added pearls around her picture. I'm pretty tickled that they came out so well, with no blank spaces and in perfect order! I'm not sure how I'll finish off the doily since it isn't perfectly round. A spray of flowers might be in the plan somewhere, though.

Here is the lower left block:

I placed a button cluster in the outer corner. I think it needs some help but probably won't do more on it until I have them all sewn together. Here's a closer look (click to embiggen):

The left side needs to have a vine trailing out across the seam to balance it out, I think. We'll see!

Here is the lower right hand block:

If you think the piecing is a bit wonky on these, you're right. I decided to use a method other than the center first piecing method, just for fun. Probably not the smartest thing to do for an entry in a contest; however, I need to keep pushing myself and learning so I keep myself interested and engaged. That being said, I find this method harder than starting with that little five-sided center bit of cloth, that's for sure!

Ok... off to keep stitching... hope I get it done in time!

Anybody there???

Hello??

Tap... Tap... Tap... is this thing on?? ;0)

Believe it or not, I've started stitching again. I've decided to enter the Alliance for Quilts Crazy for Quilts contest as a way to jump start my creative self. I've set aside the Midsummer Quilt for now to concentrate on the Crazy for Quilts contest. I need to reconnect to crazy quilting and bring something to completion. I need to immerse myself in all the lovely bits and pieces that make up today's crazy quilt. Midsummer is still very much in the back of my mind and I'll return to it soon, hopefully with renewed vigor and creative spirit.

This is the focus block of the quilt:

This is a transfer from an eBay seller that I fused to a doily found at a local antique mall. I love the way she looks like she is dreaming of the future!

I'm piecing it completely in vintage linens that I've picked up here and there. It's been nice to use some of them on this project, they seem to match perfectly with the tone of the piece. Colors will be mostly pink with green here and there. I can't wait to really get into it!

I'm feeling much better now, I'm actually able to stay up past 8:30pm!! WooHoo! ;0) I feel a bit like I've finally pulled myself up out of a rather deep hole. The past 8 months of not really being able to think and being so tired have taken a toll on my job performance and, well, let's just say I've been concentrating on rebuilding my boss' confidence in my abilities. 'Nuff said on that subject!

I'm committed to working diligently on this project, finishing it and then moving forward to the Midsummer Quilt. I hope you will all come along for the ride!

I'll be back in a few, ladies. Take care and be creative!

Long story short...

Hey, ladies... so glad you are still hanging around my little bit of the blogosphere!

The above title refers to the fact that my continuing tiredness has finally been diagnosed. Over the past two months, we have been through the ringer medically. I had some wonky blood tests come back over a period of several months and my family doctor thought I had lgl Leukemia. She set me up with a hemotologist/oncologist and ordered an abdominal ultrasound to check for an enlarged liver and spleen.

The ultrasound then showed an unknown mass in my liver. A followup MRI was inconclusive so I had a PET scan done which showed I didn't have liver cancer or any other tumors anywhere, which is a good thing to find out when you are 56! The mass was just "fatty infiltration" which comes from age, alcohol (ahem) and being overweight (double ahem).

Then I had a visit with the oncologist who said "no, it's not leukemia, you have a virus of some kind, we just have to figure out which one." More blood tests of ever deepening intricacy showed that I had Epstein Barr virus, although it is not currently "active." It just makes me so tired I can't see straight. It is believed to be the cause of mononucleosis and a precursor to chronic fatigue syndrome. Oh, wonderful... just what I need. ***sigh*** Anyway, I'm still tired but I don't have cancer, so YAY!

Well, that wasn't a really short story, but I see you folks as my friends and I wanted to let you know what has been going on... hope you don't mind!

I have barely touched Midsummer since my last post. I got some more beading done on the seam treatments this past weekend, but that's about it. Last night I did lay the bottom row of blocks out on the coffee table and played with positioning some embellishments and some of the crocheted leaves. I'm hoping the playing will get me moving again on it. Keep your fingers crossed! ;0)

I'll be back in a few days. Take care, my ladies!

Wherein a snail is finished...

I finished the snail last night and I must say I am pleasantly surprised at how much I like it. ;0)

I used beads for the body to give it the shine of the snails body in real life. I wasn't too sure about getting the beading to come together without tooooo many gaps but it actually worked. WooHOO!

I used some more of the Waterlilies silk floss for the antenna. I used about 6 strands and then couched it down in a spiral fashion with more of the silk. It gives a unique look to the couching and I think it will appear again somewhere on this quilt 'cause it looks really cool! :0) ETA: Please excuse the kitty hair in the large version... heh.

Anyway, just a quick post to show you lovelies the finished snail. We're busy listening to some music - Lynard Skynard, Chris Isaac and Mary Chapin Carpenter so far... (we are nothing if not eclectic in our musical tastes) while we clean house. Have a great weekend!

Still stitching!

I hope all you ladies have had a great weekend! We had nearly half an inch of rain here in Phoenix on Sunday so it has been a lovely, misty moisty weekend for us. We don't get too many of those here so we really appreciate it when we do!

I've added a few more bunches of grass to the single one that was there before. Here is a rather elongated picture... I think you'll have to click on it to see it in any viewable size.

It's not a great picture since I had to stand so far back... but you get the idea. That tuft of grass on the left was looking a little lonely so I have since added another, smaller, tuft just to the right of it. Pictures next post. As I look at this, I see I'm going to have to remove that squiggly green seam treatment above the left hand tuft of grass... it looks kind of out of place!

If you look closely, you'll see the outline of a snail just under the little starburst stitch. This is supposed to be a kind of forest floor picture along these blocks so the snail is quite large compared to the grasses, which are just baby bunches, really. Here's a close-up of the snail outline.

I found a picture of the kind of snail I wanted, one with a really nice big shell. Then I traced the outline on some tissue paper and used that to stitch through so the outline was transferred to the block. I used a varigated silk thread to do a padded satin stitch for the shell. The padding was with #5 perle cotton (I'm not completely crazy!) and the satin stitch itself was done with a 12 strand silk (Caron Waterlilies) that really has some good reflective qualities. I used just one strand of the silk floss so it took me four evenings to get done, but I really enjoyed doing it.

You'll see a break in the stitching about 2/3 of the way back along the shell. I'll be adding a line of beads there, as soon as I can find the perfect ones. I think it came out pretty good. I started at the back tip and worked my way forward. The sections I did later are definitely better than the first ones... it's been awhile since I did satin stitch! ;0) I'm not sure what I'll do for the body of the snail... still thinking about that one.

That's all for now. I'm still not feeling well and I'm really tired most of the time, so this post is rather short. Take care, ladies!!