Gone Buggy

The latest quarterly challenge for CQI is BUGZ!  We were supposed to make 3 different bugs, each at least 1 inch. Since I love bugs, I got right down to work. I'd been trying to make some stumpwork bugs before, so I did another one.  This one is a moth. I hope we weren't supposed to make realistic bugs because I'm afraid I got carried away and played Mother Nature with my interpretations.

 

 

 

After the moth, I made a caterpillar out of bullion stitches.

Next came a beaded spider

and a beaded dragonfly.

 

I filled in the spaces with a few other bugs to finish the block.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TAT color study

I just finished working on Lisa's block for the TAT color study.  I added some bullion roses, 3 tatted butterflies, and a seam in the upper left corner, some flowers in the lower right corner, and a chain stitch seam with colonial knots to the right of the large butterfly pin.

Heart swap

These are the hearts I received from the Heart Swap at CQ4Newbies.  They are so beautiful!!!  This has to be the best heart swap yet.  I'll have to think of something to do with all my hearts.

Build a Seam

The quarterly challenge in CQI is Build a Seam.  I built my seam and took pictures of each step.  I cropped each picture to just show the seam being worked on, so I had several strips that I wanted to make into a composite picture.  I asked another CQer how she did it, and with her help and several searches, I was able to make the composite.  Big problem though - somewhere along the way between the document in Open Office and the snipping tool in Windows accessories, it lost a lot of quality.  I may have to spring for a regular photo program like Photoshop Elements if I want to keep doing this sort of thing.

 

 

 

I used a blanket stitch for the first layer and added a herringbone to that.

Next I added some lazy daisy flowers and French knots before adding -

beads to the centers of the flowers. 

CQ for Newbies Heart Swap

They're having a heart swap in CQ for Newbies.  When I first joined I think the heart swap was my first venture. I have a few hearts that I received stashed away in a box. When I get a few more I'll have to figure out just what I'm going to do with them.
These are the ones I just finished for this swap.

Winter themed ATCs

In CQ for Newbies we're having a winter themed ATC swap.  Here are the 2 I've sent in. Now I wait and see what I get back. 

 

 

4th Quarterly Challenge

CQI has quarterly challenges. This last one was to make a strip quilt sampler. Here is what I did.

 

And here are some closeups......

 

 

 

Wine Traditional RR

CQI had never had a WINE traditional round robin and it sounded like fun, so I joined. 
I have a big cork collection so I had fun sewing half corks to everyone's block.  Some I was able to cut in half with a cleaver, but I discovered a small hack saw worked best on the denser ones.

Here is my blank block ready to send off for the others to work on.  I see I forgot to take a picture of my finished block, so I must do that before I can finish this post. 

This is the finished block. Isn't it great?  All of the blocks came out wonderfull and I'd not hesitate to sign up for another round.

Why I haven't been posting much lately.

This is Heartly. He came to live with us shortly after Thanksgiving and life is not the same! I wouldn't trade him for anything, but he sure has cut into my stitching time.

All About Grey

Last Spring CQI had a challenge which I joined. It was called All About Grey and the idea was to piece a block using only shades and textures of grey. I got my block pieced when life happened and I got a little bit behind. Finally, things calmed down and I did finish the block. It was really fun to work with all one 'color'. I had done this in round robins with pink and red, but grey was something different, and to do the whole 12" block by myself just added to the fun. ?

Here is the bare block - and the finished block.

Anything Goes - Carol's blocks

Carol's theme was Valentine's Day. She included a bunch of fibers and goodies that we could choose to use, or not. I found a "diamond" bracelet in the bag which made a good frame for one of the hearts printed in the fabric. I also did some seam stitching and added a tatted heart and a felted heart.

Anything Goes - Darlene's blocks

Darlene's theme was fairy tales. I chose Jack and the Beanstalk. I added a piece of lace that my cousin gave me from her stash and did some viney stitching with beads. Also framed the silkie with more beads and stitching. Usually my work tends to be bright and colorful, but somehow this turned out quite pastel in tone.

Anything Goes DYB - Misty's block

Misty's blocks have a "Fantasy Art" theme based on the art of Josephine Wall. This was a challenge for me as I've never been much into fantasy, fairies, and such. I googled Josephine Wall and got to see plenty of her work, so between that and the silkie on the block, I gave it my best. It took a while, but I think I'm happy with it now.

Anything Goes DYB rr. Rita's blocks

Ritas blocks are so wonderful. Lots of color and design. She used mostly kimono fabrics. After I hemmed and hawed for several days, I decided to take the red one. I got sort of carried away with sequin waste and beads, but boy did I have fun!

Lori's Pink Color Study block

I wasn't too sure about pink- never thought much about it one way or the other. After working on Lori's block, it's beginning to grow on me. I guess there's no color I really dislike.

Lori had already done some work on the block before she sent it out. I had always admired the boullion roses that others have done so I tried my hand at those. They are in the lower right corner.

There are also 3 little flowers made of sequin waste in that corner. I also did the serpentine seam to the left of the roses.

I added the tatted butterfly and the beaded seam to the right of "him". Last, but not least, I did the horizontal seam on the light pink patch in the lower left corner. I had a lot of fun working on this block.

Anything Goes

A new DoYourBlock RR is starting up on May 1st at CQI. It's called Anything Goes. I got out my silks from our silk buy and had a blast making my blocks. Those tie silks are sooooo pretty! Looking forward to seeing what comes of this RR. The sky's the limit.

Pink color study

Last year I participated in a red color study in the CQ for Newbies group. This year they're doing a pink study. At first I wasn't going to sign up, but after thinking about all the pink stuff I won in a contest back when I first joined, and the fact that a pink block would look nice next to the red block, I signed up. In the red study, I included a small red zipper on my block. Since I have way too many of these zippers, in all colors, I decided to add a zipper to my pink block also. Here's my block - ready to take off on the Pink Color Study.

Cathy L's Summer Dreams

The last blocks of the Summer Dreams RR arrived about a week ago. Of course I had visions of flowers, butterflys and bees in mind, but when I opened the baggie and saw the 2 remaining blocks, that all went out the window. Blue fabric with lots of water themes just screaming out for a day at the shore. I started with the blue and red seam and then went to the lower right corner to do some seaweed and fishes. Then I moved on to the lower left patch with the flying gull. I added a sailboat and did the seam with fly stitches and straight stitches to resemble flying gulls. About that time I "saw" hot air balloons in the sky. I kept the remaining seams

'quiet' so they wouldn't distract from the balloons. Finally, I made one of the sand dollars in the upper right corner into a sun. What's a day at the beach without the sun! This was really a fun block to work on.

Autumn DYB book

When I got my 5 completed blocks back from the Autumn DYB rr, it wasn't that difficult to finish that last block. Then the question was what to do with these blocks. Everyone's work was far too grand to put them away in a pile somewhere. After studying loads of eye candy, I decided to make a book. That meant making a front cover and a back cover. To make a long story short, I did it! It's not the greatest, and I did learn a lot about how not to construct a book. I intend to make more with the other DYB round robin blocks I've been in.

Season Share project

In CQ for Newbies we did a series of blocks, one for each season of the year. Each person pieced a block and embellished half of it. It was then sent to another person to do the other half before being returned to the original piecer. I've had my finished blocks laying around for a while but was too busy with other RRs to bother doing anything with the blocks. Those other RRs are finishing up now and I have more time. The fact that it's been pretty snowy this winter has helped also. So ----- I made a wall hanging out of my 4 seasons blocks. It's a little warped and not exactly square, but it's my first "big" CQ project. I had forgotten how to make bias tape and how to turn corners with the stuff. Thanks to the internet, it was easy to refresh my mind and I muddled through. There is a tube on the back for hanging. I just have to get a dowel to slide in there.