My friend Julia Johnson is new to crazy quilting and has made me this lovely square in the lively colors she is known for in our little group. She has made some of the most vibrant, intricate, and beautiful sane quilts I have ever seen in similar colors. She has a style she should never try to change.
My square for Julia.
Karin Greetz of the Netherlands used a pattern from my blog, reduced it in size, and minimized it to do her own interpretation of this vintage peacock (Click on Embroidery Designs in the list on the right.) Very pretty Karin. Thank you for sending me the photo.
Several weeks ago I purchased the book "Embellishing Crazy Quilts" by Kathy Shaw.
It is chock full of ideas for seam treatments, beautiful alphabets, and designs for motifs. It is printed totally in black and white which I find so easy to use to pick out what I want to do. This is a great workbook and I know I'll use it over and over. Kathy also gave me this black beaded tassel.
She is one of the many I've corresponded with that I would love to meet. She shares so openly. Contact her about her Yahoo Group as well. It is another way she shares her designs with lots of tips from her subscribers.
Happy and sad at the same time best describes how I'm feeling just a few days after all the activities are over. Don't expect the following photos to show anything near the fun we had at An Adventure in Crazy Quilting and in the two 3-day workshops with Sharon Boggon. I'm not even a so-so photographer. I asked my 12 year old Granddaughter, Lauren, to take the photos at the Show and Tell. When I remembered to bring my camera, I shot a few here and there and most of those are lousy.
These first two photos are of Sharon relaxing and stitching after the first workshop and before the Adventure began. Gracie is at her feet after finally warming up to her. Sharon called her "a funny little dog" in that Australian accent of hers at least 6 times a day.
Gracie barked and chased Allison Aller around up until the day before she left when she finally decided she might belong here. Allie is a quick mover and I don't think my funny little dog knew what to make of her since Jim and I are the opposite....slow and deliberate.
Here is one of 3 cakes I had made for the Adventure. Isn't it beautifully decorated? We had mixed reviews on the taste, however, and because my piece (2 actually) was good I think maybe one of the three had an ingredient missing or something. They were pretty to look at though and that's the way most of us aim our work in crazy quilting.......why not in cakes!! Pretty but bad tasting would be very good for our waistlines.
The boutique lines were very long each time we opened it. I will definitely have to work on this if we move on to another Adventure next year. A few ideas to cut the aggravation are milling around in my head. Everyone was so gracious about it. Thank you so much.
Here are some of the many Show and Tell items we saw. Whether it was worn, carried, finished, or works in progress, it was an amazing show and a beautiful representation of the fine artists we had in attendance. Don't you just love Susan Elliott's crazy jeans too! She brought so much fun to the whole weekend.
Last, but not least, only two photos I took in classes were good enough quality to show you. I need some camera lessons for sure!!
Here is a not-so-typical student:
And a photo of Betty who kept smiling in spite of it.
The two lectures were awesome. Betty Pillsbury is an outstanding speaker and her talk about Antique Crazy Quilts was so much fun and held so much information. Shirlee Fassell walked us through her growth and the many changes her stitching has taken. Anything she needles (or hooks) is a piece of art.
I didn't get one photo of Allie but I know there will be lots of them to see as others blog and post about their time here. This will be a good place to mention her beautiful book. I still haven't had time to go through it the way I want to but the reviews by others have been fantastic and the eye candy alone makes it a must have. There aren't as many CQ books being published lately and finally here's something new and inspiring.
These are the squares that were embellished for me by other members of the RR I just finished. Thank you all for your lovely work. I still have one to do, but may just include these in my CQ book of 6" squares and forget about that one. There just isn't wall space enough to keep making up wall hangings.
Ing’s Work
Arlene’s Work
Meg’s Work
Kathy’s Work
Marya’s Work
Having received my English Garden RR squares home on Saturday, and being as ready for the Adventure in CQ as I feel I can be, gave me the push to get Meg's square done. She graciously gave me until after the event to send it off but I'm glad to have one more thing off my mind. This square was the biggest challenge of them all to me as I'm not used to working with printed fabrics. Are there any tips out there for how those of you who use these fabrics for piecing approach the embellishments? The fabrics are so pretty in their own right that it's hard to come up with motifs and seams to put over them. I hope Meg likes what I've done!
This RR is moving a little slowly so it's been a while since I've posted about it. I just couldn't come up with an idea for this, so I just started putting flowers on it. After I work on something for a while, I find it easier to fill in and give it a feeling of balance
