Crazy Quilt Block

We have started our 2008 Breast Cancer Quilt. This one will hang in a treatment center in Vermont. I suggested a color scheme and theme and all the ladies loved it. It is Spring Flowers and Butterflies--very cheerful. Colors are soft yellows, peach/salmon, greens, ecru, touch of periwinkle/lilac. The blocks are progressing. We plan to have the quilt done for a gallery opening in May. To see other blocks in progress, visit Barbara's, Jule's, Judith's, Rengin's , Allie's blogs and the flickr site . Here are pics of my completed block.

Here is a close-up of the garden across the bottom.

The butterfly was fussy cut from a piece of fabric by Mary Englebright. I adhered a piece of sheer spark organza over it to tone the colors down. Then I beaded it with mostly tinted unlined AB seed beads and bugles. It is very 60's in feel. I love that fabric!

I also want to thank everyone for their kind words about Hyacinth. I still haven't found those white doves and I want to remake the parasol so it is sheer. Amazing how well she goes with the quilt block. Guess I had those colors on my mind.

Class With Arley Berryhill

WOW!!!! What a weekend. I was lucky to be able to take a class with Arley making his Lady Peacock doll. I this is the first stump doll I have ever done. We also used timtex, did draping and auditioning fabrics. Arley is a great teacher. He is an experienced costumer and has such style and flair in his designs. Of course, bad student that I am, I already had my doll in my head and I also made a fabric sculpted head for her--but that's the engineer in me. Here are some pics. Can you tell we laughted LOTS! If you EVER get a chance to take one of his classes--DO IT!!!

The Ladies working hard

Still Working.

Arley working not so hard--then again this is late Sunday afternoon. Where's the food????

Some dolls at the end of class: Maria's, Missy's, Linda's, Mine

More dolls Kathy, Tery, Emily, Debra above and Heidi's, Doreen's, Evelyn's and AnnMarie's. Forgive me ladies if I got some of the names wrong.

Hyacinth, My doll. I beaded the fringe and made the parasol and her head before class. Arley provided 2 different types of molded paperclay faces and we learned how to paint them. OK. I admit. I am a control freak and wanted to make my own face but I'm really pleased with the way she turned out.

Close-up of her face looking at that bird on her hat! I also dyed all the lace before class.

Class Project

First big thanks to all those who commented on my book both here and yahoo. I really appreciate it. My second proposal, a Crazy Patch Goddess Wall Doll was accepted for a class. I made the prototype and also another to test the pattern pieces for the patches. I am not kitting the doll per se--the students will have choices of fabrics from a collection of silks I have been collecting for a CQ class. It all starts with the choice of a focus fabric and then the remaining choices for the patches. The seams are short, at least 2 will be covered with trims. The head will be completed and included in the kit and I will be printing the faces out. This is a two day class. Everyone will do a beaded butterfly too.

Long Time No Post

Hope everyone enjoyed your holidays. Ours were filled with family and friends which is the best way to spend them.

I finished a project I been mulling about for quite a while. It is a Silk Ribbon Embroidery Book. It started out with 10 pages grouped by stitches depicting floral bouquets. I got the idea from the beautiful floral bouquets on Judith Green's blog, but ended with 6 pages - 2 covers, 3 seasonal landscapes and a page of roses. Here is the front cover, which I did first but looking back, I think I should have waited until the inner pages were done so I could have repeated more of the flowers. The book is done on a soft shade of celedon green dupioni. I used 2mm, 4mm, 7mm and 13mm hand dyed silk ribbon. I also dyed the lace borders.

This is the spring page. The flowers here are Hollyhock, daffodil, tulips, and hyacinth.

Summer page with Sunflowers, Cosmos, Irises, and daisies.

Autumn page with spider mums, cat tails, goldenrod, and Zinnea.

Roses with Spider web, twisted, french knot, chain stitch and stem stitch roses.

I am going to send this out for a 4 day class proposal. Here is the back cover. I burned the silk for all the titles and stitched them down with french knots in metallic thread. I tried to keep it simple using the most common stitches so it could be completed in a reasonable amount of time. Still it took me about 5 days but I kept changing the design as I went along. The whole book is finished with a blanket stitch. I think I would prefer a palastrina knot or knotted blanket stitch to add a little texture to the edge. I made 2 class proposals for the 2009 EGA Metro Regional Conference and this is the one that wasn't accepted. A CQ doll was!! Will post pics of that later.

Have to post a pic of my little darling Diamond. Here she is in her New Year's outfit--our theme at this year's party was Tropical. She is sitting next to a hostess gift we received. I can't believe it will be 1 year on January 17th since we adopted her. She has brought us such joy! That's her in her Halloween Witch's Costume in the pic. She'll do just about anything for a treat and a belly rub.