Sew Crazy For You!

 HALLOWEEN IS PAST...THANKSGIVING IS AROUND THE CORNER!!!!

As with everyone, I am sure, this part of the years gets so busy...holidays, celebrations, much to be thankful for. As usual I have been busy since the quilts entered in our Fair in September. Not one to slow down or pause with so many ideas in my head!!!!

This first project was started earlier in the year, but set aside because I wasn't sure how I wanted to finish it. I didn't have any long fringe like I have used on this pattern before, so off to JoAnn's I had to go!!!

 And this is the result. The front is cq, but the back is diponi silk, with moiré inside. The satin strap is extra long, as it is designed to be a "hip" purse. Holds wallet, cell phone, glasses etc. It will be entered in the Fair next year as these two had been in the past. The first one, was the first time I made this pattern, the yellow more recently. So it will be fun to see how the black one will do. 

We remodeled our kitchen and laundry room last fall, staying with my favorite colors of yellow and country blue for both. The washer and dryer are not at the same height, so hubby made a top for it with white laminate board, and I made the bumble bee cover for it. 

The canister set, along with the coffee canister and sugar bowl were all purchased at different times at garage sales. So I decided to do a quick block to pick up all of the colors to accent. 

Titled, Treasure the Bees, it fits in with the over all theme of our room. Our laundry room also doubles as a "Butler Bar", as our coffee pot, etc. is located on the right side of the sink behind the door. Sandy also put up shelves on the opposite wall from the washer and dryer, where we keep our microwave and toaster over.  Which leaves our kitchen counters less crowded. (Since we rarely use these two, it's not an inconvenience for us!)

My latest project is a bit whimsical, a bit stick it in the face of one who thinks we can get rid of CO2 on this planet by getting rid of trees!!! And then I saw this picture on the internet....

And my brain went to work. Since trees absorb our CO2 (carbon dioxide) to feed the trees and turn into oxygen for the life on this planet, so naturally, a quilt idea popped into my head. (Now you can see where I get some of my ideas!!!)

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And this is the result...25" across and 37" down. I will do some close up pictures to show my techniques.

Printed the original picture in black and white to make a similar shape. The green portion of the tree is crazy quilted, but I wanted a more "wrinkled" look, so by spritzing with water the pieces of fabric, and then pressing with a hot iron, the wrinkles stay in place!!! They do have a think batting behind to give a little 3D look.

I did the tree trunk in the same manner. 

By pushing folds in the fabric, again with water and pressing, the folds look more like the trunk of a tree. 

And then I "landscape" the background for hills and embellished them.

I knew I needed a "forest floor" so I used pieces of felting wool, with a few pieces of yarn, and then embellished with glass rocks!

For the border, I wanted to crazy quilt, but when I put together a bunch of flowered fabric it was way too busy...so I decided to use batik fabrics, with black stitching to mimic a stain glass border effect!. And if you look closely several pictures of kids planting trees and other messages. 

 By now, I had a title in mind, and decided it needed to be on the front of the quilt!

I have this block that Pat Winter made for me. I made the block and sent it to her, and she did the embellishing and then sent it back for me to finish it off...

It is such a beautiful piece, and I love her dragonfly in shibori ribbon. So I decided to add one to my quilt. Though I didn't have the little metal pieces she used, I used what I had.

This is what I laid out originally, but ended up using some different beads.

I knew I needed a sun, and Barbara Nicki came up the perfect sun lace...

And using her idea of adding beads to the laces, I used twisted bugle beads with seed beads to give it a shine. I used gold and clear alternating.

I went back and added beads to more of the green laces also.

The two corner leaves are ones that Nicki had done herself. 

Then thinking, something was missing, I sat looking at my wall above my computer, and my eyes rested on a beach picture my mother had painted years ago. 

And then it hit me....I needed some birds flying in the sky.

So I printed out this portion of the picture, and used her idea of putting birds in the sky!!!

And now it was complete!!! Bordered back fabric to the front. And I finally nailed the mitered corners, by watching a you tube video!!!

She made it so easy and near perfect...I shouldn't get any negative comments on my fair admissions from now on!!!

And by the way, all these projects will be entered next year. We have 3 local county fairs, and I am going to enter in all of them!!! Got to get busy!!!

My next project is a special one, and will do a blog later when it is complete, but I will give you a hint right now...

My mother, being an artist, could paint and draw, in any medium. When we were stationed for four years in Japan, she took up charcoal drawing from an old Japanese man. I only have 10 or so of her pictures, but she did hundreds. She used to do Art Shows in parks in Pensacola and Panama City, besides selling an the Artisan in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. So I took photos of each large print, and put in the center of each block. Using Japanese fabrics along with diponi silks, I will be embellishing with Shibori Ribbon, a Japanese method of dying silks, charms and more. This is going to be a fun project. Each block is 8 by 8", so it's about 24" across and 32" down. So tuned next time for a how-to on this project!!!

One last note, Friday evening, we had a special celebration. I had signed Sandy up for a Veterans Valor quilt back in April, at our local Seaport Guild Quilt Show, and the lady managing the table, Susan Kruger, kept Sandy's name so she could make his quilt.  Thanks so much, Susan we love the quilt. And Sandy collects eagles in his office!

As always, thanks for visiting, and Happy Stitching...

BJ Sandusky

Visit my Flickr site for more photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/60882932@N06/