2010 All time favorite CQ

I know I'm not the only one sitting at their computer asking "Where did the year go?" Yep... another one has passed us by. Have you accomplished everything that you had on your 2010 "To Do " list? Have you learned a new technique this year? have you fallen in love with something that you've created? I thought that I would share with you one of my favorite pieces that I made this year. Using various pieces of my hand dyed laces and silk ribbons, I set out to make an invitation to a Fancy Formal Tea Party.

Last summer I hosted a CQ Tea Cup Challenge to the ladies on the HGTV Quilting forum. Each lady was given a 4" teacup panel (not all the same color teacup), a few pieces of lace, fabric and a couple charms that they were to incorporate into a 12.5" block. To say that the work was outstanding, incredible and just plain awesome is understating the fact. Every block was beautiful. If you would like to see all the Challenge blocks, please check them out in my Flicker Album : Tea Cup Challenge

My entry for the Tea Cup Challenge was a bit out of the norm for me. I decided instead of making a block in my usual "blue", I would try and throw the girls off by making a peachy/pink and green block. To my amazement I have fallen in love with this color combination and have since made quite a few other blocks using the same colors.

While searching for the right laces to use in my block, I found a piece that to me, looked exactly like a hat - decked it out with a pretty crocheted flower and beads and it worked perfectly. My friend Julie sent me some pretty dangley lace that was just the right touch to dress up the teacup.Outlining the teacup in gold metallic thread was no easy task - when will they make a metallic thread that glides? LOL!

My very favorite lace find was a pretty piece of white net net. At first it looked like a hand mirror but then I turned it upside down only to see that it made for the PERFECT dressy dress for my party. I found a cute little hanger in the scrap booking section of Michaels, dyed the dress and silk ribbon to match the flow o the block, added some tiny little seed beads and I was ready to partee!

lastly, when I receive a good bag full of pretty CQ goodies from my friend Karen, I knew immediately that the portion of the vintage tablecloth she sent would be great if I cut the center portion of it out... it revealed the perfect vintagey looking frame for this pretty lade. Because I thought the block already had a bit too much bling, bling, I decide to leave all but one corner of the frame naked, I loved making this block and hope to make it into a pillow before another year has passed.

Happy new Year everyone! May 2011 bring you lots of hope, happiness and good health.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family. I wish you all a beautiful day filled with love, caring and sharing. My two beautiful grandbabies say it all with their smiles....

Evita & DeAngelo - Christmas 2010

December 13, 1970 - Happy Birthday Erik

I woke up this morning with butterflies in my stomach wondering why? Well every year on this day it happens... the mother in me sits back and dreams of years gone by and wonders "where did the years go?" Today, December 13, 2010 is my son Erik's 40th Birthday!!!! Happy Birthday Griskie !!!


Who is this cute little boy holding a fire cracker? He's all grown up now and a true Fire Cracker in every sense of the word. Funny, wild, smart, and mind of his own, would give you his last penny, handsome and just a bit crazy like his mom. I just realized something... you loved the beach as a little boy and now you live in Maui... must have been your fate.


What a cutie with your long hippie hair ... always looking out for your mom

Ok... so I wasn't the best at given haircuts in those days but.... I sure know how to use a pair of scissors now! This is one of my favorite pictures of you and your little brother Jason. If Santa could bring me one present this year. I'd wish for just one more day with you and Jason as little boys again.... I miss those days.

All grown up - Erik, you'll never know how much all you did for me on my special day meant to both Rob and I. I love you more than words can say and miss you more! Happy 40th Birthday my #1 baby, I wish you love and much happiness in the next 40 years. Always remember.... your mommy loves you.

A Beautiful Christmas Give Away!

Do you just love "pretty"?!!! Rebecca of Rebecca-Gatheryeroses is having a Christmas Give Away on December 17th. She has created, in cross stitch, a beautiful Merry Christmas pillow just in time to decorate your home. Check her blog out to enter this fabulous Give Away and while you're at it, if you've never visited her blog before, grab a cup of tea and sit down for an hour, or two, or three and be prepared for some beautiful eye candy!

A Blue CQ Christmas from Suztats!

Last summer I got to chatting with Suz suztats and we immediately struck up a friendship. Do you ever wonder how many friends you've made over not just a cup of coffee but via a thread and needle? Well Suz and I decided that we would love to have a one on one swap of CQ blocks.

I posted about the summer block I sent her over the summer but forgot to ever post pictures of the one she sent me. My pictures are out of order here so I am actually beginning with the beautiful Blue Christmas CQ block she just sent me. Isn't it gorgeous! I can't believe all the little Christmas presents under the tree and how she created such an awesome tree out of lace and stitches.... oh and look at the star on top! Thank you Suz - I adore it!

I just love my summer block that Suz made me. We both sent a naked block to each other and chose the theme "things that fly" Suz did such beautiful work on this block with tons and tons of little swirly flowers - still not sure what stitch it is called - looks like lots of tatting with butterflies and a dragonfly and some cute little bees..

Look at these beautiful flower clusters!

and isn't this the prettiest pink cluster?

Thank you Suz - love all the pretty little goodies you tatted up for me too. We will certainly have to do another one of our swaps in 2011.

Sleeping Under the Stars - Thank You my friends

Happy Thanksgiving! I wish you all a wonderful day enjoying it with family and friends.

Today is the perfect day for this particular post. There is so much to be thankful for but today I want to say THANK YOU to all my quilting friends on the HGTV Quilting Board for making me the most beautiful quilt - one that I will cherish always as much as your friendship. Over the past 5 years I have met all but 3 of the ladies who were a part of making this quilt - quite a big deal when you think we all met as cyber friends and we all live all across the USA.

As many of you know, last April New England was hit with some major rain storms. It was a horrendous time for me as my husband had just left for a 2 week trip to Europe when our basement began to flood. I was home alone with water pouring in nonstop. I can't even begin to tell you how many buckets of water I bailed and how I was screaming over being sleep deprived. Over the next month Rob and I dealt with water, water, water everywhere! While I was busy bailing water, crying and screaming that my body ached, my friends were busy putting together a quilt for me to cheer me up.

Last week my friend dear friend Elaine (Quiltingnewbie), who spear headed putting this quilt together, presented me with the most beautiful quilt. The quilt is made up of Friendship Star blocks both small and large collected from each of 50 ladies and sewn together by Elaine. Elaine did an incredible job of piecing the quilt together using various shades of blue so that all the Stars blended together. The quilt is queen size so you can imagine how much she must have loved sewing the binding on LOL! The beautiful quilting was done by Thearica ( Pigtalesandquilts ) who does the most incredible machine quilting.

My beautiful quilt fits in perfectly with my BLUE bedroom and I can now officially say "I sleep under the stars" I am overwhelmed with the love and friendship that was put into making this quilt for me and Thank You all from the bottom of my heart. Sending big hugs to all of you - I love you my sisters, my friends.

The back:

While laying under my quilt the first night, I looked around my room and realized... WOW! I love the color Blue.... and WOW! Look at all of the things in my room that my friends have made me over the years. The 3 Kimono wallhangings in the first picture were made by my friends Karen (Daisy The Chocolate Mouse) ) and Elaine (Quiltingnewbie).

This beautiful porcelain figurine was sent to me by Thearica (Quiltaholic) last summer - she said it reminded her of me. She is gorgeous and a treasure for always.

A beautiful Crazy Quilted Journal was made for me by my wonderful friend Carolyn (Dec Painter). No, No Carolyn, I have to disagree... YOU are the Queen of everything!

This gorgeous Crazy Quilt Block was made by Tammy (Ms Bananas). I just had to make it into a pillow.

My beautiful Crazy Quilt tin was made by Karen (KMouse) - she stitiched an "N" in beads on it and knowing how much I love mermaids, she filled it with fabulous little mermaid cabachons.

And this beautiful little disk was embellished for me by my good friend Ely. Love it!

I guess you could say I love the color blue but more importantly, I love my friends who have showered me with gifts they've made especially for me. Ya'll are wonderufl and I'm so grateful that you are a part of my life.

A new blog header and another needle book

Seems like I've been on a CQ roll! I 'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that the holidays are slowly creeping up and everyone is looking for that special gift. I was recently commissioned to make 4 needle books for friend and am happy to say that all of them are done and in the mail.

One of the needle books was requested to be CQ'd in blues and teals.... Yea! - ya'll know how much I love those colors. In fact, by the time I was done with it I loved it so much I decided to crop the picture so I could use it for my new Blog header... what do you think? I thought it was time for a bit of a change ... a change with a tad more color added.

Using various pieces of my hand dyed laces, I tried to create a garden scene with butterflies and flowers. My favorite is a little piece of circular lace that reminded me of the sun.

This is the complete look - unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the inside before mailing it out. For the inside I made a small pocket to hold additional thread/needles or even a pair of small scissors and also sewed in a piece of matching wool felt to hold needles.

All buttoned up and ready for use. If any one is interested in having me make a special needle book for a friend, secret sister or even for yourself, please drop me a note prior to December 15th.

My first Christmas Stocking

Can you believe it! 48 days until Christmas and already it seems everyone is running around shopping and sewing up a storm. Me included. A couple months ago I had sign ups on the HGTV Quilting Board for the 2nd Annual SSSS. Secret Santa Stocking Swap. Everyone who signed up was matched up (random drawing) with a Secret Sister - she then has to make that person a Christmas stocking (not necessarily CQ) and fill it with no more than $20 worth of goodies. The goodies can be from her stash, made or bought. All stockings are to be delivered to the SS by December 18th. On that evening we will have a designated time (9:00 EST) where everyone across the US who has signed up will open up their stocking. Each stocking will have a Christmas card in it telling the person who sent/made their stocking. Last year we had 60 ladies - this year we beat it by 2 - we have 62!







Here is my finished stocking for ??????????? I sure hope she likes it. It's filled to the brim with little presents and I'm already ready to mail. Can you imagine getting a Christmas present 48 days before Christmas a not being able to open it? LOL!







About 20+ years ago I cross stitched a series of vintage Santas. I used one of them for my focal to start creating my stocking. I wish the picture would show all the gold threads in the Santa - very pretty.





Using, cottons, silk, brocade, velvets and lace I began building my stocking.

Once my stocking outline was compete I resized the pattern to cut it down.

Embellished the seams and added some bling then added the lining and some lace to trim off the top. SS - you know I love the color blue so I just had to add a little... the lining is done in a greenish blue... hehehe.

?????????? wish I could tell you that your present was on the way but then that would be a give away ... think I'll have to hold on to it until everyone starts mailing so you don't figure it out.

Embellished PEACE symbol

Bakers Dozen (The-bakers-dozen) is Group of 12 very talented ladies who every 6 weeks creates something new and different. Each project we have a word that one of us has chosen as the "word" of the month so to speak. We use the word to inspire us to create something (mostly mini quilts) in any medium we choose. The word for this project was "SYMBOL". Please stop by our Blog and check out all of our creations.

When thinking about the word "symbol" I immediately thought that the word meant a picture of something that was universally understood and that is why I chose the PEACE sign. Of course it had nothing to do with the fact that I grew up in the 60'& 70's and as you all know, those hippie days were all about Peace & Love.

To create my Peace sign I started out by drawing one on a piece of green wool felt. I used green to blend in with the floral theme should any show through my embellishing. I gave myself a 1" border all the way around to work within.


By layering silk ribbon embroidery, french knots using pearl cotton, lots of beads and plenty of my mini dyed lace motifs, I think I did justice to this symbol. I had thought of moutning it to a light background to be used as a pillow but hubby has suggested it might look better on the back of my blue jean jacket. We'll see.... any suggestions?

Top:

Left hand side:

Right hand side:

Bottom half:

I Love Mermaids!

When sign ups were announced for an Under Water Scene (UTS) 6x6 RR on CQI, I immediately jumped in as I love the ocean and everything related to it. Of course the color blue has a lot to do with it along with mermaids and all the other creatures of the sea. I received Carolyn's naked block about 2 weeks ago and finally had some time to sit and sew last night. I completed it just about an hour ago. I showed Rob and he said "you aren't seriously thinking of giving that away?" Had to tell him it wasn't my block to keep... that a RR is when you embellish someone elses block and then mail it off to the next person. Have to admit that this is one block I would love to keep... hey Carolyn... how much do you love me? (wink wink)

The minute I saw the landscape of her block I knew what I wanted to do. I cut out a beautiful little mermaid out of some cotton fabric my friend Elaine gave me and then dyed up an awesome dolphin lace motif (one of my favorites) and off I went into CQ never never land.



When Rob and I got married (Maui 2004) we spent a day swimming with the dolphins. We had originally gone out on a kayak trip but half way out the couple that was with us decided they didn't want to go - the old hippie that was giving us the tour decided to take them back to shore and let Rob and I continue on our way as we had told him we've been kayaking for quite a few years. (There was NO way I was going back LOL!) About an hour out we came up on a pod of dolphins (about 20+) just playing around We jumped in and they gave us a show that we will never forget. The mamma dolphins were playing with their babies and swimming right next to us all the while jumping and spinning in the air. OMG! The beautiful music that they were singing under the water was something we will never forget. This went on for about an hour until a tour boat came by and idled and watched us play.... slowly the dolphins swam away. So.... this block that I made for Carolyn is in remembrance of that beautiful day and wonderful experience.

The making of a Lace Butterfly

Thank you for all for the beautiful and sweet words of comfort regarding the loss of my kitty Brat. She is dancing with the butterflies now and at peace.

Since I love butterflies and they are one of my favorite CQ embellishments to create, I thought I'd show you how I make mine out of lace. here is a little tutorial for you.

#1

Pick a piece of lace that reminds you of wings and cut out a pair... by using your imagination you'd be surprised at all the different wings you can find in laces.

#2

A few samples of some wings made from various pieces of lace.

#3

Now, find a place on your CQ block that you want your butterfly to rest and sew in place. Most pieces of lace you won't find "built in" antennas so just embroider them in place or try using a couple of tubular beads.

#4

Grab few beads for the body and head... in this case I love using flat back pearls. Would
you believe I bought a 99 cent bracelet at AC Moore and took it apart for the beads.

#5 Ta da! A pretty little butterfly all in place.