Free Form Embroidery

I think I am going to be busy with needle book round robins over the next few weeks so my one of a kind free form embroideries have come to a halt for the time being.



This is the most recent one I made.

Something quite special about cream and gold

More needle booking

Yesterday I started working on Rhena's needle book block.

I had some variegated silk thread which I stitched across two blocks in stem stitch.

I wanted to add some green silk leaves but upon searching my stash found I had none so what is a girl to do?

I hunted through my stash for some undyed 4mm silk ribbon.

I got out my favourite Olive green dye, diluted it with 50% water and wet the ribbon using an eye dropper.

I popped the ribbon in the microwave for 1 minute on high.

Checked it and popped it back for another 20 seconds.

 I took the dry silk ribbon and steam pressed it with my iron and, as a result, have the most lovely variegated olive green silk ribbon to do my stitching with.

Back to the block I went and added ribbon leaves to the stem stitch I did yesterday - did some loose french stitching at the base of each leaf in soft pink thread.

To the right of the block I then added a soft green velvet leaf that I bought in a craft shop in London about five years ago.  I decided it was about time I used it instead of just keeping it to look at.

A couple of grub roses, a little bit of silk ribbon work and some more loose French knots and I am all done.

Rhena's block is ready to move on to the next person in the round robin.

Thank you to everyone who responded to my request to begin a round robin through this blog.  I now have enough participants and so, over the coming weeks, I should have lots of different bits and pieces to share as various blocks come and go from the two different round robin groups.  I hope you will find this to be as interesting as I do.

Needle book project underway

The needle book project with the ladies from Tokoroa is underway.

Rayna has made and sent her 'naked' block to me and I get to start embellishing.  One could get a little nervous about being the first to have a go on some one else's block but I have done this a few times before so I am sure it will be alright.

I did put out the idea of starting another needle book project from people who read my blog and so far I have had 3 responses.  Including myself that makes 4 people but we really need 6 to make a go of it.

If you have been thinking maybe you would, it would be lovely to have you join in and we could get to know each other through a fun project.  I would be so pleased to hear from you at peggy.crazyquilter@gmail.com if you are at all interested.

I will be watching out for your e-mail.

One Thing Leads to Another

On March 1st I wrote about my early days in crazy quilting and then on March 9th I told about my inspirational visitors from Tokoroa.

When the Tokoroa ladies were here I shared with them about making needle books as a round robin and they have taken me up on the idea so today I made my block for our round robin ready for posting tomorrow.

Next time I see it I expect it to have all sorts of wonderful embellishments I would never have dreamed of doing myself.

It also occurred to me that although I only have 30 followers that maybe, just maybe, 5 of you would like to join me in a similar round robin. I think if 5 of you were interested the project could have quite an international flavour and because it is a relatively small project postage should not be too high.

If this idea appeals to you then you can e-mail me peggy.crazyquilter@gmail.com and if I get enough interest I can be in touch by e-mail and we can, hopefully, get another round robin under way.

Inspirational Visitors

On Wednesday we had a delightful visit from a group of ladies with a common interest in craft.

They came from Tokoroa (about 66kms away) and it was so nice to think they would come that far to share with us.

Linda wrote a lovely entry on her blog about their time here.

During this time I shared a few things I have learnt about crazy quilting and when they left I had this piece of silk fabric with a few silk ribbon stitches that I had been showing them.

What's a girl to do with something like that? Well, just keep adding until you have a nice little creation and so a new one of a kind piece of embroidery was born.

The ones I have been making recently have all featured a piece of lace but this one began with silk ribbon work and I extended it with grub roses, beading and more stitching.

Nice to make something along the same theme of what I have been doing but different.

Raffle Time

Linda and I attend Taupo Quiltmakers meetings every second Thursday evening.

Everybody pays NZ$2 as they enter and sign against a number in the attendance book.

This time I put my name against no. 8.

During the evening a couple of raffles are drawn against the numbers in the books.

The first raffle was drawn and as my eye caught what was on offer for the second one I could not help thinking how much I would like it to be mine - and it was!

No. 8 was drawn out of the hat and so I became the lucky owner of 4 lovely pieces of fabric in shades of orange - and, I do have a project in mind for them - real soon!

Early Days in Crazy Quilting

My interests in crazy quilting came about some twelve/thirteen years ago.

At the time I was fortunate to come across an e-mail group, Southern Cross Crazies. This group caters for persons interested in crazy quilting based in Australia and New Zealand.

I hadn't been on the list long when someone suggested a Round Robin. Interested persons created a piece of crazy quilting and it was then sent around the group for each person to put some embellishment on the block before sending it to the next one in the group.

Totally new to me, I decided to make 9 x 4.5 inch block suitable for making up into a needlebook. I had some pink tone silk scraps and so that is what I used for construction.

I really enjoyed embellishing other people's blocks but also enjoyed very much, receiving my own block back all beautifully embellished with their work for me. Really lovely examples of tatting, beading, embroidery and even some waste canvas embroidery.

I found this to be a great way to learn about the things that can be done in crazy quilting and went on to host a number of these round robins. A lovely phase of my crazy quilting life.

Have to confess that the pink block is still a pink block and has never been made into a needlebook but I treasure it nevertheless and it is a happy reminder of my adventures in crazy quilting.