Big Honkin' Needle

My local Embroidery Guild of  America (EGA) chapter (Constellation, Baltimore, Maryland) last week hosted two crazy quilt workshops by Betty Pillsbury. I was especially happy about this because I had gone to workshop Betty gave at the Adventure in Crazy Quilting retreat in Connecticut in 2011. She is good: clear instructions, interesting projects and fun. It was there we first heard her refer to using a "big honkin' needle" for embroidering with chenile thread. We used it again at the Constellation chapter workshops.

The first workshop was entitled "Motifs from Antique Crazy Quilts." Betty has a wonderful collection of antique crazy quilts from which she selected three to teach. I might have named this class "honkin' big motif" because they were, at 4x6 inches and 5x7 inches, way bigger than I have used on my quilts. After this class I will think bigger.

The first motif was a sprig of goldenrod worked in chenile on velveteen using our "big honkin' needles."

We were supposed to use silk chenile thread for this, but it was somewhat hard to find and I used rayon. It is a flat thread, whereas silk puffs out around the whole center. I like the way the rayon looks fine, but you can see the difference by looking at the lemon colored french knots in the lower center of the motif. These are in silk thread I got from a friend.

A second motif was also done on velveteen, a palette.

The flower on this is made with wired ribbon

Third was a pansy made of silk dupioni with ribbon stem and leaf.

 

I worked this on a crazy quilted 15" diameter circle I made up for use in the class.

 

This is it after the work from the second workshop entitled "Notebook Sampler." Here are the motifs made in this workshop:

A 3" flower made from silk essense fabric.

A 2 1/2" pansy  made from wired ribbon.

 

 

 

Two flowers with  needlewoven petals and two beaded dragonflies.

The green dragonfly is from a kit Betty provided.

 

 

 

Spiderweb made with metallic machine embroidery thread and 2 bullion roses.

 

These were two wonderful days of learning and fun with friends.

 



 





CQJP2012 May and July

At last "Barefoot Girl," my May crazy quilt journal project block is complete. And here it is almost May again. Can I finish this project in 2013? We'll see.

I have blocks June through September pieced, but I have mislaid a piece of yarn I need for June. So I am working on July entitled "Independence and Creativity in honor of my nine year-old granddaughter, Lorelei, who was born in July. I's her infant "I am woman" pose featured as a silky on the block.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Independence is for the birthday of the USA and creativity is for my granddaughter's because she is a very creative person. I love that about her.

 

The red circle at the top left is meant to be a balloon, but it needs a different highlight to look like one. It will be one of 3 in red, white and blue. There will be mice on the block, because Lorelei has been a mouse enthusiast since she got two as pets for her fifth birthday. She still draws them often and they populate her fantasy place, Meek World.  Other ideas will come in the crazy quilting way as I work along on the block.

 

I'm wondering how all these blocks in different color ways will go together at the end. Hmmm.



Progress on CQJP 2012 and some beaded flowers

Progress on my Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012 is not so great. I'm still working on May: Barefoot Girl. But I'm enjoying it and getting some good advice from the women in my EGA crazy quilt interest group.

This block's theme is another memory from my childhood on an Iowa farm. I was a barefoot girl in the summertime and sometimes so early in the spring my feet would be cold, but not cold enough for donning shoes. In summer the soles of my feet would get so tough I could race over rought terrain without any discomfort. And bare feet are very useful for climbing trees. I spent a lot of time in trees, eating mulberries, challenging myself to new heights and just sitting and swaying. After a rain, bare feet in the mud are a delight and help to dam up runoff rivulets.

I confess, I've never given them up. I still have my shoes off as much as possible. That could be why yoga is my exercise program of choice after walking. I don't wear shoes when I go into my backyard or visit the neighbors in theirs. And, I'm particular to have my shoes as comfortable as possible when I must wear them.

Here is my progress on my CQJP 2012 Barefoot Girl block. The photo of the girl is not me, but it could be. I found the image and the one of the dangling feet on the internet. I regret to admit I can't find them again to attribute them. I definitely will start making a habit of recording attribution for photos I use in the future.

I need to finish needle painting the cows and add a branch on the right to support the cat face (suggestion from Susan of my CQ group). The end is in sight. Following is a close up of the chicken group in the foreground.

I indulged a diversion while I was in Portland, Maine, to visit my my 9 year-old granddaughte, Lorelei (and her parents) during her school break. I took along the new-to-me book, The Beaded Garden, by Diane Fitzgerald, Interweave Press, 2005. I made a few of the flowers from the book with no particular use in mind. Lorelei gave it a try, but decided it wasn't for her. The beads were too small and she didn't want to try size 8 which I had. Here are the flowers I made while listening with Lorelei to Jim Dale read Harry Potter on audio.

Something Special from Peru

In July I took the trip I had been dreaming of for years: an Amazon River Cruise and Rain Forest exploration. I loved it. The weather was perfect, it was less buggy than here in Maryland, the trip leader was excellent and fun, lots of wildlife showed itself and the villagers (riverenos) were friendly.

I had my eye out for embroidery, of course. At a gift shop at an archeological site outside Lima, before we even reached the Amazon watershed, I found my favorite piece. Yes it's a  mountain scene and I didn't visit the mountains, but I had to have it anyway.

You can see it is applique and embroidery with stumpwork. Just up my alley. I will use it for pointers to add figures to a years-old UFO I have, if I ever get back to it.

Below are close ups of some of the stumpwork figures  on it.

 

 

In Iquitos, the headwaters port on the Amazon, there were other embroideries for sale that I wish I had bought. Ah, well.