Crazy Quilt Faces for next RR

Okay, so I'm a little brain dead after spending the past 3 days at a mini retreat with a great group of friends in Maine. Why I say "brain dead" ?Earlier this evening I spent about 2 hours creating some faces for the next CQ RR I'm in with the CQI Group and also some UTS items for a couple mermaid blocks I'm working on. Instead of BAKING them...I had the dang toaster oven set on BROIL!!!!! I set the timer and came back when I heard the "ding" thinking that I would have 6 of the prettiest faces ever..... no such luck - they were all burnt to a crisp. So.... for the past couple hours I sat here making up a batch of new faces to try out on my 6 - 6" inch blocks. I think what I will do is just put the faces in a bag along with the CQ blocks and let the girls pick which ones they want to work with - I can't wait to see what they do to them!

Back to some Crazy Quilting - Finally!

I'm baaaaack! Been MIA for a while and now have so much to catch up with. I took off a couple weeks ago for a long road trip - loved every mile of it and was so proud of myself for doing it alone and not getting lost - thanks to Millie, my new GPS that hubby bought me for my birthday! I drove down to CT, PA, DC, VA & NC visiting friends and family in the past 12 days. From all that my eyes took in along the long drive, I can truly say "America is Gorgeous!" We've got some pretty country out there!

While in DC visiting with my dad, I had plenty of time to actually sit around and CQ. I split my down time between working on a couple RR's and dying up a ton of lace. Here are a couple of the Mermaids I've been working on.

Carolyn's:


Don't you just love her "up do" Done with tons of golden seed beads along with lots of seaweed and seashells to make it a nice place to play.

This treasure chest was handpainted by Carolyn - she does the most incredible paintings on dupioni silk. I filled the treasure chest with lots of jewels and surrounded it with some more dyed laces that resemble shells and fish... even a little lobster.


These Mermaid RR blocks are actually a project that 5 other ladies and myself got together to do.... we call our group - The Mermaid Tale - we are working on Mermaid themed blocks all about 30x30 +/-. I have absolutely enjoyed this RR for more reasons that one- first, I'm working with my all time favorite color - BLUE and 2nd, everything has to do with under the sea.


This is just a portion of Carolyn's block - check out the jelly fish! Kathi makes the best jelly fish ever!!!

Next is Jody's block. Again, using lots of my dyed laces and seashells, I really got into creating a home for her Mermaid. I found the perfect lace that looked just like open seashells... I tacked down some beautiful threads and threw in some glass beads.. the perfect underwater home. Carolyn had a single fish swimming around through some seaweed to the right so since I thought he was a bit lonely, I added a pretty cloisonne fish hoping they would hit it off and make some babies LOL! Check out the last picture - on the right hand side you will see some pretty little vintage glass fish swimming around - guess it worked!



Now that these two blocks are done and passed on, I think I might actually be able to concentrate on a couple new blocks that I just received in the mail. It feels so good to be back playing in all my CQ pretties!

A Crazy Quilt Treasure Hunt - LA Fabric District

Nicki and Carolyn taking a trip through some of the stores in downtown LA's Fabric District. If ever you get a chance to go....GO! It is a Crazy Quilters dream!

Beads, beads and more beads!!!!! Wall to wall - floor to ceiling!

Satins, silks, wedding fabrics in every color and design - just beautiful!

Absolutely gorgeous silk dupioni in every color and tons of beautiful Asian brocades! This by far was our favorite store - Silk City. For a kiss on the cheek you can even barter with the owners for a better price !

Me in one of the many fabric stores..... you can walk on buy ...there's another one just feet away.

Not a great shot but this is just one of maybe 20 aisle of sequin appliques - it was a warehouse full! The owner showed me boxes and boxes of beautiful items from the 30's, 40' & 50's that they used on costumes - just beautiful!

Laces, trims & ribbons by the tons - floor to ceiling! (Berger Beads)

Carolyn being shy............. NOT! LOL!

Last month while out in California I went on a wild Crazy Quilt Treasure Hunt with my friend Carolyn ( Sunshine Designs ) from the HGTV Board. I have always wanted to spend a couple days wandering around the LA Fabric District and I have to tell you - a couple days just wasn't enough! We had a ball and only hit about 15-20 of the shops out of 100's! OMG! I think we could have probably have spent a week there if we had more money!

Prior to me flying out to CA I had sign ups for the girls on the HGTV Board for a Buy In. We had a total of 65 ladies who all wanted in on the goodies. It was fun spending someone elses money but I had to control myself as I could have spent thousands of dollars more - the place was like walking into a CQers Candyland! Thanks Carolyn for holding me back!

On the first day our first stop was at a well known bead store called Berger Beads - we spent at least 3 hours in that store alone going through beads, lace, trims and charms. I bought so much the first day I had to have it shipped home. Funny how when you are buying that many beads all at once it looks like a ton but when you get it home and divide it up into 65 piles it almost looks like nothing....guess we'll just have to go back again with more $ LOL!

We went back to Michael Levines both days. Not a store that you can bargin with but the fabrics for quilting are to die for - just gorgeous and at $5-$8.50 a yard- all high end quality. The laces, ribbons and trims were plentiful but bit high in $ but so well worth checking out. My son gave me some fun money to spend on myself so you can be sure I bought a few pieces that I normally would not have. Thank you Jason.

By the time I had everything packed and ready to ship home I was lugging 4 boxes to UPS. They sure made some $ on me that day but 5 days later they all arrived at my home in MA just waiting for me to cut & divide. All the CQ packages are just about home to their new owners now with hopes that every one is happy with what was picked out. I can't wait to get started making some new blocks with my goodies and dying up some of the laces - you can be sure that the next time I say "California here I come" it'll be another trip to the Fabric District. Carolyn... get your walking show ready!