Sew Crazy For You!

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Is it really approaching the end of August already?

So much has been happening this summer! I will catch you up on my 2020 Challenge, but first I wanted to share our Arizona trip in July. Yes, July!!! It was hot, but when those tremendous Monsoon rains came in, it cooled down and gave us a break!!

We had almost 10 days, while staying at Worldmart in Scottsdale, we drove everyday to see Sedona, Payson, and Prescott and just about every nook and corner of the whole area!!!

While having a burger in Prescott, the Monsoon rains came in...and we were really glad we were inside!

You definitely take cover when it rains this hard!

In Sedona, which we spent a couple days here, we found a wonderful quilt store called, Quilter's Store Sedona. You can visit their Facebook page also.

While the lady helped me with my purchases, helping me find more and more "star" fabrics, she was fascinated with my idea. So she took me to the next building where they have classes, and showed me the most magnificent quilt. It is called Spiral Galaxy by Jody Gagnon.

It was such a joy and pleasure to see it in person. It literally sparkles. You can see it on the store's Facebook site, and also on Quilt Inspiration blog site. Thanks ladies for a wonderful visit!!! I am enjoying my fabrics!!!

One of the days, we manage to get down to Tucson to visit with my sister. Sandy enjoyed a quiet day relaxing while we went shopping. The minute we walked into The West Inc. I knew I was in trouble!!!

Literally, hundreds of threads of all types covered one whole wall!!! A sales lady walks up to me and ask if she could help me. Well, Betsy Libby was just the best!!! When I told her that I was working on a project that needed lots of blues, purples, and whites, and special charms, but only needed one of each...she looked at me and asked, "Are you doing the 2020 Challenge?" That about knocked me over!!! I said, "how do you know about that?" Well, she is on Crazy Quilt Divas and follows all of us doing the Challenge!!! So then she really got into it, and found some discontinued and marked down threads in the classroom...don't miss that room!!!!

Thanks, again, Betsy, I know there's at least a couple of Divas that have visited the store!!!

Well, we enjoyed our trip so much, that we are planning on spending some time in the 5th wheel this winter in Arizona!!!

Now, an update on my 2020 Challenge called "Gospel in the Stars". It's never too late to start your own challenge.

I keep adding to my "library" of books on the stars...

And each one adds a bit more to my knowledge, and I have to say, my faith. It's not that the stars justify the Bible. It just fascinates me that God named the stars for the benefit of early man. "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names." Psalm 147:4, King James.

This is God's astronomy, not man's astrology. God forbids us to seek to know the future through the stars, or anything else:

"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee." Deu 18:10-12 King James

So I left off starting Scorpio on my last post. So here it is finished.

I have found these charts on the net, mostly in Pinterest, and you can find them and more on my board:

Constellations...Gospel story in the Stars

If anyone knows who these trace back to, I would like to acknowledge them here, and possibly on the quilt.

Sagittarius was next. The shibori ribbon on the lower left is done to symbolize the bow above! Loved finding the "diamond" arrow, placed to land on the dragon!!!

Next is Capricorn:

The last one just finished, Aquarius, makes the halfway point of the 12 constellations.

If you don't believe in Unicorns? "God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows."
Num 24:8 King James

So look closely, there's a Unicorn included!!!

As you can see from each chart, there are three other constellations that help tell the whole story. Which makes 48 constellations in all. Each chart gives us the stars names in ancient languages, usually Hebrew, but also can be Arabic, Coptic or Chaldean. The last column gives us Bible references.

So total count to date: Fabrics: 65; embellishments: 255!!! Sometimes I think of a charm to add after the fact, so the numbers may change by the end...

The twelve constellation blocks will line up like above.

Then with these fabrics, I will make a circle in the middle. I may also do the blues as another set of blocks around the first set. So there's lots of room to meet my 2020 Challenge!!!!

Thanks for visiting....and Happy Stitching!!!

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Happy July 4th!!!

CHALLENGE!!!

As many of you are doing, I am also participating in the Sharon Boggon
2020 Challenge!

This is an idea that has been brewing in my mind for over a year as I became fascinated with the subject matter! It started with reading a book from my personal library, called "Gospel in the Stars" by Joseph Seiss, first written in 1884. You can still find this book in reprints on Amazon.com if so inclined.

But then I realized how many books I have that related and were quoted by the others.

The book on the left was published in 1809, the one on the right is the book that got me started. (It's hard cover has nothing on it, so I am showing the title page.)

The book on the left, is very old, and fragile, published 1933. "The Witness of the Stars" was originally published in 1893. The book in the middle is more modern. I do love reading very old books like these, because they quote from even older sources.

I am reading the above book right now, published originally in 1863, and heavily quoted by the other authors shown. Frances Rolleston gives a lot of great information about the Mazzaroth supported by the Jewish background.

Chuck Missler is a Bible Teacher that I have followed for years. This is a tape of his that touches on the subject.

One point I will make, as all of these sources make, this is not about astrology. God forbids telling of the future,

"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer." Deu 18:10-11 KJV

So I am not interested in stars telling personalities or what might happen in life. Does it really make sense that 1/12 of the worlds population have the same personality traits?

But I am intrigued by how authors have traced back to early civilizations for some, not all, of the original names of the stars. God never does anything by happenstance!

"He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names." Psa 147:4 KJV

God has given names to all the stars and names have meanings that tell the story.

For instance, Virgo, the Promised See of the Woman, given in Genesis to Eve: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.' Gen 3:15 KVJ

So the various stars in the constellation help tell the story!

Since the story starts with Virgo, that is where I chose to start. The constellation in the center of each block will be French Knots, but each will be done with a different thread, from Rayon in Virgo; Libra in cotton and so on.

I have used "free printable" or with permission. All constellations in center of squares comes from Tastfully Eclectic by Chelsey

As I make the squares up, all 8" by 8", I use Chelsey's printouts by printing them on organza fabric. EstravOrganza by Jacquard can be found on line (the pink package in top of picture). Then by using Lite Steam-a-seam2 double stick lite fusible web, I am able to iron these in place. Then I do my French Knots over the pattern.

And that's the finished block, although I am waiting on a charm for the very middle of the Shibori.

Here's the Libra Block. All the Constellation blocks will be mostly, white, off whites, light greys and some light blues.

Since this challenge has a goal of 2020 Unduplicated items, the only way to know is to track with a journal. I am keeping track of the fabrics, threads and any embellishments!

I am now working on Scorpio. As you can see, the tracking continues!!! I will also put pictures of the finished blocks in this journal, which is actually a sketch book!

Thank you for visiting. Feel free to ask me any questions, or if you have suggestions that you would like to see me cover. I will blog about every 3 blocks so you can follow along!!! Thanks to Sharron Boggon for giving us this challenge. Visit her site for lots of stitch ideas!.

One other favorite is Mary Corbet's site for videos of so many stitches. Newbies are so luck today with the internet resource. Just google what you want and it's at your finger tips. Need block ideas? Janet Stauffer offers many designs!

Because I teach crazy quilt classes locally, I have set up several Pinterest Boards to help with your search. Be sure to visit and save to your own boards.

Happy Stitching!!!! and Happy July 4th!!!

Monday, June 5, 2017

Month of Summer!!!

Well, this is the month summer starts!!! And June 21st was my start also!!! I was honored to be called to hold a demonstration of my crazy quilt passion at the Fort Hall Replica Museum again this year. The last one was 2 years ago, see post here.

This year, we were in the main building, which was wonderful. Full of donated antiques. The right side is a Japanese display. I met a couple of wonderful Japanese ladies who were telling me the Japanese names of the items in the display.

I shared the day with Diana, who is a wonderful spinner of wool. Linda was finishing up a beautiful quilt, I want some of that fabric. And Betty Jane, below, who was with me last year. What a memory this lady has!

This is how I packed. And then repacked. Ended up with a carry-on suitcase, and then didn't carry it all in!!!

With a display case behind me, I used it to my advantage!

Sew Crazy For You!!!!

I had 4 of 5 ribbon award winners with me from the State Fair. A frequent question was, you did all of these? One young girl ask if I work on them all day! I said yes, but don't tell my husband!!!

Close up of same corner of table. Showcasing Crazy Quilt Quarterly and Calender.
This is the original crazy quilt magazine and is a print on demand, which means by going to the link highlighted, you can order any issue you want. Thanks to Pat Winter and Pamela Kellogg for keeping our passion alive!!!

You might recognize the fabric journal up front, or the purple and orange quilt, both of which were Round Robins.

Notice the background fabric on the table, found at Lowe's, is actually curtains. I did buy them for my sewing room, but thought they would be fun to add some sparkle to the table!

Yes they will end up in my sewing room, pictures in the future!!!!

My fabric journal was a BIG hit! Thanks go to Annette Graves for all her help and holding my hand in Facebook private messages!!! It was fun watching the young girls (and some boys) who really liked all the colors, details, etc. Told a couple moms that I learned to embroider at 10, so could I teach them!

These are a collection I am building, I call door hangers, one for each month. At top, February and March, center is for Easter and bottom, October, was stitched by Nicki Seavey!

Another BIG hit was my beach picture that still needs to be framed! This was an inspiration by my good friend, Jacqueline Jamison, who is an amazing fabric artist. Visit her facebook site for some fabulous pictures.

Thanks for visiting. I absolutely love sharing my passion for crazy quilting. I have so many more ideas in my pea brain, and need to get them on cloth!!!! I love reading your comments, so be sure to let me know if you have questions or want something that I should write about!!!

Happy Stitching!!!

Saturday, April 1, 2017

April Showers Brings May Flowers!!!!

This has been a project on my mind for a couple years now. I finally have it finished on cloth!!!! The next one is already brewing in my mind, but I have a couple finished squares that need to be completed in their final forms...always something on my mind!

I will post this with tutorial pictures and descriptions as I went through the whole project. Enjoy!

These are the fabrics I found recently and just fell in love with. Then I printed on to fabric some pictures to use, though I ended up not using them all. The seahorse and flowers in the upper part of the picture were printed on silk several years ago, just waiting for a home. Why a seahorse, well his colors looked great, he lives in water, and my passion is Under the Sea!

Here I am using the 5 sided "House" method taught by Judith Baker Montano. Crazy Quilt probably has as many ways to place fabric, and there is no wrong method. But after crazy quilting for 20 years, I like this method the best. I can balance my fabrics and not end up with big pieces next to small, or it helps to avoid a "strippy" look. It also has prevented the "holes" I would always seem to have, and have to hide with embellishments! It's all a matter of preferences.

With large background finished, I made a large raindrop for the middle. I marked where I would place it so I didn't embellished under it. The raindrop will get padded to give a 3D look.

Background piece with large basting stitches marking the raindrop.

Raindrop ready for embellishing!

Finished embellishing.

The seahorse came out great! I used Barbara Seavey's lace to give some under sea look!

I put a "raindrop" in PowerPoint and then added some Bible quotes. Who hasn't sung the Rain, Rain Go Away as a kid?!!!

A couple more quotes, top right is from BJ Thomas song, "Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head". He has always been one of my favorite singers!

Another Bible quote, from Genesis 9:16..."And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth."

Crazy Quilting is my passion, and has been for over 20 years. So I do feel I live the life I have imagined. I have God in my life, a wonderful supportive husband, and our health is great. What else is there?!

This quote is one of our favorites. We almost made the mistake of moving last year, and now feel that this quote shows us that God was keeping us here. Oregon, where we were thinking of moving to, had the worst rainy winters in years!!! And, yes, that came to us as snow, the most we have seen in the 10 years we have been here! But we were safely settled in our home and yes, we are grateful!

The raindrop is attached, and I am crocheting a trim to go around it to set it apart from the background!

You can see the plastic canvas under the finished piece...this will give it strength to keep it's shape when hung on the front door.

Here I have batting cut for both sides of the canvas.

After sewing front to back, I tied through the canvas to attach to front. There's always enough embellishments on the front to hide the stitches to the front!