Have I Become A Block Head?

Thank goodness it’s Thursday!   My dear husband has a three-day weekend.  I love having him home, and he is greatly in need of some good, old-fashioned rest and relaxation.  His plan was to mow for the first time in 2012, but the weather forces a change in plans.  (Thank you, Lord.)  The grass may need to be mowed, but my honey needs rest more.

Tuesday came and went without me remembering to TAST…the day was too busy.  I can’t even remember stitching a stitch all day…though I must have.

Monday brought the beginning of the online class I enrolled in…Crazy Lady’s Guide To Embellishing.  One of the materials needed was a naked block.  Because there were other things I needed to purchase for the class, I pulled all the fabrics for the block from my stash.  I’ve discovered I lean heavily to prints, because my stockpile of solids is extremely limited.  (I will do something about that gradually…beginning soon.)   This block is the first one with incorporated curved pieces.  The technique I used made curves much simpler than I thought it would be, although I still need work on making it smooth.  Fortunately stitching and trims will be forgiving.  I picked up the curve tip from Judith Baker Montano’s Teaching You To Crazy Quilt DVD.  (Thanks again, Pam!)

Here’s my class block:

This weeks lesson takes us to the base stitching and trims phase.  So far I’ve added trims and laces.  I chose off white for the same reason I chose the fabrics.  Nothing else in my stash even remotely worked.   If nothing else, the light trims on the dark block lighten it up.  One wonderful thing about crazy quilting is there are few rules…and rules are made to be broken.  There aren’t many things that rule applies to without repercussions.  * I made one change and forgot to take a picture.  The meandering purple chanille was replaced with a much thicker off-white piece.

Over the next few days, I’ll get all the seams and trims stitched.  I bought thread BEFORE I made the block hoping to match the block fabrics to the thread.  How well I pulled that off is questionable.  My thread colors may be too dark to pop for the most part.  I hope my stitches don’t get lost on the dark background.  Speaking of thread, I found a good source for quality embroidery thread.  I must share…though it is local and locals are welcome to drop in, Shakespeare’s Peddler is primarily a mail order business.  I was wowed by all the beautiful fibers available.  The shop specializes in counted cross stitch, but the quality fibers work every bit as well with crazy quilt stitching.

In my last post I showed a WIP.

The more I looked at it,  the less I liked it.  The butterfly was only pinned so I could decide if I liked the placement.  It didn’t make it to the stitching stage.  I also decided I didn’t like the buttons…they were too starkly white on the purple.  I removed them and the pearl beads on the upper right side.

Buttons will surely be added again, but they won’t be white.  The big button in the center of the flower motif was replaced with seed beads using the encrusted bead stitch.  This was the first time I’d used that particular stitch/technique, but I really like the way it looks.   I’m still debating what will replace the white pearl beads to embellish the feather stitch along the upper right side of the block.

Moving on or away from crazy quilting…earlier to this afternoon I took lunch to my dear husband.   When I stopped at the end of the driveway, I noticed an azalea my dad gave me sixteen or so years ago…It was in marvelous, full-bloom…showing off for all it was worth.  It’s a “must share” before I go.  Glorious, yes?  Dad lives on…in my heart and in our yard.

Until next time…

 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  1 Peter 1:18-19

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