Hello strangers!  Can it really be since Memorial Day that I haven't Blogged?  OMGoshness - where have the days/months gone.  Summer came and went and I feel like I missed it all.  I hope you all had a wonderful summer and will come back to visit me now that I'm back to writing and posting pictures.

I can't possibly remember everything that I did over the summer months but will tell you I had a great summer.  Rob and I spent some time on our sailboat and did a bit of kayaking but mostly spent the lazy summer days working around our house.  My gardens took up a lot of time as did my days spent on the deck dying lace.  I decided to take advantage of the beautiful summer weather and dye up a ton of pretties so I wouldn't have to do it inside over the winter.... brrr... it's 12 degrees right now and already I'm a frozen popsicle.

Little by little I hope to post pictures of projects I have worked on as well as the many beautiful CQ blocks and Snowballs I have swapped with fellow Crazy Quilters.  For starters I'll show you a piece I created for my sister Sherri.  Her boss's daughter got married and she commissioned me to make a walhanging for her using her favorite wedding picture.

Using vintage and some new laces, I layered the laces and then embellished them with beads, pretty stitches and some silk ribbon embroidery. 

Congratulations Tarah & Brian
 

A current project that I am working on is a Crazy Quilt RR with a few ladies from CQI.  We have all exchanged 6 naked "fan" blocks to work on for each other - I just now received my 4th set of fan blocks to play with.  So far these are the 3 blocks for other sets that I have completed.

For Ritva

For Shelly

For Colleen


I am now working on my 4th set and they are for Barbara (I'll post pictures later when done). For now I thought I would share with you the rest of her blocks which have been embellished by 3 other ladies in our group.  Stunning, fabulous, beautiful comes to mind when I look at these.  This has got to be one of my very favorite RR's so far!

For Barbara - Created by Ritva

For Barbara - Created by Colleen

For Barbara - Created by Shelly

 

 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

In honor of all the men and women who have served in our Armed Forces to protect us and give us our freedom - Thank you!

All week long I've been humming Mr. Roger's little song..."it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood..." to all my flowers that have finally decided to come out an play.   With temps in the high 60-70's this past week, I have been treated to so much wonderful eye candy right in my own yard.  The bleeding hearts are swaying the soft blowing wind, the wisteria are hanging long and showing off and the rest of the yard is filling up with lots of color and texture.  Hubby keeps telling me I need to cut back and let some of the gardens grow in as "we aren't getting any younger".  Well I look at it this way, it's like crazy quilting... color, texture, and all the pretty embellishments just make for a beautiful place to play and like CQ... it is addicting!

How about a little walk through my pretties...

 





Lily Lee and I wish you all a beautiful weekend and a wonderful start to the summer of 2013!

Pretties created by my customers

Happy Spring!  Are ya'll as happy as I am that winter is finally over, the snow is GONE and the birds are singing?  To me spring represents fresh new life - beautiful colors, all things pretty and like they say "a breath of fresh air".  I'm so looking forward to spending lots of time on my deck this summer playing with my laces & dyes and stitching like a crazy lady!

Over the years I have enjoyed seeing some beautiful creations that my customers have made using my hand dyed laces.  I thought I would share a few of the beautiful pictures that have been sent to me lately.  If you have bought any of my pretties and used them in a project, I would love it if you would please send me pictures so I can Blog about them   I would love to make this a regular feature here and will be happy to link your Blog or Website too.

Today I would like to show you some gorgeous jewelry that my friend Eleonora makes.  She doesn't have a website or shop but she sells her jewelry at Exhibitions in Italy.  For the past year I have had the pleasure of not only making a new friend but I've been able to be treated to some of the most gorgeous eye candy.  Enjoy!

By the way.... don't you think it's time for a Give-away - maybe one to celebrate spring arriving?  Let me think about it for a few days and see what if I can come up with something unique and pretty so stay tuned!

Message in a Bottle Contest - 2nd Place!

Here it is a month later and I finally have some time to sit and catch up on all my Blog reading and even post some pictures.  By now you'd think we'd all be enjoying some beautiful spring time weather but Noooooo old man winter still is hanging on - temps today were in the low 40's which wasn't quite warm enough to start melting the snow.

I've been quite busy over the past month.  Rob's mother is now safely moved into an Assisted Living facility and now we are left with trying to clean out the condo and get it ready to sell.  Not too busy though...found time to work on an entry for   Thearica's  "Message in a Bottle" Crazy Quilt Contest.  The perfect theme for me as ya'll know how I love anything that is related to the ocean and the color blue.  I've decided my entry will be called "Mermaid's Fantasy Land"

Each person who entered the Contest purchased a ready made kit which consisted of fabrics, silk ribbon, thread, beads, lace, charms and of course, a little glass bottle with a cork (message in a bottle) ... all of which needed to be incorporated into your choice of design.  If you look closely you will see that I fused some of the fabric and made seaweed and fish out of it.  Also cut apart some of the fabric to use the turquoise sequin trim and lace for some of the ocean and even dyed some of the silk ribbon for some bright colored seaweed.  I estimate that I spent approximately 80-90 hours just in all the hand sewing not to mention putting the block together and the time I spent taking things apart that just didn't fit.  All in all... love it!


UPDATE!  I was just notified that I took 2nd Place with my "Mermaid's Fantasy Land" - $50 Gift  Certificate to Thearica's shop and a 2013 Pat Winter CQ Calendar - doing the happy dance!!!  To see all the entries ,please check out Thearica's post:  Message in a Bottle Contest Winners  Next time Thearica has a challenge - jump in - so much fun!

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Mermaid's Fantasy Land

CQJP 2012 Finally completed!

Yea!  have you ever worked on a project that you were almost done with and just couldn't figure out how to complete it?  For a couple of months I have had my last CQJP 2012 block (Dec) about 90% done but just couldn't for the life of me figure out what to do with the center.  Strange thing is I usually start my projects from the middle working out.  This time - Not!

The other day I posted on the Face Book page for CQJP that I needed some help trying to come up with something to bring my block all together.  Received some great ideas but the minute I read Maureen's suggestion for a cornucopia I knew what I needed to do.  I had bought 2 of these adorable little cornucopia motifs a while back from a lady in Belgium and never really thought about using them.  I had already dyed both pieces of lace so I was amazed that one of them fit perfectly in the center of my bock.  I decided to stitch it down and embellish it up so as to make it look like it was pouring out flowers.



Dec CQJP 2012 (After)

CQJP 2012 Dec (Before Center)

 

 

Now to get started on CQJP 2013.  Already have a few blocks made up so now need to find the time to play "dress up!"

 

For all you Crazy Quilters, Pat Winter's Spring Edition of Crazy Quilt Gatherings is now out and available through McCloud  CRAZY QUILT GATHERINGS recieved my copy yesterday and am blow away by the talent of so many ladies - beautiful job Pat! Oh, and by the way .... guess who is on the back cover?! If you've never bought this magazine ...it is a MUST!  Back copies are available too as well as Pat's beautiful Calendar and BoHo Purse Magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Happy Valenitne's Day!

To my one and only Babe... I loved you yesterday, Love you still... Always have... always will

Good New, Sad News

When someone says "Good News,Sad News" you think for a minute and wonder which one you want to hear first.  I think I'll start off with the good news ...

I'm back from my trip to California and must say I enjoyed every single minute.  To start my trip off, I left 18 degree weather and arrived in California to 75-80 beautiful sunny degrees for the whole week I was there - can you say "heaven"!  My grand babies Evita & DeAngelo have grown so much since I had last seen them in August.. hard to believe they are going to be 4 in May. 

Yummy treats!

Nana's new little lace helpers

Every morning these two precious babes would run into my room and jump under the covers with me.  We'd build a tent and turn on their little star making machine while naming each and every star.   On the Saturday I was there, my DIL came to me with a choice - I could either go to Evita's Ballet Class to see her dance or I could go to DeAngelo's soccer game and watch him play - both were being held at the same time!  OMG!  No way could I make that kind of decision as they had both come to me asking me to come see them.  There's always a solution to a problem.  Nana took daddy's car and had him program in the directions from the dance studio to the soccer field.  Watched Evita for about half and hour and made it to DeAngelo's soccer practice in plenty of time to see him play.

During the evening after everyone was tucked in I would settle in bed surrounded with all my CQing pretties.  It was so nice to just sit and relax with no tv, no computer and no phones.  I finally finished my October & November CQJP 2012 and only need a couple more hours on my December block before I can begin CQJP 2013.  Even had time to comlete a RR block.


November CQJP 2013 - Nicki Lee & Rob - Age 2

 

October CQJP 2013

All Things Pretty CQI RR - For Janie

Now the for the sad part of my post.  On Friday, January 25th,  I lost one of the most important ladies in my life - my exMIL.  Way back in 1975 my parents moved away to Virgina - I stayed here in Massachusetts to raise my two babies by by myself.  At the time Rita was already my exMIL but over the years she became so much more.  For 40 years she was like a mother to me and told everyone I was her daughter.  Lots of tears and laughter came about in those years - I  miss her terribly but know that she is at peace now - I'll just hold tight to all my cherished memories and the words she spoke to me a millions time:  "This too shall pass - life goes on"  I love you Rita.
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