Crazy Quilting For Fun

Current project

cq4fun — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 01:54:34 GMT

CQJP2018: Favorite Seams

January Seam:

February Seam:

March Seam:

April Seam:

May Seam:

June Seam:

LJ 18th anniversary

cq4fun — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 19:05:37 GMT

User Agreement

cq4fun — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 13:09:22 GMT

I figured I better write something here to be sure my blog isn't deleted! Mostly, I blog this stuff on WordPress now, but I certainly don't want to lose the original!

Just in Case You Stumble In Here

cq4fun — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 20:35:19 GMT

I moved my blogs to Wordpress, but I thought I'd mention that in 2014, my CQJP project is going to be a return to the moms cq blocks! I began planning this project in the summer of 2007, and began working on it in December of that year, I think. I worked more or less steadily until the spring of 2009, when my husband had cataract surgery. From that time on, I worked on it very little. Paul died the following spring, and for a long time I didn't work on anything. I've been doing other CQ the last two years, but next year is the year of the Moms!

Here are some of the ones that are already finished.

Moving blog to WordPress

cq4fun — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 04:14:16 GMT

Red Alert!

LJ continues to have problems with uploading pictures, so I am moving this blog to Wordpress also. The new link is cq4fun. I haven't finished doing anything except importing all the posts. Not even the photos have been personalized on the header yet, though I rather like the one that's on there. Sidebar refinements will happen after my trip to NC this weekend.

Recent stitching on the August CQJP

cq4fun — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 02:13:08 GMT

Click for close.

TAST stitch (Pekinese) from Aug. 14:

Stitch from the antique Singer 100 Crazy Patchwork Stitches card:

Bit of antique lace:

Now I'm off to North Carolina for a turn-around weekend visit with each of my sons. Long, stressful, and overdue.

FOL: August block, #8

cq4fun — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 16:45:19 GMT

Right on track today! Here's the August Pattern link.

August CQJP Started

cq4fun — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 23:01:30 GMT

First, a little inspiration from something I saw on Misha's blog post.

Next, something that didn't turn out quite the way I imagined, but I will bead it to perk it up. It's from The Stitches of Creative Embroidery by Jacqueline Enthoven, p. 38, #12.

And finally, something from the same book, but page 155, #331.

Not as much as it should be, but better than nothing. =)

Little Bit of CQ

cq4fun — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 22:12:18 GMT

This is on a round robin block from my Sewbuds group. The Cast On stitch was the TAST stitch for this week, and it's used on the feather stitch on this triangle.

This is her whole block.

CQJP2012 July Reveal

cq4fun — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:09:59 GMT

Days late and many dollars short, that's me. But here is as much as July is getting for now. There will be fill-ins around the edges when I sew the blocks together.

Here are the up-and-down buttonhole (almost invisible because I chose the wrong blue to put on the green, but it's there!), the Algerian Eye, and the oyster stitch. The Algerian Eye looks like spiders to me, and I'll probably do something with that when I sew on here more.

Here's the whole block together. It reflects, in the unfinished sections, the lack of time I had during July! The bird section also needs some outlining, but I'm moving on to August or I'll be WAY behind.

Now to find time to start August and work on the CQRR that came my way a couple of weeks ago!

VERY Late BOM post - Facts of Life

cq4fun — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:40:02 GMT

It was July. Really, I had nothing to do with it. The theme of the month was perfect for being late, though!

I'm posting the pattern as .jpg here, sorry the pic is upside down, and then if you want the .pdf, you can go to DesertSky Quilt Patterns on Google Docs and get those. It's FOL_Jul and FOL_Jul2. I'll explain the 2 part in a minute. If you want more spacing between the words, just scrunch the letters a little closer when you trace them. The .jpg should print out for a 6" stitching area, if you do NOT tell the printer to fit to page or size it in any way.

Now about the 2 file. Because I'm so late, I'm giving you a text piece that I thought really fit this quilt! It's a Robert Frost quote, and the rest of the quote is "it goes on." For the block, I changed that to Life Goes On, because that was my theme for July, but I am going to embroider this on a banner to put at the bottom of the quilt. It's an idea I just added, which is why I don't show the blocks all set together as I go, so that I can change and adapt as new ideas come to me. I don't like being set in stone from day 1.

So here's the quote. If you want to add the rest of it, first take off one of those dots in the ellipses (French knots, of course!), then add the rest from letters already in the part I've given you, not capitalizing the i in it.

So it would say: "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life ... it goes on." Technically, there should be a comma after words, but he didn't put it in, so I'm not either. Who wants to second guess an American Poet Laureate?

I hope you like the design, even though it's late!

In other news, I've changed my quilting blog to a wordpress blog All the posts have been transferred, and I'm learning to use wordpress. I will probably change this one one of these days, too. Just a heads up. I really love LJ, but since they "modernized" the picture uploads, I can't ever get a picture to upload. It gets about 3/4 of the way there and then hangs up and tells me there's an error. Sigh. So I'm switching. Everyone tells me I'll love wordpress, though, so here's hoping it's a little easier for people to comment and follow over there.

July CQJP Not Finished

cq4fun — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:54:57 GMT

Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Hopefully, I'll be ready with a finished block on Saturday afternoon.

CQJP July update

cq4fun — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 23:53:45 GMT

The last two weeks have been so busy, between girls camp and canning and all the things I needed to catch up, I didn't get any stitching finished. Finally, today (and the first half of this week!) it's a little more relaxed, and I did manage a couple of hours. Some beading and a little more stitching on the feather vines, and this part will be finished. Tomorrow, maybe.

BTW, you can click to enlarge these. I am still not able to upload well on LJ, but I have other resources, fortunately!

CQJO2012: Flower Fairy Block 7

cq4fun — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 02:44:18 GMT

Just messing around with some ideas from Carole Samples' book. These pictures CAN be clicked to enlarge. The first one shows the entire block, laces sewn down. The white one looks much brighter white on the picture than it does in real life.

The corner, a little closer:

The seam you saw the other day (pretty much as Miss Carole envisioned it):

Some new parts (doctored by me somewhat):

Lots more to do before the month is over!

CQJP for July is Begun

cq4fun — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 23:22:03 GMT

Full block for July:

Close up of seam:

The seam comes from Carole Samples' book, Treasurey of Crazy Quilt Stitches. It's on page 78, center left. I think it was French Knots originally, but I decided to use beads. Not sure what else I'll get done before I leave for Girls Camp on Tuesday, but at least I got it started!

P. S. I'm not doing the TAST stitch this week. I don't like it.

CQJP2012: July Flower Fairy Finally Beaded

cq4fun — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 01:59:06 GMT

Here are the six together, not necessarily the way they will be, just together. One of the other stitchers on Tuesday Stitchers made a comment that I liked for the name of the quilt. It's Gathering of Fairies. =) Sadly, with the way livejournal's picture uploads are lately (as in non-existent), and using the blogspot links, this is as big as I can get uploaded right now.

CQJP for June & Jam Making

cq4fun — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 17:18:48 GMT

Finished by noon today:

Jam:

Cobbler berries:

Not quite finished - needs beading:

More Magic

cq4fun — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 05:50:36 GMT

If you follow both of my stitching blogs, a few weeks ago, you will have seen the magic that produced this:

Sadly, it turned out to be bad magic! There is not a thing wrong with the 2009 Ford Edge, but THIS particular model was not a good match for my lifestyle. Or at least, not for my budget and my height. So, today, I went back to the best Ford dealership ever, to discuss what might possibly be done, not really expecting anything except that I was stuck and better get used to it. Instead, more magic took place and the vehicle above, abracadabra, became this:

It's a 2010 Fusion with 10,000 miles and excellent tires - of a small wheel size!

Sooooo Far Behind on Posting!

cq4fun — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 02:14:34 GMT

I don't know what happened once June hit! My life was like a sleepy river and then bam! Things got so busy I am in danger of feeling overwhelmed. This week is not too bad, and I plan to spend most of July 4th in bed reading and doing nothing! The rest of July looks to equal June. I will be at Girls Camp with teenage girls from my church ward from July 10-13, so don't look for a post of any kind during that week. All toys left at home! Even for counselors. Am I completely mad? Yes, I think I am!

I did finish the stitching on the June block, but plan to bead a bunch still. And then there's July's block to start!

There it is! I have a little more stitching to finish on the birds block, and a lot of beading, as mentioned, but I'm surprised I got this far. I stitched about 5 or 6 hours Friday to catch up. Saturday, I was in Atlanta all day. A friend was going through the temple for the first time, and I went with her, along with a couple of other friends and her home teacher. It was just awesome and she was so beautiful and glowing.

Here is a close up of the Palestrina I didn't mind too much. I used two threads (Sassa Lynne) together because it seemed a stitch that needed fatter threads.

And the other place I used it, with only one thread and a "leg" - didn't care for this much. Also more V-stitch fun - just doodling. Still needs the beads to be a complete looking design, though.

June Flower Fairy progress

cq4fun — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 21:50:26 GMT

The month is almost finished, and I'm only about half finished with the June block. Still, I like what's there so far. I really like the feather stitching and the chain stitch is so-so okay. I do like the contrasting v-stiches, though.

Garden progress: I picked enough cherry tomatoes for a salad today, and one grape tomato. Here's how the Big Boy tomatoes are coming along. The biggest one is almost three inches across now. The hot, sunny days are ripening everything, and making stuff grow everywhere in the yard.

June FOL - Block 6

cq4fun — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 22:27:27 GMT

It's June and the first day of summer, I've heard. Here's a very June block. I was thinking of all the weddings which take place this month, and the songs written with moon and June rhyming. So I had to include a little romance in this month's block!

Sorry about the ink smudges. It doesn't detract from copying the pattern or tracing, so I decided not to redo it. That came from making "French Knot" dots at the ends of the quills!

Pattern can be found in .pdf and .jpg on Desertsky Quilts Patterns, my google site.

So how does a porcupine court his lady? Very carefully!

cq4fun — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:13:22 GMT

Just in time for this week's posting of the June design, I finished the stitching on the May tree. That was a lot of back stitching!

CQ Stash Box!

cq4fun — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 22:58:04 GMT

The CQ Stash Box finally arrived at my house! Here it is just opened:

Stuff just popped up everywhere! Here's what I removed:

And what I added:

June block, CQJP

cq4fun — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:05:56 GMT

I made a little progress, but can't believe the month is more than half over and I'm not half-way through my stitching! Part of that I am blaming on canning tomatoes and making sourdough cookies and coffee cake. Sourdough muffins are on the menu for this week. And the pot of soup turned out to be huge, so I may can some for later. Part of it I'm blaming on new car buying. The rest is just life stuff.

The buttonhole wheel for tast, some V-stitch explorations (Tuesday Stitchers challenge series) with cretan and straight stitches, and some chain stitched arches:

Here's more of the butterfly - just a little stitching for color, so far.

I've done a little more today, and I like what's going on, but this is going to be another block that will need a week of beading when the stitching is finished!

And, just for fun, can you find my first cherry tomato almost ripe in this forest of plant? It ripened completely this morning, and I ate it! Yum! There are another 4 turning now, and at least a dozen more coming along behind that. I just love gardening!

TAST on June CQJP

cq4fun — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 19:58:16 GMT

I just came in from taking pictures outside, and my house smells so good! I spent the morning making sourdough coffee cake and sourdough cookies (and that's what I had for lunch, too!), and in addition to delicious goodies, it also produced wonderful smells! Last week, I made two kinds of salsa from about half a bushel of tomatoes from a group buy we did. (See Provident Prep blog on sidebar for recipes.) I still have more tomatoes frozen for more salsa, but enough was enough in my small kitchen. That smelled good, too, but nothing like this. I have a feeling if I keep making sourdough cookies, I'm going to need new jeans!

I'll be revealing the entire June block, insofar as it is done right now, on Monday, but here's a teaser showing the buttonhole half-wheels I did for the TAST stitch this week. It will have either beads or French knots later, but I add most of that at the end.

And the first cherry tomato! Can you find it in there?