Laces, Laces and more Laces

Did I ever tell you how much I love lace? I love the thrill of the hunt for a new motif, a new design. I love dying them up in pretty colors and love using them in creating pretty items. Well... here are a few samples of my latest - I call them "spring time fever" as the colors are all soft and pretty like the newness of the colors coming out in my flower gardens. Over the next few days I will be busy adding tons more laces and lots of pretty trims, glass buttons and more CQ pretties to RavioleeDreams. I'll even be adding some items of my first creative love... mosaics.

I am soooo excited! Today I made my 100th sale on Etsy, RavioleeDreams and today also marks my 99th Blog. So.... do you know what that means? Means it's time for a party! To celebrate my 100th Sale and 100th Blog Post, I will be announcing a fabulous Blog Give Away sometime this week. I have been putting together a terrific prize to celebrate so be sure to check back in sometime this week for the specifics... something a little different and a little bit unexpected.

Cathy's 200th Blog Give Away!!!

WOW! Congratulations Cathy!!! Cathy from CQI is celebrating her 200th Blog with a fabulous CQ Give Away! Please be sure to check her out for a chance to win some fabulous goodies! cathyscrazybydesign


Good Luck and be sure to come back here some time next week when I will be announcing my 100th Blog Give Away!

CQ Projects and RR's

WEW! I'm sure glad the sun is finally out for more reasons than one! It means the water that has been pouring into my basement for the past month is finally starting to slow down! Now for the bigger mess... cleaning everything up and remodeling my sewing room. I have a feeling that I'm going to be finding lots more of my precious stash that needs to find a new home - the town dump! boo hoo!

Over the past month I've completed a few more CQ projects. I've worked on two different CQ RR blocks for the HGTV CQ RR 2010 swap. This first block (above) is Karen's (KMouse) Her theme was "Gone with the Wind" - her beautiful block was so much fun to work on. Even before I received her block I already had in mind what I was going to add to it - I found this adorable vintage lace motif that I waited to dye up until I saw the colors she was going to use in her block. I dyed it up, along with some silk ribbon, in pretty shades of pinks to add a little bit of a pop to her dark colored fabrics. She has already seen it and seems to love the touch as much as I do.

I made sure I dyed enough silk ribbon in various colors to embellish a piece of ruched lace that she had bordering her theme picture. Not really knowing what I was going to be doing, I just went to town making little cabbage roses, spider roses and french knot sprays to fill in the lace. Also added some pretty little pearl beads in to give it more dimension. I have to admit this is the most SRE I have ever done at one time and love the way it came out. Now to get Karen to send me some of that gorgeous lace - LOL!

The next block I worked on belongs to Barbara (Borucia). Her block was gorgeous - all done up in a winery/Tuscany theme and measured about 28x32! Lots of room to play. One of the areas had a wine bottle sitting on a table so I took the opportunity to add half of a vintage doily. I also dyed some grape style lace and a basket of flowers of flowers to match the overall Tuscany look and feel of her block.

I signed up for a Holiday Swap on the HGTV board at the beginning of the year. Each person is matched with another every other month and is to make them gift for them pertaining to that particular holiday/season. Deb51 was matched with my name and as my gift, she made me this adorable Spring/Easter wall hanging. It is so dang cute with little baskets of appliqued flowers and bows. Thank you Deb!

I was matched with Vicki. Wanting to say "goodbye" to winter and "hello" spring, I choose to CQ a sewing kit in blues and creams. I hoped to convey saying goodbye to the cold/snow and ice and bring in the spring with butterflies, dragonflies and flowers. I also made her a little needle book depicting an under water theme.

Now for the RR's I'm in over on CQI. I received Carolyn's IV Heart RR block and decided to add a bit of dimension to a large area of naked fabric. Her theme for this Heart RR was pink and black. OMG! Those two colors are fabulous together! I started out by embellishing some black velvet rick rack with french knot in white floss to duplicate the look of the polka dotted fabric. Next I did a little pink and green stitching and then worked on embellishing a pretty black lace motif with some SRE, beads and charms.

Rita's Asian block was next. One of the seam treatments I did was also to use some rick rack. LOL - it has become one of my favorite CQ supplies lately - there is just so many wonderful designs you can make using it. I had an Asian type bead that I wanted incorporate into her block so decided to make it the focal point of the rick rack. using beads, and some green and white floss I embellished the rick rack in little flowers.

One of the last blocks I worked on belonged to Deann who is a part of the "My Favorites RR" group on Yahoo. I had a few left over pieces of dyed lace and decided they looked like wings. Hmm let me see if I can make a little dragonfly out of them. Well, by sewing on a few beads I think I manage to make a cute little dragonfly doing his thing in a garden of beaded flowers.

Well, now that all of these blocks are completed and on their way for the next round, I've got to get busy working on a few new blocks that I just received. The next few weeks are going to be busy, busy. I have quite a few new motifs and laces to dye up for my Etsy shop so please check RavioLee Dreams (over on sidebar) out in the near future. Also... I'm coming up on my 100th Blog soon so be sure to check back in for details on my 100th Blog Anniversary Give Away.